Nawal El Saadawi Reader

Egyptian novelist, doctor and militant writer on Arab women's problems and their struggle for liberation, Nawal el Saadawi was born in the village of Kafr Tahla. Refusing to accept the limitations imposed by both religious and colonial oppression on most women of rural origin, she qualified as a doctor in 1955 and rose to become Egypt's Director of Public Health. Since she began to write over 30 years ago, her books have concentrated on women. In 1972, her first work of non fiction, Women and Sex, evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities, and the Ministry of Health was pressurised into dismissing her. Under similar pressures she lost her post 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; and from 1979 to 1980 she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa (ECA) and Middle East (ECWA). Later in 1980, as a culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom, an activity that had closed all avenues of official jobs to her, she was imprisoned under the Sadat regime. She has since founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and devoted her time to being a writer, journalist and worldwide speaker on women's issues.With the publication by Zed Books in 1980 of The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, English language readers were first introduced to the work of this major writer. Zed Books has also published four of her previous novels, Woman at Point Zero (1983), God Dies by the Nile (1985), The Circling Song (1989) and Searching (1991) as well as a collection of her non-fiction writings The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (1997). She has received three literary awards.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: Gendering South-North Politics1. Women and the Poor: The Challenge of Global Justice2. Women in the South in Relation to Women in the North3. Women's Voices in the North-South Dialogue4. The Enigmatic South: Different Stages of Development5. Cairo '94 and the Dignity of Feeding OneselfPart II: Women's Health6. Women and Health in the Arab World7. The Bitter Lot of Women: An InterviewPart III: Women/Islam/Fundamentalism8. Women and Islam9. Islamic Fundamentalism and Women10. The Impact of Fanatic Religious Thought: A Story of a Young Egyptian Muslim Woman11. Fundamentalism: Old Friend, New EnemyPart IV: Orientalizing Women12. Why Keep Asking Me About My Identity?13. Women, Religion and Literature: Bridging the Cultural Gap.14. Women and Development: A Critical View of the Wellesley ConferencePart V: Decolonizing the Imagination15. Dissidence and Creativity16. Culture in the Dialogue of Civilizations17. Democracy, Creativity and African Literature18. Creative Women in Changing Societies19. Prosecutive Journalism20. Seeking the True Colour of ThingsPart VI: Women Organizing for Change21. Arab Women and Politics22. Women in Resistance: The Arab World23. Women and Politics in BritainIndex

'The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab World' - Guardian 'A clear insight into the life and works of Nawal El Saadawi... well worth reading' - Haleh Afshar 'Throughout her writing she sheds new light on the power of women in resistance - against poverty, racism, fundamentalism and inequality of all kinds' - The Middle East