The Old Hag
For as long as I can remember, the name Dr.Nawal Saadawi equaled nothing more than an old hag who preached immorality and social dysfunctions. That was (is) how my family saw Saadawi, and consequently that was how I saw her too.
From the bits and pieces I heard infrequently about her, she wanted to “liberate women and corrupt society,” and demanded things like “calling a child by its mother’s name” and “abandoning the veil.” These her points of view were quickly linked to her physical appearance, words like “masculinized woman” and “old bitch” were invariably linked to her ideas and effectively stripped them of any validity somehow. Why is it that a female thinker is seen as a masculinized woman and her hair color and texture are brought up in a discussion of her ideas?
I never bothered to investigate Saadawi because I thought I had her figured out through what everyone thought of her. Gradually, though, as I started to grow out of what-everyone-else-thinks bubble I began to understand what I had been missing out on, and it was a lot.
Just today I visited Saadawi’s official website where I discovered that this is an educated, intelligent woman who has written many books (fiction and non-fiction), has served her country and has tried to raise awareness against female genital mutilation. None of that was ever mentioned in any discussion of her that I witnessed. People only talked about her crazy hair and how she had no “shame” of going on TV and speaking against society and religion at her very old age. They had not been prepared for her discourse, so they focused their attention on throwing cheap shots at her hair and age.
I have never read anything by Saadawi (novels, plays,etc.) but I plan on looking for her writings and reading them (some are available on her website). As such, my attitude to date is based on internet materials I read from and about her. I am very impressed with her talking sense into people and suffering for her cause. She was put in jail, exiled, some lawyer tried to force her divorce from her husband through courts (where does that ever happen except in the Arab world?), and some other ultra-conservative lawyer in Egypt recently tried to deprive her of her Egyptian nationality on the basis that she mocked religion through a play of hers. Thankfully, logic triumphed and the latter case was dismissed by the court.
Saadawi’s ideas on women and the wellbeing of society are also impressive to me. In this BBC Q&A she answered people’s questions directly and cleared out some ambiguities created around her thought by the media. She said she is strongly opposed to female genital mutilation, she supports secularism and argues for the essential link between women’s rights in a society and its general wellbeing and progress — things that make sense if we only reflect on them.
I find it scandalous how many religious people fabricate lies around a single woman’s thoughts instead of taking them into consideration. For this reason, I will read more about Saadawi now that I know she makes sense, and I will learn her opinions and hope they spread far and wide, because we need them now more than ever.
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May 18th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
<p>I interviewed saadawi and had lunch with her in Stockholm… one day earlier she gave a very passionate lecture about women rights and writers in the arab world… her name was mentioned in the nominations for a nobel prize in literature which went to dorris who???…</p>
<p>Anyway.. I asked her.. what would you say to all the women who find salvation in their god and religion? She said religion does not offer salvation, it drowns its followers (direct translation from arabic)..</p>
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May 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The few Europeans (mainly French) that translate Arabic literature regard her work as marginal and weak by literary standards.
May 18th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I read my first Nawal Saadawi book when I was in 9th or 10th grade. She changed my outlook on everything.
I can’t remember the books name but it talked about her experience as a doctor in rural Egypt and how the female patients where treated and so on by their parents. the story I remember the most was about a teenage girl who was pregnant but who was still a “virgin” meaning her hymen was intact. So the parents wanted Nawal to abort her by a C section. So she goes on saying how the groom would not care if the girl had a big scar on her stomach as long as the hymen is intact.
The other part I still remember is that barbaric tradition where the bride goes through this process where her virginity is pr oven in front of everybody by a midwife and how some midwifes scratch the bride to make her bleed more to make sure she does not get rejected by the groom.
I encourage you to read her books. She is very intelligent and the things she talks about are very important and are not discussed freely in society.
May 18th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Nawal Saadawi is not only secular feminist but leftest and anti imperialist
May 18th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Unfortunately this is a view often taken of this very courageous lady. I believe that the book that 7aki Fadi is talking about is the Hidden Face of Eve which is an absolute must read for anyone wanting to get to grips with feminism and women’s rights in the Arab world, it is a very well written book, superbly researched and well respected within academic circles.
True enough, her works of fiction are not the most readable and it can be hard to finish them but if you look deeper into the messages she is trying to relay then one will appreciate their true worth. I particularly like Woman at Point Zero and the Fall of the Imam, both speak very strongly about issues affecting Middle Eastern women in traditional societies. I strongly recommend you read them and encourage others to.
One may disagree with her religious opinions, but that does not stand against her authority as a Doctor who has dealt with some pretty arocious things and spoken out against them. Neither does it forbid her from criticising problems of a patriarchal culture- Islam and culture should not be confused (although she seems to have fallen into this trap herself).
Thank you for drawing more people’s attention to this woman’s important and very essential work
May 18th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I recommend Woman at Point Zero, and al wajh al 3ari lil mar2a al arabiya (hehe i read them in arabic), but like Arima said i don’t agree with some of her religious opinions but otherwise brilliant (though at times unrealistic). BTW, a case against Toujan il Faisal was brought up in jordan in the 90s to divorce her from her husband too. Says something about arabs and opinionated women.
May 29th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Thanks Arima, it is the hidden face of Eve, a really really good book, I read it in Arabic
June 18th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
[...] الانحلال What every person must do is learn for themselves and form their own opinions, and I learned this the hard way. It pains me to admit I was prejudiced without even realizing it at the [...]