The Nawal El Saadawi reader [Book review]

Abstract

Nawal El Saadawi has been a very controversial person for most of her life, not only in her native Egypt but also in the West. This book will not change her reputation, but it should make her views available to a far greater audience than she usually reaches. The book consists of an autobiographical introduction and twenty-two essays arranged in six sections: Gendering North-South Politics; Women and Health; Women, Islam, and Fundamentalisms; Orientalizing Women; Decolonizing the Imagination; and Women Organizing for Change. Many of these essays are speeches given all over the world which have not been previously published. Some essays are articles previously published in newspapers, women's magazines, and academic journals. Some have been abridged, others have been revised, updated and even lengthened. More than half of them were written during the ·1990's, and all but one of the others written during the 1980's.