attacks against civilians, this time as part of an offensive against kachin rebels in the north of the country. villagers say whole communities have been forced to flee, though the army insists it only targets armed forces. the american fashion designer kate spade has been found dead at her home in new york. ms spade was best known for the handbag company she founded in 1993. police believe she killed herself. and this video is trending on bbc.com: the chief executive of qatar airways has sparked a storm of protest, after saying his airline had to be — i quote — "led by a man because it was a very challenging position". akbar al baker was attending a conference on diversity. that's all from me now. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, with me, zeinab badawi.

my guest is a pioneer in so many ways. she's been described as the arab world's leading feminist. she is a medical doctor, activist, writer, campaigner and outspoken political critic. she is dr nawal el saadawi. she was banned from speaking in the egyptian media and was imprisoned under the government of president sadat for her outspoken views. how much freedom of expression is there currently under president sisi and what about the status of women in egypt today? dr nawal el saadawi, welcome to hardtalk.

now, president abdel fattah el—sisi was re—elected in april this year. briefly, how much democracy is there in egypt today? well, it is not less or more than democracy in britain or the united states. i look at the world as a whole. so egypt is not specifically lacking democracy. i've been travelling all over the world. i haven't seen a democratic country. do you have democracy here in britain or in the united states? shall we just stick with egypt? no. i cannot stay with egypt because i link egypt to the world. i need to make comparisons. all right, let's take one specific point. you were imprisoned in 1980 under president anwar sadat because of your very outspoken views. yes. you had said at the time that you believed what he said about democracy, "we have a multi—party system that

you can criticise. so i started criticising his policy and i landed injail". exactly. today, do you have the freedom to say what you want in egypt? much better than under sadat or mubarak. much, much better. under mubarak and sadat i was censored totally. i was in prison under sadat. now in egypt i am not censored. i can speak my views in egypt now in the media. i write. also, i write in ahram, in the national paper. i write regularly. in that case, it sounds as if you were happy when sisi removed mohamed morsi from power in 2013. that move was criticised by many inside egypt and internationally. yes. we were happy. there were millions. in fact, it was not sisi who removed the muslim brotherhood.

it was the egyptian people. 30 million people were in the streets against the muslim brothers. the army removed him. he was minister of defence and head of the armed forces, he gave an ultimatum to the government. the people of egypt removed the muslim brothers. we were 30 million in the streets saying that we will not have an islamic government we will not have an islamic state. and even sisi at the beginning was reluctant and we were pushing him and the army to take over. so we had to be clear. what is happening in egypt is not really portrayed well outside. i must put it to you that in the elections, after the toppling of hosni mubarak in 2011, elections were held in 2012 and the muslim brotherhood, who had refashioned themselves as the freedom and justice party won 47% of seatsin parliament and, also, other islamist parties brought

the support of muslim—based parties to more than 70%. this is an illusion. we did not have democratic elections in egypt because there is no democratic elections in any country. it is money and power. do you think that trump was elected democratically? let me speak! also i was in exile in the us for 20 years. so i witnessed bill clinton campaign and 0bama. is that democracy? it's money. money and power. so money brought mohamed morsi to power is what you're saying? yes. the united states supported... i saw hillary clinton in cairo, in tahrir square. they supported the muslim brotherhood with money. the position of america was,

immediately after the removal of mohamed morsi, that in their view, he was democratically elected and so on. that is a big lie. let's not go down that path then. but abdel fattah el—sisi eventually became president in 2014 in elections which gave him 97% of the vote. is abdel fattah el—sisi democratically elected? he's been re—elected again with 96% of the vote in april this year. democracy has nothing to do with elections and elections have nothing to do with democracy. we do not live in a democratic world. no. there is dictatorship everywhere. i have to be clear. dictatorship with capitalism. you cannot have democracy, real democracy, in a capitalist, classist, racist, religious system. you can not have democracy. how can you have democracy? all right, let me ask you this then. the point i want to develop

with you is the fact that many people inside egypt and outside of the country felt that whatever circumstances brought abdel fattah el—sisi to power, it was more preferable to having the muslim brotherhood essentially running egypt. is that your view? to have the muslim brotherhood...? no. i'm saying that many people prefer abdel fattah el—sisi, whatever the circumstances of his coming to power, to the muslim brotherhood, the freedom and justice party. the majority of egyptians, and that includes myself, we know the muslim brothers‘ history. we know that they will govern with religion and we are against a religious state. so we know, and many people in egypt do not accept a religious state. that's why they support sisi. so everything is relative, relative.

so sisi's rule is much better than that of the muslim brotherhood. why? number one, they do not use religion. because to play with religion is like playing with fire, fire! muslim brotherhood wants to tell us that allah said so and we cannot criticise allah. but at least we can criticise the army or criticise sisi because they are human beings. but how can you criticise allah? you have been a very, very outspoken person all your life, as we can see. you have written things, books like the hidden face of eve, where you covered issues like female genital mutilation, sexual relationships, prostitution, marriage, divorce. you've been very outspoken. do you think that sometimes you may serve your cause a bit better if you were less outspoken? no, i should be more outspoken. i should be more aggressive

because the world is becoming more aggressive. and we need people to speak loud against injustices. and to be fair. there is no fairness. iam angry. i am outspoken, i speak loudly because i'm angry. what's this bias? why? why are people killed, like i told you in palestine, i know the media doesn't mention that. just looking at... this is part of my life. so we have to, if we're going to talk politics, and not literature, we need to look to the whole world. to the whole world. what's happening in the whole world? we live in a capitalist, patriarchal system. harsh capitalist, patriarchal and religious system. you were born in 1931, just outside cairo, one of eight

children, and you say that in your writings you always thought "why should i be treated differently to my brothers?" you came from a relatively progressive family obviously and you were highly educated. looking at one specific practice in egypt, fgm, female genital mutilation, that is something you yourself underwent at six years of age. is that the reason why you felt that you had this personal mission to try to eradicate harmful practices like this? no, no. i forgot it. i forgot the event when i was a child. because there is childhood amnesia, so i forgot. but then i was reminded of it when i worked as a medical doctor and i saw the children cut, male and female. because i am also against male genital mutilation. male circumcision. circumcision is male genital mutilation. and female genital mutilation.

so after graduating and working as a physician, and seing children in front of me being cut, i started to remember what happened to me and i started... so it's not personal. but just thinking about the kinds of causes you have taken, the kind of way you approach issues like that. my point was, do you think you would serve the cause a bit better if you just worked more quietly behind the scenes? because even today in egypt, more than 50%, perhaps 70%, of girls are still subjected to fgm. yes, but that's why we should be very, very brave, and open and also clear. why should we not be clear? to hide behind things and be careful? why careful? i have to be outspoken. why has it proved so durable?

it has been outlawed in egypt since 1996 as a practice. in 2016, the law was toughened in egypt to bring in harsher penalties for practitioners. the law hasn't stopped it. why does it persist? it's a very deep—rooted habit related to patriarchy. it's related to the oppression of women in all religions. in fact, women are circumcised in... under all religions. physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically. we have to put fgm, and mgm also, male, in a historical context. it is history. it is about sexuality, is it? women's sexuality? yes. a double standard of society that women should be monogamous and men are polygamous? you see? so how can women be monogamous?

but women often perpetuate fgm. it's notjust something that the males do. the women want it sometimes... they are brainwashed. slaves are always against slaves. it's a slave mentality. when you are oppressed, you oppress your children. especially your daughters. this is psychology. the point is we have to understand that why female genital mutilation or why male genital mutilation is still today still durable and it is still now. why are males circumcised? nobody asks. it's very much related to female circumcision. and it's related to monogamy for women and polygamy for men. in orderfor women to be monogamous, they must be circumcised, to be satisfied with one man, you know? so it's related to monogamy. there are other issues,

you bring up monogamy and looking at the issue of marriage, i wanted to raise a particular case with you that is making a lot of headlines at moment, the case of noura hussein, a 19—year—old woman in the sudan, neighbouring. to egypt... and you were born in sudan. i was born there. you're absolutely right, dr el sadaawi. she has been condemned to death for stabbing her husband to death. she was forced into the marriage when she was in her early mid—teens, and she did not consent to have sexual intercourse with him and was held down by three of his male relatives. you know the story? i know, yes. so why does the koran first of all... first of all, the koran doesn't allow forced marriage so why does this happen? it has nothing to do with the koran. it has nothing to do with religion. many people think it is the koran that oppresses women or islam. women are also oppressed injudaism, in islam, christianity and hinduism.

women are oppressed in all religions. and why women should marry young? you know, they tried... i was about to marry when i was ten years old. but i struggled, hard. i struggled. your parents wanted you to marry at ten? yes. many people at my age. how did you at ten years old, managed to say no? you will need to read my autobiography. of course. it is a long battle. child marriage is universal. in china, in the us, it is universal. it's like fgm. it's like polygamy and monogamy. everything. like, everything related to women. it is universal because girls should marry young and the men is older, in order to dominate her. the husband should dominate. so the girl marry young. she is ignorant, she can be manipulated... noura hussein actually resisted.

she says she was tricked into marrying him. and she killed! and she killed him when he tried to force himself on her. good for her! now look at her. what's going to happen to her? amnesty international are saying sudanese courts say she's guilty of premeditated murder, even though she was defending herself from being raped by a man she was forced to marry when she was just a young teenager. she's innocent. this girl is innocent in front of all laws. she's innocent. because she was defending herself. because, you know, her husband tricked her. rape is like killing. when a girl is raped while she is young, young, teenager, this is like killing her. so the world should recognise that she was being killed by the husband and she was in self defence. she was defending herself. so she is innocent.

child marriage is universal. and the oppression of women is universal. and we have to put it in that picture to understand. looking at the status of women in egypt today, we've heard a lot about women being sexually molested in public areas and so forth and president sisi has designated 2017, he designated it, the year of the women. and he has said he wants to introduce laws, he's introduced laws which are more favourable to women, he's increased the number of women in the cabinet to 18%, and that kind of thing. is there progress for women's status and rights in egypt? well, very little. women cannot be, i do not believe the rights of women come from the government, from any government. i believe women gain the right

to buy their own effort. i didn't believe that nasser will bring liberation to us, or socialism, or sadat or mubarak or any ruler. we women should organise ourselves and be aware of our problems and fight. i don't believe in individual rule, that an individual ruler will bring rights to women or to men or to anybody. so the people themselves should fight for their rights. and you yourself, you say the people themselves should fight for their rights... and women should fight. do you see what's going on in a lot of countries around the world, western countries in particular, america, europe, about the me too campaign, where women are standing up and saying this kind of sexual harassment has gone on for too long, what are your views on that, is it something that resonates with you in egypt? yes. yes! and fortunately women in america and in the world discovered that because when i was talking to

an international women's conference. and i was saying the problem with women is global, global and local, we cannot separate between the local and global. they laughed. but now the american women now are fighting against rape and sexual molesting. and you heard about the very famous men who raped women, you see. so i'm happy that it became known universally, because, yeah. do you think it's a universal issue though, you don't think that people have to apply cultural sensitivities and sensibilities and norms, so the debate is different in egypt from what it might be in the united states. exactly. you got the point. you think it is different? it is universal. oh, you think it's universal? it is universal. mmm. and we should not speak about cultural relativism. i am not very much with this idea of cultural relativism or multiculturalism. this post—modern language,

i don't agree, i am very critical of this language, the so—called, so i think what i think, is that the local is not separate from the global. i think this problem, that feminism is a western invention, that me, i am copying western women, you know, they don't believe that feminism is in every country. that's why i call myself historical socialist feminist. but you, you know, that's the point. for example, back in 2001 you said the veil is un—islamic. you said that there are vestiges of pagan practices during the annual hajj muslim pilgrimage. mm—hmm. and that backfired on you because you were accused of apostasy, you are sacked from yourjob

at the ministry of health, and also as editor of a health journal, that's the point i'm making. should you not proceed with a bit more recognition of cultural sensibilities? well, it's not cultural, because for me this is happening. i was not speaking specifically about islam or about hajj or about women's oppression by islam. i was linking all the time in all my writings, whether fiction or non—fiction. i link. i am a medical doctor. so we need, in order to understand women problems, or any problems, we should be historical and we should link the problem, in history, and follow it up till now. you have just written your memoirs, at the age of 86, nearly 87, called a daughter of isis: walking through fire. when you look back on your long distinguished career, what do you think about your life's work in trying to promote women's rights, we are satisfied with what's gone on? well, yes.

yes. if you ask me this question a few years ago, i would say no. but now yes. you cannot imagine, my books, i have 70 books, fiction and non—fiction, they are in most every home in egypt, in sudan, in all arab countries they are there. and read by young people, 15 years, 1a years. so i am very satisfied. whenever i go, even to sudan orjordan or anywhere, the young people come and tell me, "you changed my life by your work." so that's enough for me. even when they were banned as they were smuggled to saudi arabia. you know my books were in saudi arabia while they were banned in egypt.

you cannot ban books. people can find them. so your question, yes, i am satisfied. i feel now i am protected by the young people in egypt, everywhere. i fulfilled my promise to myself. but also not enough, i should fight more and more until i die. but as we said, the status of women in egypt, in the arab world, there's still so much that needs to be achieved, accomplished. of course. but there is also much progress. you cannot see women, young women now, in universities everywhere. they talk loud. you meet egyptian women, very outspoken. they're not walking through fire, as you were? no, much less fire. much less fire. of course, they're paying much less price than me. because we had to pay a very high price. you were imprisoned for some months.

you were only released because anwar sadat was assassinated and exiled. you know, so i am satisfied. i am optimistic. i am full of hope, because hope is power. i think tomorrow will be better. i think egypt now is much better than under mubarak or sadat. so are going on. dr nawal el saadawi, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you, zeinab, thank you. hello once again. it's variations on a theme rather

than a great change of weather type that many of you are experiencing just at the moment. blue skies on tuesday in the sheffield area, it didn't start that way but you got there eventually, like so many other places, and even when there was cloud in the sky, well, a number of our weather watchers in the worcestershire area and in the surrounding counties were rather taken by that pattern in the skies. now, what's driving our weather? well, high pressure the dominant feature, away to the north of scotland. we will speak more about that area of low pressure because it can't be discounted, even though it'sjust down towards the southern parts of france. so wednesday, a lot of dry weather and sunshine than any from the word go and probably not the case for east of pennines where overnight, in view of the lost it, we will see a fair amount of cloud coming in off the north sea, tending to thin as we get on through the day, and again, with a wee

bit of sunshine in the skies, temperatures in a number of locations exceeding 20 degrees celsius. it's not all plain sailing, i have to say. many of you will know already that the pollen levels are very high, especially across the greater part of england and wales, so bear that in mind if it's relevant to you. here we are through wednesday evening. a good evening for a barbecue, not too much on the way of breeze pleasantly warm in a number of locations. the cloud becoming more extensive to the eastern pennines and low cloud lurking thereabouts across these northern and eastern shores. what is not going to be a particularly cold night. that pattern to thursday doesn't look different from wednesday with the notable exception that we've just pushed that area of low pressure, and its attendant fronts and troughs, a little bit further north in france, and that will have effect of thickening up the cloud across the southern counties of england, maybe the south of wales and from that, we could well see some showers, maybe the odd one or two, really quite sharp.

that might be a problem for the channel islands. elsewhere, just one or two showers close by to the donegal border in northern ireland, maybe the odd one of the highlands, but essentially it's a fine and settled look to the weather, and even as the weekend begins to loom, that high pressure is still there or thereabouts. we still have these little mini weather fronts, if you like, just bringing a bit of instability into the mix. so you couldn't rule out one or two showers. at this particular moment, we think some across southern or western parts are more likely to see them. but again, many of you are in for a dry weekend. you're watching newsday. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: hiding for their lives. children take cover from myanmar warplanes as the military is once again accused of targeting civilians. we have a special report.

translation: on april 11, four fighter jets fired on the village. we also heard the army raped women and tortured old people nearby so we left. shock in the american fashion world as designer kate spade is found dead in new york. police believe she killed herself. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: a carpet of plastic smothers a beach in mumbai.