Nawal El Saadawi, 80-Year-Old Prominent Egyptian Feminist, Joins Women and Girls on the Cairo Streets

Renowned feminist and human rights activist Nawal El Saadawi was a political prisoner and exiled from Egypt for years. Now she has returned to Cairo and is participating in the daily demonstrations. Democracy Now! interviewed her by telephone on Monday.

"We are in the streets every day, people, children, old people, including myself. I am now 80 years of age, suffering of this regime for half a century," El Saadawi said:

And you remember, Mubarak is the continuation of Sadat. And both Sadat and Mubarak, you know, their regime worked against the people, men and women. And they created this gap between the poor and rich. They brought the so-called business class to govern us. Egypt became an American colony. And we are dominated by the U.S. and Israel. And 80 million people, men and women, have no say in the country.

"What I would like to tell you, the U.S. government, with Israel and Saudi Arabia and some other powers outside the country and inside the country, they want to abort this revolution... But we will win," El Saadawi says.

"Women and girls are, beside the boys, are in the streets," El Saadawi says. "We are calling for justice, freedom and equality, and real democracy, and a new constitution where there is no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslim and Christians, to change the system and to have real democracy."

Click here for the complete interview transcript and video/audio podcast.

For Democracy Now!'s complete coverage of the Egyptian protests, click here. Join us on Facebook.

Follow Democracy Now! on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@democracynow