The Hidden Face of Eve
The Hidden Face of Eve by Nawal El Saadawi
Reviewed by Linda
📕📕📕📕
Perhaps the most well known quote of Nawal El-Saadawi's: "Feminism is not a Western invention..." it's the next bit that captivates me personally, "We have to liberate women economically, socially, psychologically, physically, religiously..."
The Hidden Face of Eve holistically examines history, literature, socioeconomics, religion and culture of women in MENA.
This trailblazer stood for many things in the Egyptian patriarchal society from where she hails. No action has said this louder than her fight against FGM & her active quest to educate societies against this inhumane violation.
Her medical training took her beyond the pristine Cairo clinics and into the most rural villages to live and break bread with women, and in the same breath, debate with the ill-informed political and religious leaders who implicate culture and tradition with women's basic rights.
Through the doors of her own clinic she bore direct witness to the women she wrote about. And no, don't @ me regarding stereotypes, in this case they exist for a reason. That’s why I struggle to fathom how those of us who were born/raised in the diaspora can judge Nawal for what she represented. Life experiences are relative to where you are and what you've experienced. This book starts with Nawal’s own experience of circumcision, aged 6.
Whilst a lot of naysayers choose to fixate on her own personal beliefs (boy, did they come out in full force yday), not even half the emphasis is given to her heavy discord with capitalism, inheritance laws, imperialism and all the ways that women have been stripped of independence.
Perspective is also important to consider. Published in Egypt in 1977, Nawal would've been branded insane if not worse. Some points are outdated, regarding the notion of gender (NB. Arab sexism) and there’s some controversy regarding her perhaps biased focus on Orthodox views, but this book is too important to miss irrespective of which camp you sit in.
El Saadawi took no prisoners in her work, and I hoped that one day we'd be able to invite her to book club with us. Alas, her legacy and her words live on.
