Publisher's Synopsis
In this autobiography of an Egyptian novelist who has been imprisoned and exiled, the author paints a sensuously textured portrait of the childhood that produced the freedom fighter. Born in a small Egyptian village in 1931, she qualified as a medical doctor, and in 1969, she published her first work of non-fiction, "Woman and Sex"; and in 1972 her writings and her struggles led to her dismissal from her job. From then on there was no respite: imprisonment under Sadat in 1981 was the culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom; in 1992, her name appeared on a death list issued by a fundamentalist group, after which she went into exile for five years. She has devoted her time to writing novels and essays and to her activities as a worldwide speaker on women's issues.
