New Release Books by Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi is a significant and broadly influential feminist writer, activist, physician, and psychiatrist. Born in 1931 in Egypt, her writings focus on women in Islam. Well beyond the Arab world, from Woman at Point Zero to The Fall of the Imam and her prison memoirs, El Saadawi’s fiction and nonfiction works have earned her a reputation as an author who has provided a powerful voice in feminist debates centering on the Middle East. Off Limits presents a selection of El Saadawi’s most recent recollections and reflections in which she considers the role of women in Egyptian and wider Islamic society, the inextricability of imperialism from patriarchy, and the meeting points of East and West. These thoughtful and wide-reaching pieces leave no stone unturned and no view unchallenged, and the essays collected here offer further insight into this profound author’s ideas about women, society, religion, and national identity.

Bahiah Shaheen, an eighteen-year-old medical student and the daughter of a prominent Egyptian public official, finds the male students in her class coarse and alien. Her father, too, seems to belong to a race apart. Frustrated by her hard-working, well-behaved, middle-class public persona, her meeting with a stranger at a gallery one day sparks her journey of self-discovery and of the realisation that fulfilment in life is indeed possible.

New edition of classic novel about motherhood and resilience, set against the backdrop of revolution in Egypt, by the leading Arab feminist writer

Bint Allah knows herself only as the Daughter of God. Born in a stifling male-dominated state, ruled by the Imam and his coterie of ministers, she dreams of one day reaching the top of a distant hill visible through the bars of the orphanage window. But Bint Allah’s ambitions do not escape the attention of the Imam, who never feels secure no matter how well he protects himself. When the Imam falsely accuses Bint Allah of adultery and sentences her to death by stoning, he is not prepared for what happens next. A postmodern fantasia, this powerful and poetic novel is a call to arms against those who use religion as a weapon against women.

In1981, the celebrated author and activist Nawal el Saadawi was imprisoned by theSadat regime in her native Egypt, for 'crimes against the state'. Throughhaunting and evocative prose, Saadawi here recounts how she and her fellowprisoners continued to resist even in captivity, and to form a community whichtranscended divisions between secular and religious activists. She reveals boththe harrowing detail and the everyday mundanity of prison life, as well as the braveryand resolve of all women resisting oppression - and of political prisoners aroundthe world. Memoirs from the Women'sPrison is an unforgettable, landmarkwork of prison writing that offers a rare insight into the indomitable, soaringliterary mind of the Arab world's leading feminist.

‘Against the white sand, the contours of my father's body were well defined, emphasized its existence in a world where everything was liquid, where the blue of the sea melted into the blue of the sky with nothing between. This independent existence was to become the outer world, the world of my father, of land, country, religion, language, moral codes. It was to become the world around me. A world made of male bodies in which my female body lived.' Nawal El Saadawi is one of the greatest writers to come out of the Arab world. Born in a small Egyptian village in 1931, her life and writings have shown an extraordinary strength of character and a unique ability to create new worlds in the fight against oppression. Saadawi has been pilloried, censored, imprisoned and exiled for her refusal to accept the oppressions imposed on women by gender and class. Still, she continues to write. A Daughter of Isis is the first part of this extraordinary woman’s autobiography. In it she paints a sensuously textured portrait of the childhood that produced the freedom fighter: from the trauma of female genital mutilation at seven years old to eluding the grasp of suitors at the age of ten. We see how, as a young adult qualifying, against the odds, as doctor, she moulded her own creative power into a weapon – and how her use of words became an act of rebellion against injustice.

New edition of classic novel of a woman's fight for freedom in a patriarchal society by Egypt's foremost feminist author

Diary of a Child Called Souad is Nawal El Saadawi's first autobiography, written at the age of ten in the form of fiction as she explores her early awakening to the world around her. Now known for her bold spirit and probing mind, El Saadawi in this novel uncovers through a child's eyes the hypocritical values and traditions carried on by family, education, religion, and society. With amazing courage she weaves a tale of the fear, guilt, and repressive compliance forced upon her as a woman and upon her generation as the price to be paid for leading a civilized existence. Struggling to come to terms with taboos concerning her maturing body, the young Nawal's writing reveals the makings of a revolutionary spirit and relentlessly analytical mind. A must read for devotees of El Saadawi's writing to witness an early record of the maturing of her thoughts and the shaping of her ideas.

'An unforgettable, unmissable book for the new global feminist.' The Times 'All the men I did get to know filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring it smashing down on his face.' So begins Firdaus's remarkable story of rebellion against a society founded on lies, hypocrisy, brutality and oppression. Born to a peasant family in the Egyptian countryside, Firdaus struggles through childhood, seeking compassion and knowledge in a world which gives her little of either. As she grows up and escapes the fetters of her childhood, each new relationship teaches her a bitter but liberating truth – that the only free people are those who want nothing, fear nothing and hope for nothing. This classic novel has been an inspiration to countless people across the world. Saadawi's searing indictment of society's brutal treatment of women continues to resonate today.

This powerful non-fiction account of the oppression of women in the Muslim world remains as shocking today as when it was first published, more than a quarter of a century ago. Nawal El Saadawi writes out of a powerful sense of the violence and injustice which permeated her society. Her experiences working as a doctor in villages around Egypt, witnessing prostitution, honour killings and sexual abuse, including female circumcision, drove her to give voice to this suffering. She goes on to explore the causes of the situation through a discussion of the historical role of Arab women in religion and literature. Saadawi argues that the veil, polygamy and legal inequality are incompatible with the essence of Islam or any human faith. The Hidden Face of Eve remains a classic of modern Arab writing.

God Dies by the Nile is Saadawi’s attempt to square religion with a society in which women are respected as equals; Searching expresses the poignancy of loss and doubt with the hypnotic intensity of a remembered dream; while in The Circling Song, Saadawi pursues the conflicts of sex, class, gender and military violence deep into the psyche.

'Words should not seek to please, to hide the wounds in our bodies, or the shameful moments in our lives. They may hurt, give us pain, but they can also provoke us to question what we have accepted for thousands of years.' Nawal El Saadawi is one of the greatest writers to come out of the Arab world. Born in a small Egyptian village in 1931, her life and writings have shown an extraordinary strength of character and a unique ability to create new worlds in the fight against oppression. Saadawi has been pilloried, censored, imprisoned and exiled for her refusal to accept the oppression imposed on women by gender and class. Still, she continues to write. In A Daughter of Isis, Nawal El Saadawi painted a beautifully textured portrait of the childhood that moulded her into a novelist and fearless campaigner for freedom and the rights of women. Walking through Fire takes up the story of her extraordinary life. We read about her as a rural doctor, trying to help a young girl escape from a terrible fate imposed on her by a brutal male tyranny. We learn about her activism for female empowerment and the authorities that try to obstruct her. We travel with her into exile after her name is put on a fundamentalist death list. We witness her three marriages, each offering in their way love, companionship and shared struggle. And we gain an unprecedented insight into this most wonderful of creative minds.

The writings of Nawal El Saadawi are essential to anyone wishing to understand the contemporary Arab world. Her dissident voice has stayed as consistent in its critique of neo.imperialist international politics as it has in its denunciation of women's oppression, both in her native Egypt and in the wider world. Saadawi is a figure of international significance, and her work has a central place in Arabic history and culture of the last half century. Featuring work never before translated into English, The Essential Nawal El Saadawi gathers together a wide range of Saadawi's writing. From novellas and short stories to essays on politics, culture, religion and sex; from extensive interviews to her work as a dramatist; from poetry to autobiography, this book is essential for anyone wishing to gain a sense of the breadth of Saadawi's work.

A young Egyptian woman clashes with her traditional family when she chooses a career in medicine. Rather than submit to an arranged marriage and motherhood, she cuts her hair short and works fiercely to realise her dreams. At medical school, she begins to understand the mysteries of the human body. After years of denying her own desires, the doctor begins a series of love affairs that allow her to explore her sexuality – on her own terms.

Nawal El Saadawi's most recent play, God Resigns at the Summit Meeting, created an uproar in her native Egypt. On the basis of the title alone, officials declared the work heretical and charged El Saadawi with insulting the "Almighty God", not just Islam. Her prosecutors requested that all her books be destroyed, that she be arrested on return to Egypt and her Egyptian nationality be revoked. In the play, the prophets and great women gather for a meeting with God. Satan arrives to tender his resignation but neither Jesus, nor Mohammad, nor Moses are willing to replace him. Finally, God himself resigns. The second play in this collection is Isis, a critique of the discriminatory rules that control women, the daughters of Isis. Both God Resigns and Isis incorporate key themes to El Saadawi's work: that all religions are inimical to women and the poor, that the oppression of women is reprehensible and not uniquely characteristic of the Middle East or the ''Third World'', and that free speech is fundamental to any society. "El Saadawi writes with directness and passion" New York Times Book Review 'A poignant and brave writer' Marie Claire 'The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab World' Guardian 'More than any other woman, El Saadawi has come to embody the trials of Arab feminism.' San Francisco Chronicle

Fouada meets Farid, her lover, every Tuesday in a restaurant overlooking the Nile. But this week their usual table is deserted. She calls his home, but the shrilling of the telephone echoes in an empty room. Farid has disappeared. As she searches for him, Fouada becomes tormented by questions. She is a trained research chemist, but works in a dead-end ministry job. Convinced that she has something to give to the world, she cannot find it. What is it? Why does she search? 'Searching' expresses the poignancy of loss and doubt with the hypnotic intensity of a remembered dream.

“The novel caused tremendous outrage.” So begins Nawal El Saadawi’s tenth novel. And indeed, when the famous Egyptian psychiatrist and writer released The Novel in 2005, it was banned all over the Arab world. But the novel inside The Novel is by a young woman—a woman who is only 23 years old, who has “no family, no university degree, no national identity card,” whose name does not appear on this “lists of prominent women writers.” A woman, that is, whose biography is as unlike Saadawi’s own as possible, as if she has stripped herself of all the effects of her own worldly existence to explore something earlier, more elemental, than the political work for which she is so well known. In following the life of this young, unnamed, woman writer as it intersects with those of a famous writer named Rostum, his wife Carmen, and a poet called Miriam, El Saadawi gives us a deeply felt exploration of the nature of identity, of fame, of writing, and of freedom.

Hamida and Hamido are twins, grown from a single embryo inside one womb. Violently parted, they search the city in the darkening circles of a dream, only to find, lose and find each other, each time as if it were the first. Their journey -- terrifying and exact -- leads to an unbroken cycle of corruption and brutality. With a precise and hypnotic intensity, Circling Song pursues the conflicts of sex, class, gender and military violence deep into the psyche.