Twenty-some stories up in Shubra, Dr. Nawal El-Saadawi is at home comfortable and secure, but exhausted.

A little after dinnertime on a chilly January night, she takes off her reading glasses, sits behind her home-office desk and holds still for another picture, clears her head for another interview.

Following her recent announcement to run against President Hosni Mubarak in the upcoming October presidential referendum, a seemingly organized media blitz has laid a noticeable strain on the 73-year-old activist.

Her decision, of course, has met much opposition, particularly from Al-Azhar: Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and Sheikh Yussuf Al-Qaradawi opined that several factors prevent women from handling the tasks of the presidency including, “the pain and the physical tiring that a woman suffers during her monthly period.” Their stance came in response to a fatwa issued by Sheikh Al-Azhar Mohammed Tantawi who stated that shariah does not prohibit women from holding such posts.

Despite all the buzz, El-Saadawi admits she doesn’t have a shot and further says she does not want to win. With every interview, and topping her official agenda, she makes clear one goal: to play a role in the movement toward democratic reform and encourage mainstream political participation.

But why the presidency? Why now? And what does she really expect to achieve?

“The idea [of running for president] came from some of the young people from my old village, so I thought about it and decided to go for it,” says the Qalyoubeya native of Kafr Tahla.

But while she acknowledges the opposition, especially of mainstream Egyptian reactions to her views on religion, she does believe her political views can win over many critics.

“We are living under neocolonial powers,” she says, describing what she sees as Egypt’s biggest problem. “My vision of the future is, first of all, progress. I believe in progress The future will be better than the present, that’s the hope. And many things will happen; more equality between men and women, more liberation from the hegemony of the US and Israel. Israel will never continue like that, something will happen because it’s a country that’s built on killing.”

But while many of her critics may agree with her political ideas, it’s the way she has chosen to make her views public that has angered them. As her chances of winning the presidency are slim, many would prefer to see her continue her activism both in the press and her occasional appearances in public demonstrations. Many critics regard her presidential challenge as a ploy to gain attention. Why not run for a seat in the People’s Assembly? Or even start by joining one of the opposition parties, which she has never done.

“Politics is a very dirty game,” she says. “I’m not a political person. I’m not a politician, so I never wanted to waste my time playing the game.

“You have to know the rules of the game, the rule of the game of politics, the rule of the game of elections. And how to calculate losses, how to compromise in order to gain. And I’m very ignorant about this, and I don’t like to do it. So I’m not fit for that. I’m not fit to be in this election or to be a president or anything. My policies and my abilities, my constitution is very artistic as a novelist mainly ...

“I represent the mainstream, and what’s the mainstream? Common sense.”

As simple as her message may sound, one factor has clearly stood in the way of El-Saadawi gaining wider public support: her views on religion. In a country where statistics identify 90 percent of the population as Muslim, her views on Islam and the institution of religion as a whole have not only resulted in her being labeled as an outsider, but also in her being banned from speaking on state television and universities.

“I do not separate between the divine and the human,” she says. “God is a symbol of justice, of beauty, of creativity of everything nice in life.

“God is inside me. God is my conscience, in fact. My conscience that prevents me from sleeping when I do something and I feel this was not right. That’s my god, inside me, not outside me. Not in the heavens, not in a book.”

Religion, she says, has been and is used for the most part to divide people and support the “class-patriarchal” system designed to subordinate the masses based on race, class and gender.

“Religion is a false division,” she says. “What’s

El-Saadawi has most notably elicited anger with her strong opposition to one of the most widely supported ideas in Islam in Egypt: a woman’s obligation to cover her hair, or wear hijab. In 2001, El-Saadawi also faced an apostasy trial after commenting to an Egyptian weekly newspaper that hajj (the fifth pillar of Islam) contained rituals of pagan origin. If it were not for a court verdict that same year clearing El-Saadawi of charges that she had insulted Islam, she could have been forcibly divorced from her husband and imprisoned for three years.

Prevailing through the opposition, El-Saadawi says she plans to pursue her campaign with vigor. Sure, she says, she’s thought of the consequences but apparently that’s all she plans to do about them.

In her effort to gain public support, she has joined forces with two even more controversial figures also challenging the president for his seat: Saadeddin Ibrahim and Mohamed Fareed Hassanain. The three have made public their intention to gather 1 million signatures in a petition asking for a constitutional amendment to allow the nomination of more than one person for the presidency. In addition, a public protest and march around the People’s Assembly is scheduled for the body’s first day in session.

Once again, El-Saadawi pays little attention to the possible consequences and backlash to her plans.

“If something happens, what are they going to do? Put me in prison? I think it will help the campaign,” she says. “Anything they will do to me will help the campaign because people will be more and more angry.”

For now, El-Saadawi’s home will temporarily remain on public display as print photographers, journalists and television camera crews continue to stream in daily.

She will pay little attention to the opposition and, instead, focus on the strong support she receives from the faithful believers in her ideology. She’ll put up with the press, for now, hoping it all pays off in terms of real reform­­­­, as she sees it.  et