Quote by Nawal El Saadawi: “Creativity is the rebel within us.”

The part of you that makes something new — a painting, an idea, a solution no one else thought of — is also the part that refuses to accept the world exactly as it is. To be creative is to quietly push back against the way things are.

El Saadawi published Women and Sex in 1972, a year of significant political turbulence in Egypt following the death of President Nasser and as Sadat consolidated power. The book's frank discussion of female sexuality and oppression shocked Egyptian society and cost her her government post.

Egyptian feminist writer, physician, and activist whose work challenged patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, and political repression across the Arab world. Her 1975 book Women and Sex led to her dismissal from the Egyptian Ministry of Health, and she was imprisoned in 1981. She published over fifty books in her lifetime.