The Guardian newspaper lists Egypt’s Nawal El Saadawi within their top 100 feminist in the world on the occasion of International Women's Day. They lauded her for taking to the streets of Egypt to participate in the protests to oust President Mubarak, despite her eighty years of age.

Nwal El-Saadawi is a psychiatrist, feminist activist and university professor who wrote roughly 50 plays, novels and short stories. This was the first time she has participated in demonstrations since her earlier protests to end the British occupation of Egypt.

The newspaper pointed out that El Saadawi's writings deal with controversial issues, such as prostitution, domestic violence and religious fundamentalism. Her latest criticisms of religion has led to an unsuccessful legal attempt against her to drop her nationality and has even prompted Islamists to suggest to El-Saadawi's husband that he divorce her.

El-Saadawi earned her spot on the list, which includes women who played roles for women’s advancement, among them, the American TV host, Oprah Winfrey; Iranian activist Shirin Abadi; former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Burmese opposition activist, Aung San Suu Kyi and Sudanese author, Lubna Hussain.