In a self-reflexive narrative, the Egyptian author and human rights activist Nawal El Saadawi questions the meaning of homeland versus birthplace in a controversial location such as contemporary Cairo. She weaves personal childhood memories into the shifting Egyptian political climate, as well as the new social, intergenerational relations that currently exist. The recent trial of Mubarak, and her personal perceptions and feelings watching it, become the backdrop for El Saadawi's notebook contribution. In a literary twist, El Saadawi fixates on the broken television set in her house, which is broadcasting Mubarak's trial, as a metaphor and a way of marking the passing of time of the various presidential regimes, while revealing her own perceptual shifts from guilt and blame to "gleams of childish, mysterious hope." El Saadawi reveals the trial as a play that is regulated by the media and scriptwriters; while themes of heritage, time, love, and the difficulty of recording your life's work through writing slowly emerge.

Nawal El Saadawi (*1931) is an Egyptian feminist writer, novelist, activist, physician, and psychiatrist living in Cairo.