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A Daughter of Isis

The Early Life of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words
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Brief Description
In A Daughter of Isis, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab world’s greatest writers, tells the story of the formative years which shaped an iconic voice in global feminism. In poignant and moving prose, we learn about her... Read More
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In A Daughter of Isis, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab world’s greatest writers, tells the story of the formative years which shaped an iconic voice in global feminism.

In poignant and moving prose, we learn about her relationships with her family, her traumatic experience of female genital mutilation at seven years old, and escaping suitors at ten. We follow her journey from the rural Egyptian village of her birth to metropolitan Cairo to study medicine.

Filled with warmth as well as critical reflection, this book reveals the early years of a remarkable life dedicated to the fight for justice and equality.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780755651566

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 June 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 30.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 325g

Pages: 368

About the Author

Nawal El Saadawi was born in a village outside Cairo, Egypt, in 1931. A trained medical doctor, she wrote landmark works on the oppression of Arab women including Woman at Point Zero (1973), God Dies by the Nile (1976) and The Hidden Face of Eve (1977). After being imprisoned by Anwar Sadat’s government for criticising the regime, she founded the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association in 1982, before being forced into exile in later life due to death threats by religious extremists. She returned to Egypt in 1996, running for president in 2005 until government persecution forced her to withdraw. Saadawi died in Egypt in 2021.

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    Three classic novels by renowned feminist writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi. A peasant family is torn apart by a village mayor and his lackeys in God Dies by the Nile, Saadawi’s dark parable of poverty, female exploitation, injustice, and religious hypocrisy in rural Egypt. In Searching, the disappearance of her lover causes Fouda to question everything. Circling Song is...
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  • Woman at Point Zero
    Internationally acclaimed Egyptian feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi’s landmark novel Woman at Point Zero, published here with a new foreword. Firdaus is on death row. Her crime, the murder of a man. Born into poverty in a rural Egyptian village, her childhood dreams and ambitions had been met with neglect and abuse by the world and the men who rule...
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  • Walking through Fire
    In Walking through Fire, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab world’s greatest writers, tells the story of the later years of a life which shaped an iconic voice in global feminism. Covering her life in Nasser’s, then Sadat’s, and Mubarak’s Egypt, we learn about Saadawi’s experience of marriage and motherhood, and we...
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  • The Hidden Face of Eve
    Passionate, powerful and thought-provoking, in The Hidden Face of Eve, leading feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi provides a shocking account of the oppression of women in the Arab world. Inspired by her experiences working as a doctor in rural Egypt and her life as an activist for women’s rights, she charts the injustices and violence faced by women in the...
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  • The Essential Nawal El Saadawi
    The writings of Nawal El Saadawi are essential to anyone wishing to understand the contemporary Arab world. Her dissident voice has remained consistent in its critique of neo-imperialist international politics as well as in its denunciation of women's oppression, both in her native Egypt and globally. Saadawi is a figure of international significance, and her work holds a central place...
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  • The Nawal El Saadawi Reader
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