In 1981, the celebrated author and activist Nawal el Saadawi was imprisoned by the Sadat regime in her native Egypt, for ‘crimes against the state’. Through haunting and evocative prose, Saadawi here recounts how she and her fellow prisoners continued to resist even in captivity, and to form a community which transcended divisions between secular and religious activists. She reveals both the harrowing detail and the everyday mundanity of prison life, as well as the bravery and resolve of all women resisting oppression – and of political prisoners around the world.

Memoirs from the Women’s Prison is an unforgettable, landmark work of prison writing that offers a rare insight into the indomitable, soaring literary mind of the Arab world’s leading feminist.

Translated by: Marilyn Booth