The hidden face of eve women in the arab world

But as a testimony of her brilliance (and our shortcoming), her radicalism in thought and action remains relevant, and necessary to our movement 40 years later! Actally, this book is possibly one of the most important books on the Eastern Woman written yet! El Saadawi is a mind to be reckoned with, and she does an excellent job at making this book intersectional and accessible. Nawal El Saadawi is a radical, and this book clearly illustrates that. I only realised the beauty and significance of some passages only after I had done a quick mental translation of them into Arabic.more A final note: if you are an Arab speaker who manages to get their hands on the Arabic version (alas I was not) I encourage you to read it in Arabic. I would've given it more than 5 stars had I been able to. I cannot stress enough how accessible the language of this book is, how easily it conveys complex ideas, and how addictive it is to read. My only criticism would be that the book does convey a notion of gender that is a tad essentialist, but this is understandable given the nature of Arab sexism: a considerable part derives itself directly from the fact that a woman is identified by her genitals. A socialist society is not enough to liberate women a progressive, militants, politically organised movement must also take charge and lead the women's liberation front. She masterfully examines the effects of colonial and imperialist pursuits of the west and how they impact sex and class oppression. Nawal manages to consolidate the two, not at all an easy task, and shows that both sexual repression and class oppression go hand in hand in the oppression of the poor and women. This book also represents a very important bridge between the thoughts of Marxism and psychoanalysis. The final part talks about modern issues facing Arab women, the small extent to which they have been pseudo-liberated, and several great thinkers and activists who fought for women's rights in Egypt. The second takes a survey of women in Egyptian and Arab history from the age of the pharaohs. The book starts of with her account of when she was circumcised at the age of 6 and then goes on to speak about women's oppression in the Arab world in a general sense dividing it into discrete and relevant topics such as FGM, abortion, harassment, contradictions of the patriarchal system, etc. I had to put the book down a few times as well because some of the passages were too emotionally intense for me. It was so dense and filled to the brim with information yet still managed to be an extremely easy read. The book starts of with her account of when she was circumcised at the age of 6 and then goes on to speak about women's oppression in the Arab world in a general sense dividing it into discrete and relevant top I'm genuinely at a loss for words to describe how amazing this book was.

I'm genuinely at a loss for words to describe how amazing this book was.

Which, to my English brain, really made this book seem like the rantings of a madwoman, though I have read plenty that is more extreme.more El Saadawi seems to write in circles, repeating herself constantly, bringing up points only to abandon them immediately and perhaps come back to them later. I have heard before that Arabic writing conventions are very different to English, and I definitely saw that here. Interestingly, not so much because of the content, which was mostly entirely reasonable, but because of the way it was written, and perhaps translated. Which, to m I have to say that much of this came across as absolutely crazy. I have to say that much of this came across as absolutely crazy.

The hidden face of eve women in the arab world