Nawal El Saadawi

Egyptian feminist author NES wrote hard-hitting polemic on social and political topics (unjust legal systems, interrogation, censorship, misuse of political power) and especially women's topics—clitoridectomy, prostitution, forced marriage, rape, honour killing, the hijab, and other burning issues for Islamic women, for whom, says the Feminist Companion, she was [t]he outstanding voice. The same source notes that her speeches combine psychiatric acuity, the authority of personal experience, and political courage. She published a number of novels (her favourite genre) and short stories, two volumes of autobiography, and untranslated plays and travel writing: fifty-five books, translated into more than thirty languages. She began publishing her prolific output in Arabic; not all of her works have reached English, and for years a long time-lag typically intervened before they were translated. This makes for a complicated and confusing bibliography. Her work has now become sought-after by publishers in the English-speaking world