A Daughter of Isis; The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi

by Nawal El Saadawi; Translated by Sherif Hetata

• ISBN13: 9781856496797
• ISBN10: 1856496791
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-07-30
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

Nawal El Saadawi has been pilloried, censored, imprisoned and exiled for her refusal to accept the oppressions imposed on women by gender and class. In her life and in her writings, this struggle against sexual discrimination has always been linked to a struggle against all forms of oppression: religious, racial, colonial and neo-colonial. In 1969, she published her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex ; in 1972, her writings and her struggles led to her dismissal from her job. From then on there was no respite; imprisonment under Sadat in 1981 was the culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom. A Daughter of Isis is the autobiography of this extraordinary woman.

Author Biography

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist and writer. Her numerous books include The Hidden Face of Eve and God Dies by the Nile.

Table of Contents

Preface The Gift	1	(13)
Allah and McDonald's	14	(4)
The Cry in the Night	18	(10)
God Above, Husband Below	28	(7)
We Thank God for Our Calamities	35	(6)
Flying with the Butterflies	41	(6)
Killing the Bridegroom	47	(7)
Daughter of the Sea	54	(13)
My Revolutionary Father	67	(8)
The Lost Servant-Girl	75	(5)
The Village of Forgotten Employees	80	(6)
God Hid Behind the Coat-Stand	86	(5)
The Ministry of Nauseation	91	(8)
Dreaming of Pianos	99	(5)
To the Circus	104	(12)
The Singing Man	116	(12)
The Whiskered Peasant	128	(10)
Uncles, Suitors and Other Bloodsuckers	138	(11)
A Stove for My Mother	149	(5)
Coming to Cairo	154	(13)
The Long, Strong Bones of a Horse	167	(14)
Love and the Hideous Cat	181	(6)
Art Thieves	187	(3)
Mad Aunts and Abandoned Babies	190	(11)
The House of Desolation	201	(8)
The Secret Communist	209	(13)
Wasted Lives	222	(14)
Cholera, Ageing and Death	236	(11)
The Qur'an Betrayed	247	(6)
British English and Holy Arabic	253	(20)
The Name of Marx	273	(12)
The Brush of History	285	(5)
Afterword Living in Resistance	290