The 2004 North-South Centre of Europe Prize, the last in a line of prizes awarded to El-Saadawi by Western institutions, might confirm her detractors' view that her deliberately subversive work panders to Western prejudices regarding the East. One charge frequently levelled at El-Saadawi is that she exploits her familiarity with negative aspects of Egyptian culture, and her position as a woman on the margins of respectable society, in order to gain international recognition. Though she insists that she would not accept one for political reasons, the fact that El-Saadawi was never offered a state award would seem to corroborate this line of thought. Certainly, at some level, El-Saadawi -- awarded the North-South Prize last week for her "leadership in the fight for women's rights and... passionate commitment to global interdependence and solidarity" -- is more of a figure of prominence outside the Arab world, with her books translated into over 30 languages and often making more sales in translation than in the original. Be that as it may, El-Saadawi is eager to underline her opposition to the policies of the European Union, asserting that her books address humanity at large. "No doubt I am pleased when I receive a prize," she says, "especially in the light of local attempts to isolate me and soil my reputation, which are particularly abundant in state-supported publications like the Ministry of Culture's Al-Qahira. The truth is, however, that I don't believe in prizes, I think they can do more harm than good, especially state prizes. Because if your government gives you a prize, that could well mean that you're servicing its agenda, you are in perfect harmony with its dynamics, which implies to me that you must be worthless as a writer. I actually think of state prizes as a form of bribery, and I suspect that if they knew my person in Europe, if I had any bearing on their institutions as a public figure," El-Saadawi laughs, "they wouldn't be giving me prizes either. "The European Union is an institution whose limitations we are all familiar with, so I am under no illusions in this respect. But in the end they've given me this prize based on nothing other than their reading of my work, and I can't help being glad. It is true that I've worked to defend women's rights. It is also true that in my writings I try to bridge the distances between peoples. This makes me think that perhaps the terms of the prize were not altogether off point. I can't stress it enough, though, that a writer's only genuine reward is the response she receives from her readers. No joy compares to that of receiving readers' letters or e-mail. It is this, not book sales, and definitely not all the prizes in the world, that gives me the motivation to go on..."
