“Is the freedom to write separate from other freedoms?”
This is how the fourth annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write lecture with Egyptian novelist and activist Nawal El Saadawi began on Sunday in Cooper Union’s Great Hall. “I have not seen a real freedom to write in any country,” she continued. “And here the censorship is more dangerous because it is invisible.”
Dr. Saadawi, small, her voice high and lilting, adjusted her seat and microphone for a few moments before continuing the conversation. “Can you hear me?” she asked, shielding her eyes from the stage lights and smiling. “Equality is important in dialogue.”
Before touching on some of the more controversial events surrounding Dr. Saadawi- her time in prison, the death threats...
She appeared at three events. Wearing a brightly colored dress and beautiful silver hair, she would raise her hand. Each time she would ask a difficult, penetrating question in a spritely, musical voice that challenged an author on a PEN World Voices Panel. This time about the role of government, that time about writing and dreams. She always carried herself with dignity and smiled warmly at her neighbors. I kept wondering to myself, who is this woman?
I soon found out at the Freedom to Write Lecture at NYU's Cooper Union. For she was stepping onto the stage with the Ghanaian Kwame Anthony Appiah, President of PEN America and professor at Princeton. The woman was Nawal El Saadawi.
