NAWAL El Saadawi lived in a simple apartment on the 25th floor of an old building in Shubra Garden in Cairo, Egypt. It is not an upscale neighborhood. Not as nice as the area where her previous house had been located, before all her businesses were gagged by Hosni Mubarak’s regime. The elevator in her apartment building squeaked and rattled as it ascended to the upper floor.

She lived alone in her apartment.