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aimawaymessage's review against another edition
4.0
“Fearing servility, people become servile.”
“We will destroy this prison! We will not die without noise!”
“True democracy obtains only when the people - women, men, young people, children - have the ability to change the system of industrial capitalism that has oppressed them since the earliest days of slavery: a system based on class division, patriarchy, and military might, a hierarchical system that subjugated people merely because they are born poor, or female, or dark-skinned.”
“We will destroy this prison! We will not die without noise!”
“True democracy obtains only when the people - women, men, young people, children - have the ability to change the system of industrial capitalism that has oppressed them since the earliest days of slavery: a system based on class division, patriarchy, and military might, a hierarchical system that subjugated people merely because they are born poor, or female, or dark-skinned.”
_sarahramadan's review against another edition
4.0
I will read anything this woman has written and will not stop til I've read everything out there which has been translated to English :')
She is such an inspiration to me and millions of women and men around the globe, which now continues after her death and will for many, many more generations, I'm sure.
One of my favourite passages of hers in the afterword -
"Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies. Nothing is more perilous than knowledge in a world that has considered knowledge a sin since Adam and Eve.
But I don't feel the danger, perhaps because it is a part of my life, just as a train or airplane passenger doesn't sense the motion, once having become a part of it."
She is such an inspiration to me and millions of women and men around the globe, which now continues after her death and will for many, many more generations, I'm sure.
One of my favourite passages of hers in the afterword -
"Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies. Nothing is more perilous than knowledge in a world that has considered knowledge a sin since Adam and Eve.
But I don't feel the danger, perhaps because it is a part of my life, just as a train or airplane passenger doesn't sense the motion, once having become a part of it."
sonnet_reads's review against another edition
Nawal El Saadawi was the Director of Health and Education in Cairo and a radical political writer before she was dismissed from her post in 1972 and arrested for "crimes against the state" in 1981. She wasn't released until after Anwar Sadat was assassinated. She describes her arrest and firsthand accounts of life in the women's prison, how she clung to writing as a way to get her through. I was a little uncomfortable with some of Nawal's positions, but isn't that why we read? To examine our discomfort and inform ourselves?
secretbookcase's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is a compelling memoir by Egyptian writer and women's rights advocate Nawal el Saadawi of her time as a political prisoner under the regime of Anwar Sadat. In it she forcefully argues against the arbitrariness of the repression under Sadat and shoots darts at those who relinquish their freedom of speech and integrity in order to curry favour from a deeply unjust ruling clique. But beyond her politics, the memoir also offers a glimpse into the relationships built between the female prisoners and how this sustains prison life. Sadaawi's compassion towards her fellow female prisoners is apparent throughout the book, foreshadowing her feminist novel Woman at Point Zero.
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