CAIRO — Since Nawal Saadawi, Egypt's most outspoken feminist, first started writing about women's issues more than 30 years ago, she has been thrown in jail, stripped of her job, even forced to flee the country for a time because of her controversial views.
Now her critics are trying to take away her husband.
Relying on an obscure and rarely applied Islamic principle called hisba, a lawyer here has filed suit against the fiery author seeking to have her forcibly divorced from her husband of 37 years on the basis of statements she made that the attorney says are insulting to Islam.
The lawsuit is only the second time in modern Egyptian history that hisba has been sought and, as in the first case, this one targets an academic whose ideas infuriate fundamentalists.
Saadawi's supporters say a judge's decision last week to consider the suit is another sign of a pervasive spirit of repression in Egypt. Just last month, a court sentenced a prominent Egyptian American professor, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, to seven years in prison in part because it said his efforts to promote civil rights made Egypt look bad.
"Even a madman would not have thought to do this if he did not have support," said Dr. Sherif Hetata, Saadawi's husband. "It is linked to the general atmosphere in the country, the growth of fundamentalist culture."
The lawyer behind the suit, Nabih Wahsh, says he is not a fundamentalist but an average Muslim who "loves and respects Dr. Saadawi" but feels that he must stop her because she has crossed a red line.
"If I told her she has to wear a veil, that would not be right--that is her decision to make," Wahsh said. "If I asked her why she is not praying, that would not be right. But if she wants to advise people not to wear the veil or not to pray, then I think I should stop her."
Wahsh denied that he filed the suit to drum up publicity for his law practice.
Everything about Saadawi is a challenge to the ruling class, from her shock of uncovered shoulder-length white hair to her 40 books that delve into taboo subjects such as women's sexuality. She calls the most prominent religious officials here "sexually frustrated men" suffering from "sexual mania." She says the practice of veiling women is a holdover from the slave trade. She rails against female genital excision, widely practiced here. And she is an outspoken critic of the government.
