I never again want to see the face of a starving child or hear the weeping of a mother who has lost her son to war. Peace, this is what my husband gave his life for…
Jehan Sadat
Never Again
Topic: Global Peace & Development
“I never again want to see the face of a starving child or hear the weeping of a mother who has lost her son to war. Peace, this is what my husband gave his life for, and I want the world to know that he did not die in vain. Peace, this is what will make me very happy.”
Jehan Sadat was born Jehan Safwat Raouf on August 29, 1933, in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian father, Dr. Safwat Raouf, and an English mother, Gladys Cotterill. Raised in a culturally mixed home, she received a Muslim upbringing and attended a Christian secondary school for girls. At 15, she met Anwar Sadat, recently released from prison for anti-colonial activities. Despite her parents' concerns, they married in 1949. Their marriage lasted over three decades, during which Anwar Sadat became Egypt’s president and a key figure in national change. They had four children: Noha, Jihan, Lobna, and Gamal.
As First Lady from 1970 to 1981, Jehan Sadat used her role to advocate for women’s rights and social services. She influenced legal reforms that became known as the “Jehan Laws,” which expanded women’s rights in divorce and child custody. Her efforts included founding the al Wafa' Wa Amal Rehabilitation Center for disabled veterans and visually impaired children, as well as organizations for cancer care, blood donation, and child welfare. She also helped create women’s cooperatives and represented Egypt in international women’s conferences, co-founding the Arab-African Women’s League.
After her husband’s assassination in 1981, Jehan Sadat returned to academic life, earning a PhD in Comparative Literature from Cairo University in 1986. She later held academic positions, including at the University of Maryland. She published two memoirs—A Woman of Egypt (1987) and My Hope for Peace (2009)—and wrote Arabic poetry under a pseudonym. She died on July 9, 2021, at age 87, and was buried beside her husband at the Unknown Soldier Memorial in Cairo. Over her lifetime, she received numerous awards for her advocacy and humanitarian work.
Jehan Sadat, as quoted in Remembering Jehan Sadat, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, 2021, https://sadat.umd.edu/sites/sadat.umd.edu/files/Remembering%20Jehan%20Sadat%20Transcript.pdf. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
Jehan Sadat
Theme: Peace
About This Jehan Sadat Quotation [Commentary]
With vivid, lived imagery, Jehan Sadat begins by naming the human consequences of conflict: starvation and grief. These are not abstract ideas but real experiences she witnessed in her years of public service. In doing so, she asserts a powerful moral imperative: peace must not be a distant aspiration, but a remedy for suffering.
She then invokes the legacy of her husband: “Peace, this is what my husband gave his life for.” These words do more than honor a memory—they transform tragedy into moral force. Anwar Sadat’s decision to pursue peace with Israel was a courageous, divisive moment in history, and Jehan Sadat reaffirms that this commitment was intentional and fraught with danger.
Finally, her closing phrase—“Peace… this is what will make me very happy”—grounds her vision in simplicity and intimacy. She does not speak of peace as ideology or strategy, but as the return of human dignity and relief from grief. In this way, her words invite us to see peace not as a distant goal, but an immediate human need—one that she continues to carry in her heart.
Jehan Sadat
Jehan Sadat wrote this reflection in My Hope for Peace as a summation of the cost of war and the personal meaning of peace in her life.
Having lived through decades of conflict and having lost her husband, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, to an act of political violence after the signing of the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, she remained committed to reconciliation. Her words affirm a peace rooted in shared humanity, not political expediency.
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