The Nawal El Saadawi Reader

by Nawal El Saadawi

Overview

Writer, doctor and militant, Nawal el Saadawi has had a major influence on the lives of women and men globally. Author of many books, both fiction and non-fiction, which challenge our thinking about the politics of sex, Third World development, the Arab world and writing itself, she has been a constant thorn in the side of the class and patriarchal systems.

This collection of her non-fiction writing since the publication of her seminal book on Arab women The Hidden Face of Eve (Zed Books, 1980) presents the full range of her extraordinary work. She explores a host of topics from women's oppression at the hands of recent interpretations of Islam to the role of women in African literature, from the sexual politics of development initiatives to tourism in a 'post-colonial' age, from the nature of cultural identity to the subversive potential of creativity, from the fight against female genital mutilation to problems facing the internationalization of the women's movement. Throughout her writing, she sheds new light on the power of women in resistance - against poverty, racism, fundamentalism, and inequality of all kinds.

Showing the intellectual and political development of an important thinker for the late twentieth century, this book is essential reading for students and lecturers in women's studies, development studies and social theory. It is also a book anyone who wants to understand current global politics - in their widest sense - can not do without.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781856495141
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Egyptian novelist, doctor and militant writer on Arab women's problems and their struggle for liberation, Nawal el Saadawi was born in the village of Kafr Tahla. Refusing to accept the limitations imposed by both religious and colonial oppression on most women of rural origin, she qualified as a doctor in 1955 and rose to become Egypt's Director of Public Health. Since she began to write over 30 years ago, her books have concentrated on women. In 1972, her first work of non fiction, Women and Sex, evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities, and the Ministry of Health was pressurised into dismissing her. Under similar pressures she lost her post as Chief Editor of a health jourbanal and as Assistant General Secretary in the Medical Association in Egypt. From 1973 to 1976 she worked on researching women and neurosis in the Ain Shams University's Faculty of Medicine; and from 1979 to 1980 she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa (ECA) and Middle East (ECWA). Later in 1980, as a culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom, an activity that had closed all avenues of official jobs to her, she was imprisoned under the Sadat regime. She has since founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and devoted her time to being a writer, jourbanalist and worldwide speaker on women's issues.

With the publication by Zed Books in 1980 of The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, English language readers were first introduced to the work of this major writer. Zed Books has also published four of her previous novels, Woman at Point Zero (1983), God Dies by the Nile (1985), The Circling Song (1989) and Searching (1991) as well as a collection of her non-fiction writings The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (1997). She has received three literary awards.
Egyptian novelist, doctor and militant writer on Arab women's problems and their struggle for liberation, Nawal el Saadawi was born in the village of Kafr Tahla. Refusing to accept the limitations imposed by both religious and colonial oppression on most women of rural origin, she qualified as a doctor in 1955 and rose to become Egypt's Director of Public Health. Since she began to write over 30 years ago, her books have concentrated on women. In 1972, her first work of non fiction, Women and Sex, evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities, and the Ministry of Health was pressurised into dismissing her. Under similar pressures she lost her post as Chief Editor of a health jourbanal and as Assistant General Secretary in the Medical Association in Egypt. From 1973 to 1976 she worked on researching women and neurosis in the Ain Shams University's Faculty of Medicine; and from 1979 to 1980 she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa (ECA) and Middle East (ECWA). Later in 1980, as a culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom, an activity that had closed all avenues of official jobs to her, she was imprisoned under the Sadat regime. She has since founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and devoted her time to being a writer, jourbanalist and worldwide speaker on women's issues.

With the publication by Zed Books in 1980 of The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, English language readers were first introduced to the work of this major writer. Zed Books has also published four of her previous novels, Woman at Point Zero (1983), God Dies by the Nile (1985), The Circling Song (1989) and Searching (1991) as well as a collection of her non-fiction writings The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (1997). She has received three literary awards.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part One: Gendering South-North Politics
1. Women and the Poor: The challenge of global justice
2. Women in the South in Relation to Women in the North
3. Women’s Voice in the North-South Dialogue
4. The Enigmatic South: Different stages of development
5. Cairo ’94 and the Dignity of Feeding Oneself

Part Two: Women’s Health
6. Women and Health in the Arab World
7. The Bitter Lot of Women: An interview

Part Three: Women/Islam/Fundamentalisms
8. Women and Islam
9. Islamic Fundamentalism and Women
10. The Impact of Fanatic Religious Thought: A story of a young Egyptian Muslim woman
11. Fundamentalism: Old friend, new enemy

Part Four: Orientalizing Women
12. Why Keep Asking Me About My Identity?
13. Women, Religion and Literature: Bridging the cultural gap
14. Women and Development: A critical view of the Wellesley Conference

Part Five: Decolonizing the Imagination
15. Dissidence and Creativity
16. Culture in the Dialogue of Civilizations
17. Democracy, Creativity and African Literature
18. Creative Women in Changing Societies
19. Prosecutive Journalism
20. Seeking the True Colour of Things

Part Six: Women Organizing for Change
21. Arab Women and Politics
22. Women in Resistance: The Arab world
23. Women and Politics in Britain

Index
 

Editorial Reviews

Throughout her writing she sheds new light on the power of women in resistance” —against poverty, racism, fundamentalism and inequality of all kinds'

“The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab World” —Guardian

“A clear insight into the life and works of Nawal El Saadawi... well worth reading” —Haleh Afshar

From the Publisher

Although hardly a household name in the United States, Saadawi is called by Britain's Guardian, according to her publisher, "the leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab world." The 23 essaysmostly academic papers and speeches to conferencesthat make up this collection fall under several general topics that range from women's health to women and Islamic fundamentalism to women organizing for change. A medical doctor who was general director of Egypt's Department of Health, Saadawi was imprisoned by President Anwar Sadat, she claims, after criticizing him for preaching democracy while practicing a dictatorship. After three months, and Sadat's assassination, she was freed by his successor, Hosni Mubarak. The translations of her essays (by various people) tend to be stilted, and Saadawi has a weakness for writing sentences like, "All these different levels of inequality are linked together in the patriarchal capitalism system that governs the world today." But when she abandons jargon and speaks directly about issues of poverty, health and women's role in fundamentalist societies, her book sizzles. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The essays here encapsulate the essence of the work of the most recognizable name in Egyptian and Middle Eastern feminism. El Saadawi, a straight shooter and one of the most controversial Arabic writers of the latter half of this centuryshe lost her job and was blacklisted and imprisoned for her 1971 book Women and Sexgoes beyond narrow feminist themes. They deal with issues that affect women globally and can threaten their survival, such as identity and equality, social and economic justice, health, religious fundamentalism, and literature. The author analyzes each of these topics in her poignant, penetrating, yet simple style and often adopts a comparative stance, contrasting the condition of women in Egypt and Middle Eastern countries with that in other societies. She never loses sight of the global challenges that all women face. Highly recommended for all library collections and essential for collections about women.Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.

Library Journal