An interesting collection of stories, essays and other writings from the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi. I found it a little mixed and rather more heavy going than perhaps I anticipated but I think probably my fault by not reading carefully enough what sort of book it was before requesting it via the Early Reviewers programme. ( )

This is a partial review of the Early Reviewer programme - partial because I haven't finished reading this collected essays, articles, fiction and poetry. I am steadily reading my way through it, and finding it is much more amenable to dipping into, than reading cover to cover. I was very glad of the introduction to put Nawal El Saadawi (prefers Zaynab) and her writings into a context (though not as much of one as I need), as the order and selection of the writings themselves seemed not too obvious.

What I have read so far has been a refreshing take on feminism, socialism, and social, political and economic needs and crises in Egypt and beyond. Nawal El Saadawi's personal story weaves through her writing, alongside and amongst the larger picture. The parts about Islam and feminism is very interesting, and it seems/sounds to me as though their compatibility rests on a free, somewhat liberal, non-fundamentalist interpretation of both, and being prepared to take the spirit and essence of an idea, not the letter of the law or doctrine. This is something I would like to read much more about, so I will carry on reading, and see if I can find some related materials too.

Evidently what Nawal was writing was true to herself and her views at the time of composition; what I would quite like to know is what she thinks about some of that earlier material now, and how her thoughts have changed on these topics since.

A fuller review to follow when I have completed my reading. Highly interesting, engaging, and at times emotive, so far.

Now 79 years old, Nawal El Saadawi has written 40+ books and seriously considered a run for the presidency as Egypt's most visible feminist. Over the years, she has been fired from her position at the Ministry of Health for speaking against Female Genital Mutilation, imprisoned for criticizing Anwar Sadat, driven into exile for eight years after being placed on a fundamentalist death list, and sued for apostasy after "insulting Islam." Incredible woman, incredible courage.

Having read [Woman at Point Zero] as an undergraduate in the early 80's, and later [The Hidden Face of Eve] and [God Dies by the Nile], I requested this book. [The Essential Nawal El Saadawi: A Reader] (edited by Adele Newson Horst) is a generally good introduction to Dr. Saadawi's essays and fiction. Unfortunately, some of the non-fiction has not aged well, being reflective of a time before the current tide of widespread fundamentalism. The selection from [The Hidden Face of Eve], for example, is a disaster. Its discussion of the recent Iranian Revolution reads like a 1930's American leftist enthusiasm for the burgeoning Soviet Union...
"It is a popular explosion which seeks to emancipate the people of Iran, both men and women, and not to send women back to the prison of the veil, the kitchen and the bedroom."
Its championship of Islam as a progressive force reads like a Catholic Worker's faith flying in the face of history...
"For Islam in its essence, in its fundamental teachings, in its birth and development under the leadership of Muhammad, was a call to liberate the slave, a call to social equality and public ownership of wealth...".
The essay "Women and the Poor" makes a oh-so-fashionable Freudian (Dr. Saadawi was trained as a psychiatrist) but absurd equation regarding women's veiling...
"I remember a French woman who came to me in 1993 and criticized Muslim women for wearing the veil. This French woman had a thick coating of make-up on her face, but she was completely unaware that this also was a veil. The French woman's veil was considered by the global media as modern and beautiful, but the other veil was considered backwards and ugly; yet the two veils were almost the same since they both hid the real face of the woman."
This selection also makes several references to the "New World Order," a phrase guaranteed in 2010 to conjure something quite different than the "capitalist patriarchal system" that Saadawi discusses.

Saadawi's thought has clearly become ever more bold over the decades-- witness her explanation in "Sex, Religion and Politics," why her play caused her to be sued for apostasy in 2007...
"The play exposes the contradictions and the patriarchal, class and race discriminations embedded in the three monotheistic books: the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an. It shows how these books are political, dealing with money, power and sex. Double morality prevails in the three books: inferiority of women relative to men, dictatorship, racism, war, and killing the heretic or infidel."
I doubt Dr. Saadawi would presently equate women's make-up (a stupid but voluntary practice) with burqa (an involuntary practice, the refusal of which can get you killed).

I would have liked to see the editor of this volume choose less dated material from her vast output, or ask her to supply footnotes of her current take on her own earlier writings. Nevertheless, I'm glad this book is out there, introducing Nawal El Saadawi to a new and wider audience. ( )

This is a collection of the essays, article, speeches, drama, fiction and poetry of the Egyptian feminist writer Nawal el Saadawi. She is a passionate and courageous advocate of women's rights, having been imprisoned, threatened with death and taken to court numerous times on charges of apostasy as a result of her writing on Islam and Egyptian society.

El Saadawi's main contention is that the oppression of women in the Arab world isn't just a religious issue - the global capitalist system and the neo-colonialism of the 'West', particuarly the United States, both play an important part in ensuring that women are continually subjected to economic and political repression. That's not to say that that she isn't critical of Islam or, rather, interpretations of Islam, but el Saadawi wants people to understand that they can't just dismiss what happens in North Africa and the Middle East as an Islamic problem.

The patriarchal oppression of women is a theme that flows through all the forms of el Saadawi's writing contained in this collection. Motherhood is also important. While she acknowledges the role of mothers in perpetuating this oppression (through the practice of female genital mutilation, for example), el Saadawi is keen to reclaim motherhood from the male-dominated Egyptian culture. She and her daughter have both faced charges in court because they wanted children to be able to take their mother's name not just their father's.

As always with this kind of book, I do wonder who el Saadawi intends her audience to be. Of course her writing appeals to me, I'm a left-wing feminist. But how does she reach women in a rural Egyptian village like the one she grew up in? How does her writing influence these women's lives?

Despite these reservations, I'd definitely recommend people to read this collection and any writing by Nawal el Saadawi. Her work is intellectual and always passionate. She's an important force for change. ( )

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian writer whose literary career spans more than 60 years and comprises more than 40 books, though the bibliography here is of those which have published in English translation and is of just 20 of those. This selection of work includes articles, essays, fiction, poetry, drama and interviews with the author.

Zed Books has published this reader as the first in a planned series of Zed Essential Feminists – I was very excited to receive a copy of this introduction to the work of a controversial and very political writer. In her writings across all genres she is outspoken about the rights of women and the working poor, and in her opposition to Western imperialism, Islamic fundamentalism and the oppression of women and others.
El Saadawi is a doctor as well as a writer, and has opposed circumcision of female and male children on religious-cultural grounds. She was director general for public health education in the Egyptian government from 1963 to 1972, when she lost her job because of one of her controversial books on Women and Sex. Many of her books have been censored in Egypt and she has been imprisoned, for criticising President Anwar Sadat in 1981. She has lived in exile because her name was on a fundamentalist death list after she published a novel which criticised Islam, The Death of the Imam. However, her writings are as critical of Western governments and of Christianity as they are of those in Africa and the Middle East and of Islam.

This collection is divided into sections – nonfiction, fiction and poetry, drama, interviews, but actually, much of her writing is a mixture of genres. Some of the material is really topical such as writing on the 2008 US presidential election, before and afterwards. Some of my favourite pieces were the autobiographical ones, such as First Trip Outside the Homeland and God Above, Husband Below. I found her writing about her mother and grandmother very moving – she would prefer to be known by her mother’s name, Zaynab, than as she is, by her father’s name.

I would like to read more of her short stories – there are only a few here. Some appear to be more pieces of memoir, but can’t be - the narrator of My Ideal Mother is unmarried and childless, unlike the author. Other “stories” include “The Impact of Fanatic Religious Thought” and “Death of An Ex-Minister”. I was impressed by these but they are as polemical and political as any of her essays and articles in section 1 of the book.

This reader was interesting, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling reading, and I would like to read some of her books extracted here, and perhaps some which aren’t. ( )