The pen is the most valuable thing in my life
From Nawal El Saadawi’s Prison Memoir:
Over the ground, my fingers sketch letters and interlacing circles. My hand trembles with anger, and my heart quickens. If my fingers had not come to know the pen, perhaps they would have known the hoe. The pen is the most valuable thing in my life. More valuable than my children, more than my husband, more than my freedom.
I prefer my place in prison to writing something which has not originated in my mind. The sincere word demands a courage akin to that needed to kill and perhaps more.
My fingers chisel letters in the dirt…To this moment, I don’t know why I am in prison. I have seen no investigator or prosecuting attorney or lawyer. I heard the shawisha say that she heard they were saying I entered prison because of my writings…my crime, therefore, comes under the rubric of crimes of opinion.
Is free opinion a crime? Then let prison be my only refuge and my final fate!
Source: Newsweek