Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi
Native name نوال السعداوى
Born (1931-10-27) October 27, 1931
Kafr Tahla, Egypt
Occupation Physician, psychiatrist, author, feminist
Spouse(s) Sherif Hatata (m. 1964; div. 2010)[1]
Children 2

Nawal El Saadawi (Arabic: نوال السعداوى‎, born October 27, 1931) is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society.

She is founder and president of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association [2] and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights.[3] She has been awarded honorary degrees on three continents. In 2004, she won the North-South prize from the Council of Europe. In 2005, she won the Inana International Prize in Belgium,[4] and in 2012, the International Peace Bureau is awarded her with the 2012 Séan MacBride Peace Prize.[5]

Nawal el Saadawi has held positions of Author for the Supreme Council for Arts and Social Sciences, Cairo; Director General of the Health Education Department, Ministry of Health, Cairo, Secretary General of Medical Association, Cairo, Egypt, and Medical Doctor, University Hospital and Ministry of Health. She is the founder of Health Education Association and the Egyptian Women Writer’s Association; she was Chief Editor of Health Magazine in Cairo, Egypt and Editor of Medical Association Magazine.[6][7]

Early life

Saadawi was born in 1931 in the small village of Kafr Tahla, the second eldest of nine children.[8] Her family was at once traditional and progressive: El Saadawi was "circumcised", her clitoris cut off,[9] at the age of six, yet her father insisted that all his children be educated.[8] Her father was a government official in the Ministry of Education, who had campaigned against the rule of the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. As a result he was exiled to a small town in the Nile Delta and the government punished him by not promoting him for 10 years. He was relatively progressive and taught her self-respect and to speak her mind. He also encouraged her to study the Arabic language. Both her parents died at a young age,[8] leaving Saadawi with the sole burden of providing for a large family.[10]

Career

Saadawi graduated as a medical doctor in 1955 from Cairo University. That year she married Ahmed Helmi, who she met as a fellow student in medical school. The marriage ended two years later.[11][12] Through her medical practice, she observed women's physical and psychological problems and connected them with oppressive cultural practices, patriarchal oppression, class oppression and imperialist oppression.[13]

While working as a doctor in her birthplace of Kafr Tahla, she observed the hardships and inequalities faced by rural women. After attempting to protect one of her patients from domestic violence, Saadawi was summoned back to Cairo. She eventually became the Director of Public Health and met her third husband, Sherif Hetata, while sharing an office in the Ministry of Health. Hetata, also a medical doctor and writer, had been a political prisoner for 13 years. They married in 1964 and have a son and a daughter.[10] Saadawi divorced Hetata after living with him for 43 years.[14]

In 1972 she published Al-Mar'a wa Al-Jins (Woman and Sex), confronting and contextualising various aggressions perpetrated against women's bodies, including female circumcision. The book became a foundational text of second-wave feminism. As a consequence of the book and her political activities, Saadawi was dismissed from her position at the Ministry of Health.[13] Similar pressures cost her a later position as chief editor of a health journal, 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. From 1979 to 1980 she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa (ECA) and Middle East (ECWA).

Imprisonment

Long viewed as controversial and dangerous by the Egyptian government, Saadawi helped publish a feminist magazine in 1981 called Confrontation. She was imprisoned in September by President Anwar al-Sadat.[15] She was released later that year, one month after the President's assassination. Of her experience she wrote: "Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies."[16]

Saadawi was one of the women held at Qanatir Women's Prison. Her incarceration formed the basis for her memoir, Mudhakkirâtî fî sijn an-nisâʾ (Memoirs from the Women's Prison, 1983). Her contact with a prisoner at Qanatir, nine years before she was imprisoned there, served as inspiration for an earlier work, a novel titled Imraʾah ʿinda nuqṭat aṣ-ṣifr (A Woman at Point Zero, 1975).

Further persecution, teaching in the US, and on-going activism

In 1988, when her life was threatened by Islamists and political persecution, Saadawi was forced to flee Egypt. She accepted an offer to teach at Duke University's Asian and African Languages Department in North Carolina, as well as the University of Washington in Seattle. She has since held positions at a number of prestigious colleges and universities including Cairo University, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Sorbonne, Georgetown, Florida State University, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1996, she moved back to Egypt.[17] Nawal thus speaks fluent English in addition to her native Arabic.

She has continued her activism and considered running in the 2005 Egyptian presidential election, before stepping out because of stringent requirements for first-time candidates.

She was awarded the 2004 North-South Prize by the Council of Europe.[18]

She was among the protesters in Tahrir Square in 2011.[19] She has called for the abolition of religious instruction in the Egyptian schools.

Writing

Saadawi began writing early in her career. Her earliest writings include a selection of short stories entitled I Learned Love (1957) and her first novel, Memoirs of a Woman Doctor (1958). She has since written numerous novels and short stories and a personal memoir, Memoir from the Women's Prison (1986). Saadawi has been published in a number of anthologies, and her work has been translated into over 20 languages.

In 1972, she published her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex, which evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities. It also led to her dismissal at the Ministry of Health. Other works include The Hidden Face of Eve, God Dies by the Nile, The Circling Song, Searching, The Fall of the Imam[20] and Woman at Point Zero.

She contributed the piece "When a woman rebels" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan.[21]

Saadawi's novel Zeina was published in Lebanon in 2009. The French translation was published under the pseudonym Nawal Zeinab el Sayed, using Saadawi's mother's maiden name.[22]

Nawal has said that elements of the Hajj, such as kissing the Black Stone, had pre-Islamic pagan roots.[23]

Views

Advocacy against genital mutilation

At a young age, Saadawi underwent the process of female genital mutilation.[24] As an adult she has written about and criticized this practice. She responded to the death of a 12-year-old girl, Bedour Shaker, during a genital circumcision operation in 2007 by writing: "Bedour, did you have to die for some light to shine in the dark minds? Did you have to pay with your dear life a price ... for doctors and clerics to learn that the right religion doesn't cut children's organs."[25] As a doctor and human rights activist, Saadawi is also opposed to male circumcision. She believes that both male and female children deserve protection from genital mutilation.[26]

Religion

Saadawi was a devout muslim and she has expressed the view that women are oppressed by the large patriarchal religions.[27] In a 2014 interview Saadawi said that "the root of the oppression of women lies in the global post-modern capitalist system, which is supported by religious fundamentalism".[28]

When hundreds of people were killed in what has been called a "stampede" during the 2015 pilgrimage (hajj) of Muslims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, she said "They talk about changing the way [the hajj] is administered, about making people travel in smaller groups. What they don’t say is that the crush happened because these people were fighting to stone the devil. Why do they need to stone the devil? Why do they need to kiss that black stone? But no one will say this. The media will not print it. What is it about, this reluctance to criticise religion? ... This refusal to criticise religion ... is not liberalism. This is censorship."[29]

Veiling

Saadawi describes the Islamic veil as "a tool of oppression of women".[30][31][32] She is equally critical about the objectification of women and female bodies without male bodies in patriarchal social structures.[33]

United States

In a 2002 lecture at the University of California, Saadawi described the US-led war on Afghanistan as "a war to exploit the oil in the region", and US foreign policy and its support of Israel as "real terrorism".[34] Saadawi has opined that Egyptians are forced into poverty by US aid.[35]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Saadawi has written prolifically, placing some of her works online.[38] Her books include:

Publication history

The following is a complete list of her books.[39] All originals in Arabic. Many have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and other 30 languages.

Fiction:Novels (in Arabic)

Short story collections (in Arabic)

Plays (in Arabic)

Non-fiction

Memoirs (in Arabic)
Non-fiction (in Arabic)

Books translated into English

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mahmoud El-Wardani (April 24, 2014). "El-Saadawi and Hatata: Voyage of a lifetime". Ahram Online. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  2. ↑ Hitchcock, Peter, Nawal el Saadawi, Sherif Hetata. “Living the Struggle.” Transition 61 (1993): 170-179.
  3. ↑ Nawal El Saadawi. “Presentation by Nawal El Saadawi: President's Forum, M/MLA Annual Convention, November 4, 1999.” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 33.3-34.1 (Autumn, 2000 - Winter, 2001): 34-39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1315340.
  4. ↑ "PEN World Voices Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture by Nawal El Saadawi." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jue04c1_wkY&feature=related
  5. ↑ "International Peace Bureau". www.ipb.org. Retrieved 2015-09-25.
  6. ↑ "Nawal El Saadawi". nawalsaadawi.net. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  7. ↑ "Nawal El Saadawi". webster.edu. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  8. 1 2 3 "Nawal El Saadawi". faculty.webster.edu. Retrieved 2015-09-25.
  9. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/15/nawal-el-saadawi-egyptian-feminist
  10. 1 2 Exile and Resistance
  11. ↑ "A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH TO THE NOVEL OF NAWAL EL SAADAWI TITLED MÜZEKKİRAT TABİBE" (PDF). The Journal of International Social Research 6 (28). 2013. Retrieved 16 November 2014. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  12. ↑ Khaleeli, Homa. "Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt's radical feminist". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-25.
  13. 1 2 Feminism in a nationalist century Archived April 19, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ Cooke, Rachel. "Nawal El Saadawi: ‘Do you feel you are liberated? I feel I am not’". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  15. ↑ Uglow, Jennifer S.; Hendry, Maggy (1999). The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography. Northeastern University Press. pp. 189–190. ISBN 9781555534219.
  16. ↑ Egypt's face of courage at the Wayback Machine (archived October 30, 2004)
  17. ↑ Nawal El Saadawi in conversation with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
  18. ↑ The North South Prize of the Council of Europe
  19. ↑ The Feminists in the Middle of Tahrir Square Newsweek, March 6, 2011
  20. ↑ The Fall of the Imam by Nawal El Saadawi
  21. ↑ "Table of Contents: Sisterhood is global :". Catalog.vsc.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
  22. ↑ "Radical writer back with vengeance". September 7, 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  23. ↑ No compromise
  24. ↑ Nawal el-Saadawi, The Hidden Face of Eve, Part 1: The Mutilated Half.
  25. ↑ Egypt Officials Ban Female Circumcision
  26. ↑ "Nawal al Saadawi « The Global Dispatches". theglobaldispatches.com. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  27. ↑ "Interview: In conversation with … Nawal El Saadawi". Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  28. ↑ Fariborz, Arian (2014-07-05). "They don't want any really courageous people!". Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  29. ↑ The Guardian newspaper: Nawal El Saadawi: 'Do you feel you are liberated? I feel I am not', 12 October 2015
  30. ↑ Bhaduri, Aditi. "Interview: Dr. Nawal El Saadawi". Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  31. ↑ Khaleeli, Homa. "Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt's radical feminist". Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  32. ↑ Mitchell, Allston. "Nawal al Saadawi". Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  33. ↑ El Saadawi, Nawal. "The Nawal El Saadawi Reader". Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  34. ↑ Pasquini, Elaine. "El Saadawi Calls U.S. Foreign Policy "Real Terrorism"". questia.com. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  35. ↑ Nielsen, Nikolaj. "Nawal El Saadawi: "I am against stability. We need revolution."". http://chronikler.com/middle-east/egypt/nawal-el-saadawi-interview/. External link in |publisher= (help);
  36. ↑ "Motvillig El Saadawi får Dagermanpriset". SvD (in Swedish). January 9, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  37. ↑ "Lydnad är ett dödligt gift". Kultur (in Swedish). May 15, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  38. ↑ Works available online at Saadawi's website.
  39. ↑ "allAfrica.com: myAfrica - People". myafrica.allafrica.com. Retrieved 2014-02-12.

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