Jehan Sadat, widow of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, who was assassinated in 1981, is the author of My Hope for Peace. A lifelong activist for women’s rights, literacy, and humanitarian causes worldwide, she has received more than twenty honorary doctoral degrees and a number of prestigious international awards. She is senior fellow with the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and lives in Virginia and Egypt.

Q: Why did you choose this particular moment to write this particular book?

A: The end of March [2009] was the thirtieth anniversary of the Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel. In My Hope for Peace I talk about the struggle for peace in the Middle East, the cause for which my husband gave his life.

Q: You talk about other kinds of peace, too.

A: Peace is the defining theme of my life. After my husband was assassinated, it was a very hard time for me. But our love together made me feel a kind of peace inside, and instead of staying at home doing nothing and just living in grief and sadness I tried to come out and start working again—teaching. It is much more peaceful for me to feel that I’m doing something, which will please his soul also.

Q: You also talk about peace as being inherent to Islam.

A: Being here in the United States half of the year, I’ve noticed—especially after 9/11—that Islam is misunderstood in this country. As a Muslim woman, I feel that’s it my duty and the duty of all Muslims—reasonable Muslims, not the fundamentalists, of course—to enjoin others to live a life of brotherhood without distinction. We are to respect and treat all human beings as equal, regardless of creed or color, whether man or woman, civilians or soldiers, rulers or subjects, rich or poor, whatever they are. Islam is in fact a spiritual democracy, radically egalitarian and deeply, deeply concerned with human dignity.
Q: But there are those who espouse violence in religious terms.

A: The Koran plainly states that killing an innocent person is tantamount to killing all mankind. And you see they are doing such things and say they are Muslims; they are not. They don’t have the right to wage war—as they say, jihad—against Westerners, Muslims, or any kind of people. Moreover, suicide bombers are anathema to Islam. Whoever commits suicide will never go to paradise.

Q: So how about the Middle East “peace process”? Prospects for peace look as dim today as they ever have.

A: The first step is the most difficult step, which my husband took, to pave the way for others to follow. When he decided to make peace, all of the people around him were telling him: this is risky, this is dangerous, you will lose the Arabs, you will lose your position, your life. But he never wavered, because he believed in peace as a mission. At that time, nobody could believe that there could be peace between and Egypt and Israel! But Sadat did it. And that’s why I have hope today, tomorrow, and all my life.

Q: What drove him to take that first step?

A: He asked, What is the result of endless conflict between Egypt and Israel? No side is winning and no side is benefiting from this. He wanted to save his sons, and he wanted to save the other side’s sons. And since the [Camp David Accords] were signed there has not been any aggression or any wars between Egypt and Israel. For thirty years we’ve saved our sons from being killed in wars. And this is what I want to see between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Q: Though he—and you—paid a heavy price, personally.

A: You may be surprised to learn this, but with all the love I had for him, I still felt that I was going to lose him for this. He knew it. I knew it. But we never talked about it. Like I said, it was a mission.

Q: I know that you’ve spent many years working to dispel myths, particularly about the role of women in the Arab world and in Islam. Talk a bit about that.

A: Well, women in Islam have many rights. In Islam, a wife has every right to dispose of her own property in any manner she chooses. She does not have to ask for her husband’s consent. And any property she brings to the marriage, or acquires thereafter, is hers alone, as well as anything she earns from her work. And this has been true for 1,430 years! To the rest of the world, this practice is comparatively new. A Muslim woman can keep her name; she has the right to education; she has the right to work. We have women in Egypt active in every field—doctors, scientists, engineers, judges.

Q: And yet, isn’t there a lot of work still to be done on behalf of women’s rights?

A: Yes, of course. We need more for women, not only in Egypt, but all over the world. There are still women in some places who don’t have all their rights or the opportunities to be working and involved in their societies.

Q: We have a new administration this year in the U.S. How would you advise them to seize this moment?

A: First of all, I am so happy that Obama is president. I hope and I believe that he will do something in the Middle East. At least he sent Senator [George] Mitchell, who is a very, very good man. Obama can tell Prime Minister Netanyahu that it is about time to make peace. We want to see peace achieved in the Middle East and to say to the Palestinian leaders: Enough factionalism. You have to unite and become one delegation to negotiate and sit with the Israelis. And believe me, there will be peace if they feel that America is very sincere, as [President Jimmy] Carter was [at the time of the Camp David Accords]. People want peace—the majority of people on all sides—in Israel, in the Arab world, and among the Palestinians. They all want peace and have been through so much. And if there is a will, there is a way.

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