Nawal El Saadawi Biography and Writings Essay Example

Nawal El Saadawi was born on the 27th of October 1931. She was born in the remote village of Kafr Tahla whereby she was circumcised when she was six years old. The father was very interested in education and therefore insisted that all his children must receive an education. His father used to work with the ministry of education, and he aggressively campaigned against the occupation of Egypt by the British. This forced the British to exile him in the Nile Delta. Initially, the government had decided not to promote him for ten years as a punishment (Eustace 34). He was a progressive man and always taught his daughters how to exercise self-respect in her mind.

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She received her higher education at the University of Cairo where she received her M.D in 1955 and then joined the University of Columbia in New York where she graduated within 1966 with an M.P.H. She later went to the University Ayn Shams where she researched psychiatric between 1972 and 1974. She later worked at the University of Cairo as a physician and later in the ministry of health. In 1972, she was expelled from her job in the ministry of education because of the book she wrote called Al-marah was al-jins which translates to women and sex (Eustace 37). Both the religious and government authorities highly condemned the book. In 1981, she was arrested and imprisoned for two months and during that time she wrote the book called Mudhakkirat fi signal-nisa. She did this on a roll of toilet paper which was smuggled into the prison using a cosmetic pencil.

In 1982 she formed the Arab Women Solidarity Association and later became the editor of the publication which was owned by the organization. She faced several challenges more especially the legal ones because of her outspoken nature. The challenges did not only emanate from the political establishments but also the religious bodies (Muhammad 63). The religious organizations went to the extent of accusing her of apostasy. This is the background as well as the experiences she went through both in the hands of the government and religious leaders shaped her writing. Since the two groups oppressed her since she was a woman she decided to write about it. (Eustace 40). Furthermore, she also observed how women were oppressed in society and decided to fight for that through her writings.

Her short stories, novels, and non-fiction writings mainly deal with the plight of women in the Arab world. Some of those writings include The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, The Thread and the Wall and the Memoirs of a Woman Doctor. She vividly narrates In her book the way the patriarchal society has been oppressing women in the society. When she published the book called women and sex in 1972 whereby various issues affecting women were contextualized such as the aggression against women she received a lot of opposition (Muhammad 64). However, she did not relent.

The book became the launching pad for the feminism second wave. Apart from campaigning for the rights of women she also fights for the equal rights of women in the Arab world. She vividly expresses her female thoughts about the plight of women in society more especially the Arab world. Since these issues were not permitted in the Arab world that is why she was occasionally imprisoned. She has most concentrated her work to talk about the theme of women rights and she decided to use her literary works to address the issues that are facing women in society (Muhammad 65). It is through the motivation of Nawal that any more writers have been influenced to write about issues that affect t women in society not only in the Arab world or the whole world. In reading Nawal's books, one is likely to understand the complex nature of Muslim society and the status of women in the Muslim world. She mainly uses the oral literary traditions, imagery and the women narratives (Suwaed 233). She also focuses on other topics such as gender roles, honor killing, and prostitution.

Nawal is a female revolutionist writer who is blessed with an invincible expression of power as well as a very rare ability to propagate and transmit her messages through the use of different literary techniques. She uses pipelines such as travel books, plays, critical articles, scientific and theoretical essays, short stories and novels. She brings into the attention of the public a completely new phenomenon in the Muslim society whereby the struggle of women for liberation is clearly articulated in the written form (Suwaed 235). She pursues a feminist gender objective with a big concept of social freedom as it is expressed in most of her writings. She argues that it is not possible to have liberation if the society has an oppressive social system and it is hierarchical (Suwaed 239). She fights for the exploitation of women as well as any form of gender discrimination at the family level, home, workplace, the political arena, and the society level.

She is of the view that a woman should have the rights and the autonomy physically, emotionally and economically. She believes that in the current social conventions and the traditional and cultural practices prohibit many women the ability to develop the feelings of family comfort because they are not given the respect they deserve. She is a very active advocate of the social welfare of women who is doing her best to change the male-dominated society and make it free, liberal, non-oppressive, just and equal to both men and women (Suwaed 245). She strongly believes that the oppression women are facing is the reason as to why many societies are still backward. She therefore candidly promotes the idea that women should not conform to the oppression but rather rebel against the traditional practices which are making them conform and appear as if they are lesser human beings. She, therefore, encourages women to fight for their rights because freedom cannot come on a silver platter. They should, therefore, rise in arms and fight so that they can be in their rightful places in the society as well as self-realization (Muhammad 70). She posits that it is only through campaigns that women can gain their rightful positions in the different layers of society.

She argues that one of the main problems of the contemporary Arab society is that it does not have spiritual, scholastic and political leadership that can question the traditional values which are intimidating to women. She explains that most men in the Arab society believe men think that their authority was God-given yet the reality is that those are just mere reflections of the male-dominated society and the feudal system (Suwaed 246). According to her the humility which women display more especially in the Arab world is not inherited, but it was acquired behavior pattern that was imposed on them by the society led by men since the time they were young(Miriam 70). She further explains that in most rural areas in the Arab society the women are treated as property, and they are subjected to the desires and whims of men.

The author has used different literary techniques depending amongst her different books. However, some literary styles stand out prominently. For instance in a woman at point zero she uses symbolism to express her ideas with maximum impact. This is where she uses symbols to express certain ideas (Miriam 70).She also uses imagery whereby she vividly describes certain features, persons, events, and objects to the extent that the reader can form images in mind about what is being described. She also extensively employs dialogue where two characters are represented as having a conversation with each other. This stylistic device makes the piece of writing to be lively and captivating. Another final stylistic technique which she uses is the setting whereby the time, place and the conditions where the actions are taking place are set (Miriam 70). All the above features make the piece of writing to appealing to the reader. They equally help in driving the point home with maximum impact. Nawals work has had profound effects in the transformation of the society more especially the Arab society. Her campaigns and agitations for the freedoms of women have led to women gaining a substantial form of freedom (Abdullah et al., 23).It also makes other women join the campaign to stop the oppression of women through the male-dominated society.

Works Cited

Abdullah Al Mhairat, Nayera Al Miniawi.The Feminist and Religious Features in Some of Nawal El Saadawi Literary Works. Journal of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8435. Vol.21, 2016

Eustace Palmer.Nawal El Saadawi and the Female Predicament: A Study of Woman at Point Zero.Journal of African Literature Association.Vol.7 Issue 2.2013

Miriam, Cook.Egyptian Women's Writings. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 13 (1): 69-70.

Muhammad Youssef Suwaed. The Exploitation of Women and Social Change in

the Writing of Nawal El-Saadawi.Journal of Women Studies.Vol 18 issue 4.2017

M, W Suwaed. The exploitation of women and social change in the writing of Nawal El-Saadawi.Journal of women internal Studies. 18(4):233-246.2017