My Travels Around the World PDF
Preview My Travels Around the World
nawal W e l s a a D A 1 m y t r a v e s I THE W AROUND O R L D |mi nerva, My Travels Around the World Nawal el Saadawi was born in KafrTahla in Egypt. She studied psychiatry at the Faculty ofMedicine in Cairo and graduated in 1955. She has been Director General ofHealth Education, and founded the Association for Health Education in Egypt. In 1981 she was imprisonedforherwritings,andonlyreleased afterthe death ofSadat. Dr Saadawi lives in Cairo, where she keeps on writing. She has published twenty-fourbooks: novels, plays, studies and essays. Her novels include: God Dies by The Nile, Women atPointZero, DeathofanEx-Minister,SheHasNoPlacein Paradise and The Fallofthe Imam. Also by NawalelSaadawi andavailable in Minerva Death ofan Ex-Minister The Fall ofthe Imam She Has No Place in Paradise NAWAL EL SAADAWI My Travels Around World the translated by Shirley Eber Minerva / A Minerva Paperback MYTRAVELSAROUNDTHEWORLD First published in Great Britain 1991 by Methuen London This Minervaedition published 1992 Reprinted 1992 byMandarin Paperbacks Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3 6rb Minerva is an imprint ofthe Octopus Publishing Group, a division ofReed International Books Limited © Copyright 1991 Nawal el Saadawi The authorhas asserted her moral rights © Translationcopyright 1991 Shirley Eber A CIPcatalogue recordforthistitle is available from the British Library isbn o 7493 9122 7 Printed in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berks Thisbook issold subject to the condition that itshall not, bywayoftrade orotherwise, be lent, resold, hiredout, orotherwise circulated without the publisher'spriorconsent in anyform ofbindingorcoverother than that in which it ispublished and without asimilarcondition includingthiscondition being imposed on the subsequentpurchaser. Contents Introduction vii PART ONE First Trip Outside the Homeland i PART TWO The OtherHalfofthe Earth 29 PART THREE The Jordan Valley and the Banks ofthe River 57 PART FOUR The Women's Conference in Helsinki 65 PART FIVE FirstJourney to the Red World 75 part six Iran Before the Revolution 89 PART SEVEN India 105 PART EIGHT The City ofWorship and Debauchery 159 PART NINE AfricanJourney 169 PART TEN EmperorHaile Selassie and the Revolution 183 PART ELEVEN The Island ofSlaves 197 To all who travel and who know exile far from the homeland. And to all who know exile in the homeland. Nawal el Saadawi Introduction I wrote this book, My Travels Around the World, before 1984 but it was not published until 1986, in Cairo. All my works are written in Arabic and I try to publish them in Cairo first. If this fails, I try to publishthemabroad. AtthetimeofSadat, Iusedtopublish in Beirut because ofthe implicit or explicit censorship of publishing. IntheeraofMubarakthere isnocensorshipofbooksandIam not on the black list as I was during Sadat's time, but I am on the grey list because I'm one ofthose who prefer freedom ofexpression to the approval of rulers and the powerful. Nowadays, the media are under government control, and most of the critics are employees whose wages are paid by state institutions. For this reason, they are only interested in books which interest the state. Thus, in Egypt, the attention given by the media to most books is superficial or is paid for by the powerful, or has no discussion of thornyissuesrelatedtopoliticalorreligiousrestrictionsortoanything concerning women and their liberation. Sadat gave the green light to extremist Islamic trends, which have been given the name 'fundamentalist', to strike at the other political forcesthatoppose him. Thus, the powerofforceshostile toliberation in general and to women's liberation in particular, wasstrengthened, and attacks on and hostility to women increased. Naturally, I felt the climate of hostility during the seventies and eighties (and until today), to the extent that the government placed an armed guard before the door of my house in al-Giza for almost two years (1987-1989), though I never knew exactly who it was that threatened me with death. I travelled to many countries of the world and wrote much about my travels, of which - due to publishing restrictions - I have only published little, but I was able to publish this book which contains vii accounts of some of my journeys, my first trip by plane, some of my dreams and childhood memories. Travel has many aspects, since we see other countries and other peoples, but the most important aspect of travelling is that we are able to learn more aboutourselves through seeing others. We see our homeland more clearly when we are away from it than when we are in it. I have seen many positives and negatives in the East and the West, which have revealed to me the positives and negatives within my own homeland. This book contains my travels during the sixties and seventies. As for my travels during the eighties they will be included in the as yet unpublished second part of this book. This first part of my travels represents the initial pulse and my new feelings when - for the first time - I stepped beyond the borders of my homeland. Itisabookthatisdeartome, even ifitdoesnotcontaineverything I wanted to say and, like other of my writings, has been subject to the censor's scissors or publishing difficulties and restrictions. Historyrepeatsitself. InAugust 1964whileIwasintheUnitedStates, LyndonJohnson was talking ofpeace, then sending his soldiers with weapons to Vietnam. Now, in August 1990, I hear George Bush talking of peace - as I write this introduction - and sending his troops to Saudi Arabia to start the Gulf War. Yesterday I noticed on the front page of al-Ahram newspaper (Cairo, 19 August 1990) the photograph of the American aircraft carrier Eisenhower and an American warship crossing the Suez Canal, bound for the Gulf in readiness for war. I turned the page to find a photo of President Bush fishing at his summerresidence, thenoneofMargaretThatcherspendingapleasant holiday with her husband by her side Whilst American and . . . British forces were preparing to ignite the fires ofwar in the Arabian Gulf for one reason: Kuwaiti and Saudi petrol. WritingthisintroductionIcannotignorethespectreofthedestruc- tive war which hovers above our heads andthose ofourchildren, for nootherreason than thatsome kingsand rulersofourArabcountries aresimplyfunctionariesoftheAmericanadministration. Itisthelogic ofarmed force that rules, not the logic ofjustice, and the aggression ofthe Iraqi president is no more offensive than the aggression ofthe American president! Were it not for the American and European military protection viii
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