Reading Notes W15: Saadawi, Part X
Nawai El Saadawi is a legendary Egyptian writer whose actions in the mental health community and as a social activist is held in the highest regard. She's a woman who came from a fortunate middle class upbringing, set her goals towards education; only to come fave to face with a government/society who like many others, didn't offer the same liberties to women as men. These battles with her own home to strive towards such equality for women is described in the following from The Norton Anthology of World Literature Volume F: "Her acute awareness of the damaging impact of this burden and her sense of solidarity with women around the world have sustained her abundant output- novels short stories, autobiography,essays, and addresses as well as scientific treatises and sociological studies- in an active career that has spanned some sixty years" (1105),
These social issues were a constant in Saadawi's writings. After reaching much success on a governmental level, she then started to receive a healthy dose of the blow back that followed her throughout her career within her home land. This is especially true after the release of her earliest novels which brought about and questioned the social constructs that held those of her gender at an arms length of respect and equality. This is elaborated on in the following section describing the initial hesitance from Egyptian authorities: "however, after the publication of her book Woman and Sex, which aroused the displeasure of the Egyptian authorities for its frank treatment of a subject that was considered taboo. . . This was the beginning of her long struggle for the right of expression and of her crusade for female emancipation in Egypt and the Arab world" (1105). Regardless of the threats and horror, which even resulted in a 7 year exile to the United States, she refused to bow down and continued speaking towards her genders cause. In particular, her novels would go in depth on these issues, portraying the sad realities: "In their bleak depiction of the female predicament, her novels seek to document, albeit in fictional form, the vicissitudes in the lives of Egyptian women, denied fulfillment by forces beyond their control" (1105. Within this anthology the piece provided to sample her work was "In-Camera", a short story from her collection Death of an Ex-Minister (1980).
These social issues were a constant in Saadawi's writings. After reaching much success on a governmental level, she then started to receive a healthy dose of the blow back that followed her throughout her career within her home land. This is especially true after the release of her earliest novels which brought about and questioned the social constructs that held those of her gender at an arms length of respect and equality. This is elaborated on in the following section describing the initial hesitance from Egyptian authorities: "however, after the publication of her book Woman and Sex, which aroused the displeasure of the Egyptian authorities for its frank treatment of a subject that was considered taboo. . . This was the beginning of her long struggle for the right of expression and of her crusade for female emancipation in Egypt and the Arab world" (1105). Regardless of the threats and horror, which even resulted in a 7 year exile to the United States, she refused to bow down and continued speaking towards her genders cause. In particular, her novels would go in depth on these issues, portraying the sad realities: "In their bleak depiction of the female predicament, her novels seek to document, albeit in fictional form, the vicissitudes in the lives of Egyptian women, denied fulfillment by forces beyond their control" (1105. Within this anthology the piece provided to sample her work was "In-Camera", a short story from her collection Death of an Ex-Minister (1980).
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