Walking through fire : a life of Nawal El Saadawi

Famous for her novels, short stories and writings on women, Saadawi is known as the first Arab woman to write about sex and its relation to economics and politics.

Imprisoned under Sadat for her opinions, she has continued to fight against all forms of discrimination based on class, gender, nation, race or religion.

In "In a Daughter of Isis", she painted a portrait of the childhood that moulded her into a novelist and fighter for freedom and the rights of women.

This autobiography takes up the story of her extraordinary life.

It tells of a life spent in resistance and shows the passion for justice that has shaped her life and her writing.

We read about her as a rural doctor, trying to help a young girl escape from a terrible fate imposed on her by a brutal male tyranny.

We follow her attempts to set up women's organizations and to publish magazines later banned by the authorities or endangered by fundamentalist threats.

We travel with her into exile after her name was published on a death list.

We witness her first marriage to a freedom fighter hounded into drug addiction by a system which has no mercy. We share her struggle against her "false self" and a second husband who offers her financial security and comfort provided she stops writing.

We live with the beautiful moments of her third marriage with a man released after fourteen years of imprisonment and hard labour, and the love, companionship, shared struggle and the differences between them.