Nawal El Saadawi
Egyptian physician and feminist writer
Egyptian doctor and writer who qualified at Cairo University in 1955, researched women and neurosis at Ain Shams University, and wrote about women's bodies and violence against them. Women and Sex and Woman at Point Zero made her a prominent Arab feminist.
Why this person matters
El Saadawi wrote about female genital cutting and violence against women's bodies from a medical background, mostly in Arabic, and lost a government post and was jailed for her work. She belongs to the history of feminist and culturally situated approaches to women's health. She is a medical and literary figure, not a psychologist.
Main contributions
Women and Sex
This nonfiction work examined violence against women's bodies, including female circumcision. Al Jazeera's obituary dates it to 1972; one reference article also gives 1969. She was dismissed from Egypt's Ministry of Health after it appeared and after her political activities.
Research on women and neurosis
From 1973 to 1976 she researched women and neurosis at the Faculty of Medicine of Ain Shams University. Her novel Woman at Point Zero (1975) made her famous.
Organisation and imprisonment
Sadat's government jailed her in September 1981, and she was released later that year. She founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association in 1982, although one source also says she formed it while in prison.
Context and limits
Her medical and psychological research is thinly documented in the sources used here, and her public role was as a feminist writer. Critics said The Hidden Face of Eve was written for a critical foreigner, and its English edition omits many chapters from the Arabic original. Her remarks on the veil drew criticism, including from some feminists. Some descriptions call her a psychiatrist, but the sources read for this profile do not support that label.
In your introductory course
Culture and diversity.Appears in culture and gender chapters on women's health and feminism outside Europe and North America. Students may meet her writing on women's bodies and mental health in global perspectives.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.3. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1955
Graduated in medicine from Cairo University.
- 1972
Published Women and Sex, according to Al Jazeera (one reference article also gives 1969).
- 1975
Published the novel Woman at Point Zero.
- 1982
Founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association.
Sources
- Al Jazeera, Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian author and women's rights icon, diesReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Nawal El SaadawiReference work. Reference article inspected.