Passionate, powerful and thought-provoking, in The Hidden Face of Eve, leading feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi provides a shocking account of the oppression of women in the Arab world.
Inspired by her experiences working as a doctor in rural Egypt and her life as an activist for women’s rights, she charts the injustices and violence faced by women in the society she grew up in, from legal inequality to honour killings and sexual violence, including female genital mutilation. Examining the historical roots of this oppression, she tackles the controversial topic of women and Islam, arguing that customs such as veiling and polygamy are contradictory to the fundamental teachings of the Muslim faith or any other.
As necessary now as when it was first published, The Hidden Face of Eve is a classic of Arab feminist writing.
By:
Nawal El Saadawi
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: NIP
Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780755651528
ISBN 10: 0755651529
Pages: 456
Publication Date: 25 July 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword by Joumana Haddad Preface to the English Edition Introduction Part I The Mutilated Half 1 The Question that No One Would Answer 2 Sexual Aggression against the Female Child 3 The Grandfather with Bad Manners 4 The Injustice of Justice 5 The Very Fine Membrane Called ‘Honour’ 6 Circumcision of Girls 7 Obscurantism and Contradiction 8 The Illegitimate Child and the Prostitute 9 Abortion and Fertility 10 Distorted Notions about Femininity, Beauty and Love Part II Women in History 11 The Thirteenth Rib of Adam 12 Man the God, Woman the Sinful 13 Woman at the Time of the Pharaohs 14 Liberty to the Slave, But Not for the Woman Part III The Arab Woman 15 The Role of Women in Arab History 16 Love and Sex in the Life of the Arab 17 The Heroine in Arab Literature Part IV Breaking Through 18 Arab Pioneers of Women’s Liberation 19 Work and Women 20 Marriage and Divorce An Afterword Notes
Nawal El Saadawi was born in a village outside Cairo, Egypt, in 1931. A trained medical doctor, she wrote landmark works on the oppression of Arab women including Woman at Point Zero (1973), God Dies by the Nile (1976) and The Hidden Face of Eve (1977). After being imprisoned by Anwar Sadat’s government for criticising the regime, she founded the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association in 1982, before being forced into exile in later life due to death threats by religious extremists. She returned to Egypt in 1996, running for president in 2005 until government persecution forced her to withdraw. Saadawi died in Egypt in 2021.
Reviews for The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World
The most recognisable name in Egyptian and Middle Eastern feminism … poignant, penetrating yet simple. * Library Journal * A harrowing exposé of the abuse of women in the Arab world * London Review of Books * Nawal El Saadawi has become something of a heroine for many young Arab women … a cry from the heart * MESA Bulletin * The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab world * The Guardian * Nawal El Saadawi speaks directly on behalf of many women in the Third World and the daily struggles they face * West Africa * The Arab world's leading feminist and iconoclast * Fedwa Malti-Davis *
