E-Book Overview
This powerful 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 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.
E-Book Content
The Hidden Face of Eve was first published by Zed Press, 57 Cnledonian Road, London
Nl 9DN in February 1980.
Copyright© Nawal El Saadawi, 1980. ISBN Hb 0 905762 50 9 Pb 0 905762 51 7 Printed by Maple-Vail USA Typeset by Lyn Caldwell Designed by Mayblin/Shaw Cover photo courtesy of Angela Phillips All rights reserved
Contents
Preface to the English Edition Introduction
i
1
Part I: The Mutilated Half . 1. -./the Question That No One Would Answer 2. i..--Sexll.al Aggression Against the Female Child """ 3: The Grandfather With Bad Manners 4. v'Phe Injustice of Justice 5. ......The Very'Hne Membrane Called 'Honour' :"' 6. A°ircumcision of Girls 7:'./6bscurantism and Contradiction ~ ~·../The. Illegitimate Child and the Prostitute ¥"_..b.bortion and Fertility ~Distorted Notions about Femininity, Beauty and Love .... ._ T
7 7 12 16 19 25 33 44 51 63, 74
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
91 91 102 108 115
Part ID: The Arab Woman 15. The Role of Women in Arab History 16. Love and Sex in the Life of the Arabs • 17. The Heroine in Arab Literature
125 125
Part IV: Breaking Through 18.. Arab Pioneers of Women's Liberation 19. Work and Women 20. Marriage and Divorce An Afterword
133
155 169 169 184 194 211
Preface to the English Editi&n·i:·'. ·
The oppression of women, the exploitation and social pres.sures to which they are exposed, are not characteristic of Arab or Middle Eastern societies, or countries of the 'Third World' alone. They constitute an in~']! part of the political. economic and cultural system, preponderant in most of tl'ie world whether that system is backward and feudal in nature; or a modern industrial society that has been submitted to the far reaching influence of a scientific and technological' revolution. The situ,ation and problems of women in contemporary human society are born of developments in history that llJ.~.~..9ne class rule over another, and :tn~!l_dominate_o.v.:~n. They are the product of cla§s anc.!Jg. But there are still many thinkers - men of science, writers, and social or political leaders - who close their eyes to this fact. Th~wish to se~e arduous struggles of women for self-emnn.£\P.~H.C?.!!J~Qp:_:tJJi~J~Y-olt of .P~PJJle eyezywhere, men and 'Y,Omen, agains!.. the presen.t _~~!1:1~.t~r~_9i_s2.~~.~~¥· Yet it is only this radical change that can end ~oreign and .national class exploit~t~ for all time and abolish the asc~gqtl!l?Y gF~~~n_g,ver women nof'Only in society, but also within the family unit which constitutes the coreorpatriarchal class relations. This core of relations remains the origin of the values and sanctified beliefs which throughout the ages have cemented, reinforced and perpetuated a system of class and patriarchal oppression, despite all the changes which society has known since the first human communities were constituted on earth. ,