A Daughter of Isis: The Early Life of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

(Paperback)

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In A Daughter of Isis, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab worlds 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 and 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.

Reviews

In this book we see how, from an early age, Saadawi combines her love of the Arabic language with her awareness of gender-based oppression to create texts which are as subversive as they are moving * Modern African Studies *
As I finished reading Dr. Nawal's autobiography I felt a sudden sense of loss. I didn't want to leave her. I went back and read the last sections again, and then again, until I remembered how many other books she has written. Then I felt delight that I will be able to return to her words and to her stories, and that so many others will share in them * Bettina Aptheker *
This is a book we should all be reading * Doris Lessing *
I think her life has been one long death threat. At a time when nobody else was talking, she spoke the unspeakable * Margaret Atwood *

Author Bio

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 Sadats government for criticising the regime, she founded the Arab Womens 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.