The Essential Nawal El Saadawi A Reader

by Horst, Adele Newson; El Saadawi, Nawal

• ISBN13: 9781848133341
• ISBN10: 1848133340
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-08-15
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

The writing of Nawal el Saadawi is essential. Her dissident voice has consistently critiqued neo-imperialist international politics coupled with the oppression of women both in her native Egypt and in the world beyond. This book, the first volume in "Zed's Essential Feminists" series, gathers a selection of the whole range of Saadawi's writing together in one volume for the first time. From fiction -- novellas and short stories -- to essays on politics, culture, religion and sex, from extensive interviews to her work as a dramatist, from poetry to selections of her travel writing, this book will be essential to anyone wishing to gain a sense of the total range of Saadawi's work.

Author Biography

Nawal El Saadawi is a renowned Egyptian writer, novelist and activist. She has published over 40 books, which have been translated into over 30 languages.

 

Nawal El Saadawi graduated from the University of Cairo Medical College in 1955, specializing in psychiatry, and practiced as a medical doctor until taking the position of Director General for Public Health Education in the Ministry of Health. In 1972 she lost her job in the Egyptian government because of her banned book: Woman and Sex. In 1982, she established the Arab Women's Solidarity Association (AWSA), the Egyptian Branch of which was outlawed in Egypt in 1991.

 

In 1981 Saadawi was arrested and imprisoned for publicly criticizing President Anwar Sadat's policies. She was released one month after his assassination. Her name appeared on a fundamentalist death list after publishing her novel The Fall of the Imam in Cairo in 1988 and she was obliged to leave her country, to teach in the USA. Other court cases have been raised against both her and her daughter and defeated. In 2008 she defeated a case that demanded the withdrawal of her Egyptian Nationality in response to her play God Resigns at the Summit Meeting.

 

Her most famous novel, Woman at Point Zero was published in Beirut in 1973. It was followed in 1976 by God Dies by the Nile and in 1977 by The Hidden Face of Eve. The Hidden Face of Eve was her first book to be translated to English and was published by Zed Books in 1980. Her most recent novel is Zina: The Stolen Novel (2008).

 

Nawal El Saadawi holds more than ten honorary doctorates from different universities in Europe and the USA. Her many prizes and awards include the Great Minds of the Twentieth Century Prize (2003), the North-South Prizefrom the Council of Europe, the Premi Internacional Catalunya (2004) , and most recently she was the 2007 recipient of The African Literature Association's Fonlon-Nichols Award. Her books are taught in universities across the world.

Table of Contents

About Nawal El Saadawi	p. vii
Timeline	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction The World of Nawal El Saadawi or Nawal Zaynab (the name she would prefer to take)	p. 1
Articles, Essays and Nonfictional Prose
How to Write and Why	p. 7
How to Fight against the Postmodern Slave System	p. 10
First Trip outside the Homeland	p. 18
Preface to The Hidden Face of Eve	p. 43
Women, Creativity and Dissidence	p. 66
Women and the Poor: The Challenge of Global Justice	p. 78
God Above, Husband Below	p. 90
The House of Desolation	p. 97
The Streetwalker and the Woman Writer	p. 106
Muslim Women in the Market	p. 114
Bodour	p. 125
Writing and Freedom	p. 129
The Three Universal Taboos: Sex, Religion and Politics	p. 140
Breeding Terror, or An Uncivilized Clash of Civilizations	p. 146
Remapping the World	p. 153
Fear and Writing	p. 156
Obama's Speech in Cairo	p. 157
Fiction and Poetry
Death of an Ex-Minister	p. 165
My Ideal Mother	p. 224
A Paper that was Never Presented for Publication	p. 231
Sixteen Short Poems	p. 234
Inspired by the Summit Meeting with the Elite	p. 243
The Impact of Fanatic Religious Thought: A Story of a Young Egyptian Muslim Woman	p. 248
Drama
Twelve Women in a Cell	p. 261
Interviews
Feminism in Egypt: A Conversation with Nawal El Saadawi	p. 313
Fed Up with Limited Thinking	p. 321
Conversations with Nawal El Saadawi	p. 331
Bibliography	p. 337
Index	p. 341
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