A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi, 2nd ed.

This is the first volume of the autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi, giving an emotionally shattering, but wonderfully lyrical, portrait of her childhood in a remote Egyptian village -- the childhood that produced the freedom fighter. She describes vividly the culture of the place and time into which she was born and also her intuitive -- and inspiring -- desire to transcend the restrictions forced upon her because of her gender. From the very start, escaping the grasp of possible marriage at the age of ten, we see how she moulded her own creative power into a weapon and how the use of words became an act of rebellion against injustice, leading first to her career as a medical doctor and ultimately to her iconic status as a novelist and political activist. 'Against the white sand, the contours of my father's body were well defined, emphasized its existence in a world where everything was liquid, where the blue of the sea melted into the blue of the sky with nothing between. This independent existence was to become the outer world, the world of my father, of land, country, religion, language, moral codes. It was to become the world around me. A world made of male bodies in which my female body lived.'Nawal El Saadawi has been pilloried, censored, imprisoned and exiled for her refusal to accept the oppressions imposed on women by gender and class. For her, writing and action have been inseperable and this is reflected in some of the most evocative and disturbing novels ever written about Arab women.Born in a small Egyptian village in 1931, she eluded the grasp of suitors before whom her family displayed her when she was still ten years old and went on to qualify as a medical doctor. In 1969, she published her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex; in 1972, she was dismissed from her profession because of her political activism. From then on there was no respite: imprisonment under Sadat in 1981 was the culmination of the long struggle she had waged for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom; in 1992, her name appeared on a death list issued by a fundamentalist group after which she went into exile for five years. Since then, she has devoted her time to writing novels and essays and to her activities as a worldwide speaker on women's issues.A Daughter of Isis is the autobiography of this extraordinary woman. In it she paints a sensuously textured portrait of the childhood that produced the freedom fighter. We see how she moulded her own creative power into a weapon - how, from an early age, the use of words became an act of rebellion against injustice. About this Series......Page 4 Foreword......Page 10 My First Words......Page 14 The Forgotten Things in Life......Page 23 Writing My Life......Page 26 1 Allah and McDonald’s......Page 29 2 The Cry in the Night......Page 33 3 God Above, Husband Below......Page 44 4 Thank God for Our Calamities......Page 52 5 Flying with the Butterflies......Page 59 6 Killing the Bridegroom......Page 67 7 Daughter of the Sea......Page 76 8 My Revolutionary Father......Page 91 9 The Lost Servant-Girl......Page 101 10 The Village of Forgotten Employees......Page 107 11 God Hid behind the Coat-Stand......Page 114 12 The Ministry of Nauseation......Page 120 13 Dreaming of Pianos......Page 130 14 To the Circus......Page 137 15 The Singing Man......Page 152 16 The Whiskered Peasant......Page 166 17 Uncles, Suitors and Other Bloodsuckers......Page 178 18 A Stove for My Mother......Page 191 19 Coming to Cairo......Page 197 20 The Long, Strong Bones of a Horse......Page 212 21 Love and the Hideous Cat......Page 229 22 Art Thieves......Page 237 23 Mad Aunts and Abandoned Babies......Page 241 24 The House of Desolation......Page 254 25 The Secret Communist......Page 264 26 Wasted Lives......Page 280 27 Cholera, Ageing and Death......Page 297 28 The Qur’an Betrayed......Page 310 29 British English and Holy Arabic......Page 317 30 The Name of Marx......Page 342 31 The Brush of History......Page 357 Afterword: Living in Resistance......Page 363 About this Series 4 Foreword 10 Preface: The Gift 14 My First Words 14 The Forgotten Things in Life 23 Writing My Life 26 1 Allah and McDonald鈥檚 29 2 The Cry in the Night 33 3 God Above, Husband Below 44 4 Thank God for Our Calamities 52 5 Flying with the Butterflies 59 6 Killing the Bridegroom 67 7 Daughter of the Sea 76 8 My Revolutionary Father 91 9 The Lost Servant-Girl 101 10 The Village of Forgotten Employees 107 11 God Hid behind the Coat-Stand 114 12 The Ministry of Nauseation 120 13 Dreaming of Pianos 130 14 To the Circus 137 15 The Singing Man 152 16 The Whiskered Peasant 166 17 Uncles, Suitors and Other Bloodsuckers 178 18 A Stove for My Mother 191 19 Coming to Cairo 197 20 The Long, Strong Bones of a Horse 212 21 Love and the Hideous Cat 229 22 Art Thieves 237 23 Mad Aunts and Abandoned Babies 241 24 The House of Desolation 254 25 The Secret Communist 264 26 Wasted Lives 280 27 Cholera, Ageing and Death 297 28 The Qur鈥檃n Betrayed 310 29 British English and Holy Arabic 317 30 The Name of Marx 342 31 The Brush of History 357 Afterword: Living in Resistance 363 Nawal has been pilloried, censored, imprisoned and exiled for her refusal to accpet the oppressions imposed on women by gender and class. This is the autobiography of this extraordinary woman. Beautifully repackaged, volume one of the autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi, the Arab world's leading feminist.