Yesterday, Sunday 21 March, the world-famous Egyptian writer Nawal El Sadaawi died in a Cairo hospital. In addition to being a gifted writer, El Sadaawi, a medical doctor by training, was also an honorary doctor of the VUB and ULB, a distinction she was awarded in 2007. Her entire life has been dedicated to the fight for Arab women's rights, and against practices such as genital mutilation, polygamy, the wearing of the veil and the inequality in Islamic inheritance rights between men and women. You can read the laudatio for Nawal El Sadaawi, pronounced on the occasion of the presentation of her honorary doctorate by the VUB and ULB here.