On March 21st, the Egyptian feminist and Marxist intellectual Nawal El-Saadawi died at age 89. Her writings caused a lot of controversies during her life and after her death.
During the rule of the Sadat, El-Saadawi was imprisoned and then exiled. Some people wished her a long time in hell, others acknowledged her impact on the development of an international feminist movement. To understand her work, it is important to know about her background. El-Saadawi was a bold character who never conformed to societal inequalities. She recalled her father’s advice, that one should adopt what their mind accepts and reject the rest. At age 6, El-Saadawi underwent a circumcision operation, which she said she .
El-Saadawi said that her to explore the reasons behind the environment of inequality started at a very young age, particularly because she was a smart kid in school and her brother was constantly failing but had more privileges than her. As a radical, El-Saadawi said that social issues should be perceived holistically, that is, reformations in politics and religious discourse are necessary steps to achieve social justice and intellectual, cultural, and economic upheaval. The trinity that we find in all her works is religion, sex, and power.
On Religion and Politics
In her book The Fall of the Imam, which was burned and banned in Egypt, she criticized
the persona of the Imam, a religious leader. El-Saadawi portrayed the Imam as a corrupt and promiscuous man when she introduced him as he escaped the bedroom of a woman, ‘his mouth exhaling an odor of wine and sweat from the bodies of unhappy women.’ The irony here is that the consumption of alcohol is contrary to Islamic doctrine and the position of an Imam should be allocated to someone abiding by them. Also, he has a daughter born out of wedlock (Bint Allah). El-Saadawi criticized the Imam’s God-like image, where the Imam’s followers are depicted as blindly following all of his decrees because ‘God has visited him many times and so he knows His word better than anyone else.’ El Saadawi intended to make people more aware of who they follow, and of the criteria against which they judge people’s religiosity. Furthermore, she described the Imam as a rival of God. Within Islam, the one sin which cannot be forgiven is Shirk, which refers to humanizing Allah or constructing Him as anything other than singular. To Muslims, the representation of Christ as both God and God’s son within Christianity is blasphemy. While Islamic leaders across the globe assert Tawhid— the oneness of God— this Imam formed an opposition to that oneness by either constructing himself or allowing himself to be constructed, as a demi-god on earth.
El-Saadawi publicly criticized Al-Azhar. She stated that the institution of Al-Azhar is a “dangerous reactionary force” because it has a footing in many areas. For instance, it controls religious discourse by deciding the topic of Friday prayers in all mosques thereby not allowing the discussion of topics it considers ‘taboo.’ Therefore, it does not use its platform to educate the youth about the issues that women face gender inequality, rape, or FGM. Overlooking these topics raises a question mark over the institution’s responsibility. Additionally, it controls the spread and . El-Saadawi stated that she doesn’t get invited to cultural seminars because those in charge work in the government and are afraid to lose their positions. Also, she claimed that she is denied the right to discuss her opinion with , who is considered a popular intellectual, and whose opinions and beliefs are present and normalized among the Egyptian youth. Therefore, the institution controls the possibility of a cultural and intellectual upheaval which she accused the Muslim Brotherhood of hijacking in the 2011 revolution.
El-Saadawi’s main concern was to call for the separation of the state from the religious institution. She viewed religious fundamentalism as a tool to oppress women. She is famous for saying: ‘if the power of religious groups increases, so does the oppression of women. Women are oppressed in all religions.’
El-Saadawi discussed the relationship between women and politics in her book Women’s Issues, Thought, and Politics. She claimed that religion is a private matter and that everyone should have the opportunity to understand religious texts the way they want. Most importantly, she called for the renewal of religious texts. She her argument by referring to a major school in Islam: if the text runs counter to the public interest, public interest prevails, because interests are variable whereas the text is constant. She claimed that no text in the Quran, in the New Testament, or the Torah can remain unchanged. She added that there are Ayahs in the Quran that were annulled such as the ones on slavery. Moreover, she believed that Islam does not treat women equally; she refers to the issues of the inheritance of wealth, in which men get a bigger percentage than women, and that children inherit their father’s surname.
El-Saadawi publicly declared that she had more freedom under Al-Sisi’s regime when she said ‘These days I write articles for Al-Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm, which I could not have done in the days of Sadat or even in the days of Abdel Nasser. So we are moving forward with courage, but we have a long way to go.’ Some people used her words to highlight a contradiction in her values, as Al-Sisi’s government imposes restrictions on freedom of speech by imprisoning artists that criticize Al-Sisi and controlling all Egyptian media channels.
One of her most ground-breaking statements that she paid the price for in jail was that the Hajj practice is a ‘paganistic tradition.’ After getting out of jail, El-Saadawi criticized the restrictions on criticizing religion, labelling them ‘anti-liberal and censorship.’ El-Saadawi blamed the media institution for not doing its job as an educator. She mentioned the control over media channels in most of her interviews, especially the Arabic ones, thereby challenging people to say what they think and not fear punishment. TV show host Wafaa El-Kilani voiced the questions of the people who rewrote her statement as ‘Hajj is not an axiom in Islam.’ El-Saadawi replied that sheikhs manipulate her statements and criticize them publicly to gain the youth’s attention and to control their minds. El-Saadawi was constantly accused of disbelief due to questioning religion but to her, there is no faith without doubt.
On Women: Objectification, Honor, FGM, and other issues
El-Saadawi highlighted a . She pointed out that Khadija Bint Khouailid, Prophet Muhammad’s wife, played a crucial role in protecting the Prophet from the Quraish tribe and without her, Islam would not have spread. She later questioned the absence of women in official theology/Islamic research groups. One popular reply to this question is from an Al-Azhar sheikh, Salem Abdul Jaleel, who that ‘women can take any position in society except a religious one. The only exception is when a group of females wants to pray together, then it’s okay for a woman to lead.’ This is exactly the pattern of thought that El-Saadawi criticized. To her, it made the woman a second-class citizen and inferior sex.
El-Saadawi tackled the issue of mind-body relations. According to her, all religions claim that the mind and soul supersede the body invalidity and importance. As such, the soul and mind are linked to godly qualities. In contrast, the body is linked with sin. She claimed that people interpret Eve as the source of evil in the world and so women in society are linked with sin. They ought to be guarded and ruled over. That is because their seductive qualities can lure men from the right path to that of the devil. Hence, women’s sexuality needs special policing. This is demonstrated in actions such as honor killing and female genital mutilation (FGM), both of which El-Saadawi dealt with as a psychiatrist and a medical doctor, before getting fired. She campaigned against FGM. In June 2008, the Egyptian Parliament passed a law banning the act, following the death of 12-year-old Badour Shaker in June 2007, during an operation. ‘When I heard that she died, I wrote an open letter to her parents, saying they should not be silent – they should scream so all the world would hear their voice. They should use the death to educate everybody,’ El-Saadawi said. El-Saadawi searched for the origin of such gender-based cultural practices and focused on the one that is spread, accepted, and normalized: the religious justification.
In The Hidden Face of Eve, El-Saadawi related several stories from her time as a doctor in Egypt where young women were injured or even killed because their virginity was questioned. El Saadawi goes on to explain that Arab society still considers the fine membrane which covers the aperture of the external genital organs to be the most important part of a girl’s body. More valuable than one of her eyes, or an arm, or a lower limb. An Arab family may not grieve as much at the loss of a girl’s eye as they would if she happened to lose her virginity. If the girl lost her life, it would be considered less of a catastrophe than if she had lost her hymen. This is because patriarchal class society has imposed premarital virginity on girls and ensured that the honor of a girl and her family, is closely linked to the preservation of this virginity. If virginity is lost, this brings almost everlasting shame which can only be ‘wiped out in blood,’ as the Arab saying goes. El-Saadawi goes on to say that in Arab societies the honor of the man is his wealth. The only source of shame that the Imam in The Fall of the Imam outwardly acknowledges is his boyhood poverty, which constantly haunts him.
El-Saadawi’s answer to the ‘when will a woman acquire a strong energy?’ was ‘when she takes back her body and mind. That is because in Egypt her body and mind are not hers. Someone else owns them, the man.’ El-Saadawi claimed that , covering and nakedness. To her, ethics don’t stem from covering one’s body. A woman’s dignity is in her mind. She even said that the hijab is ‘anti-ethical’ because it’s one way to commodify women. The other way is prostitution, for the man who takes her clothes trades her body and mind to gain profit. Similarly, she saw that the one who covers her trades her body and mind in the name of religion. A third way is the beauty industry which convinces women that they need to conform to notions of desirability to gain men’s attention. El-Saadawi also advocated for several red taped issues including giving women the right to abortion and prohibiting polygamy.
Furthermore, she explained her views on femininity and masculinity. Femininity and masculinity are not about silky hair and innocence nor muscles and beards. They are feelings that arise from the inside and are manifested as honest reactions.
On the notion of God
El-Saadawi stated that her notion of god is the same as her peasant illiterate grandmother’s: justice, love, and freedom. She linked the classical notion of God with the discrimination against women. In the capitalist religious system we live in, men dominate women. And we accept that God is male. However, El-Saadawi said that historically speaking, Ancient Egyptians had female goddesses such as Isis and Me’ad, the goddesses of knowledge and justice respectively. The change in God’s gender, she believed, was due to a change in the political situation. God became exclusively a male entity because in this capitalist society, men are in control over many aspects of women’s lives, especially their sexuality. This domination is reflected in the institution of marriage.
On Death and Fear
‘Death and fear are illusions. We are born, live, and die in fear.’ El-Saadawi that fear keeps us obedient throughout our lives. As we grow up, different entities control us. Parents, teachers, sheikhs, people in power threaten us with hell, punishment, prison, and death. We, in turn, live in anxiety, and in every phase of our lives, there is a different type of fear.
Also, El-Saadawi claimed that there is no death, not as a metaphysical notion but as a psychological/emotional one. That is because death means that we no longer exist, and so our emotions, fears, and anxieties don’t exist either. Moreover, she tackled the belief in reincarnation saying that it is a way of escaping the fear of death. It is a way for humans to cope with their fear.
On Creativity and Freedom
El-Saadawi believed that every child is born with the quality of creativity and as they grow up they either get robbed of their creativity or enhance and nourish it. To her, creativity is based on two things: a critical mind and unlimited freedom to think. A creative piece is born when the mind and body connect.
There is a lot to Nawal El-Saadawi that wasn’t mentioned in this article. El-Saadawi was able to link sexual and bodily freedom to political, social, and intellectual freedom. She nudged people to think and have their own opinions to free a country that is colonized intellectually. Every title of her books was a shockwave to the religious and social milieu. El-Saadawi was brave enough to challenge sacred notions and was in turn expelled from her job and accused of blasphemy and of threatening the Egyptian family values,’ a popular excuse that is used to justify arresting 13-year-old Tik Tok girl users, police brutality against women, rapes, and honor killings.
Some critics say that she gave men devilish qualities, but El-Saadawi said that she was fighting for men too, because men can also be . She was widely criticized for threatening religious and social axioms and ‘westernizing’ the East. Other people support her, notably the Feminist activist Joumana Haddad and Egypt’s Cultural Minister Inas Abd-El Dayem. She was internationally acknowledged as a feminist icon and awarded in countries like the U.S, Belgium, Sweden, Tunisia, and Mexico but never in her own country.
