Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, November 2001:-.

BOOK REVIEWS

Extended Review

A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El-Saadawi, by Nawal El-Saadawi (translated from Arabic by Sherif Hetata). London: Zed Books, Ltd., 1999, 294 pp. (ISBN 1-85649-680-5 paper)

Written in a very warm, intimate, emotionally engaging style, witty, sarcastic, optimistic, and insightful, A Daughter of Isis is truly a book for everyone. At the age of seventy, Dr. El-Saadawi is at the height of her life’s work, with the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager. Her autobiography is an exemplary reflection of her ideas, her goals, her struggles, and her life’s journey.

A Daughter of Isis offers its readers insight into the author’s struggle for authenticity, for autonomy within community, and for social justice. These are struggles which concern millions of people world-wide, particularly in countries which have been colonized by Western powers and/or remain caught in the web of the neo-imperialist global capitalist system. The development of Dr. El-Saadawi’s identity as an authentic individual having a genuine sense of solidarity with family and community, despite the diversity of views which led to constant struggle and conflict, is not only fascinating at the psychological level, but inspires the reader to see the need for social engagement and social justice. After all, our actions in our everyday lives either contribute to the status quo or to social change. The recent horrific terrorist attacks on the United States of America have shocked many people into re-evaluating their values, their goals, and their lives in general. The obvious lesson in all of this is that until there is true social justice, terrorism will continue to flourish all over the world. Until then, no one is safe, literally.

One positive outcome of the terrorist attack on the U.S.A. is the sudden and dramatic awareness of the need for solidarity and community. Gone is the focus on alienation and anomie, long considered common themes in North American education and social science circles. Usually linked to the rise of materialism and decline of spirituality, the loss of community, and the rise of self-centered individualism in the West, alienation and anomie were as much a part of Dr. El-Sadaawi’s early life in rural Egypt as they are today. A Daughter of Isis reveals that these are universal concerns with a long history. Nawal El-Saadawi reveals the alienation and anger she felt as a young child towards her relatives and her society in general. She strongly opposed many of the social norms because she believed that they underpinned the omnipresent oppression and exploitation of most Egyptians, resulting in widespread ignorance, sickness, poverty, and misery. Her life’s goal was to escape this misery and make a positive contribution to her society.

Dr. El-Sadaawi’s rebellion was not simply against her parents’ authority; it was rebellion against an unjust, undemocratic society. She rebelled against unjust relatives, peers, teachers, neighbours, bureaucrats, and politicians. In doing so, she was able to strike out on a path very different from that of her other female relatives as well as most girls and young women her age. Fortunate to have some positive female role models, Nawal El-Saadawi rejected the gender norms and roles of her day to become an independent, professional woman of international fame.

Here it is obvious that teachers have an immense influence on their students. “…[A] teacher in school to us was like a god” (p. 215). Because most of her teachers were unthinking supporters of the status quo, Nawal El-Saadawi rebelled against the most stifling aspects of her schooling. “What I could not stand was the teacher, the rules of grammar, and religion. These three things were capable of killing any budding talent” (p. 216).

However, teachers, like others, have the choice of supporting or challenging social norms which limit the development and freedom of individuals. Nawal El-Saadawi was fortunate enough to have some teachers who were strong role models. They, too, valued education and independence above ignorance, dependency, and conformity to unjust social norms. They inspired the young Nawal to pursue her creative endeavours, and to study at university. Indeed, she wrote her first novel at age fourteen, and has since written more than forty. She was able to develop her interests in spite of the societal barriers faced by women at that time, in part, because of a few strong female teachers. Her becoming one of the first female students to be admitted to the Medical School at Cairo University is part of their legacy.

The price paid to exercise one’s independence against the wishes of the authorities, of course, varies greatly from society to society. Dr. El-Saadawi was fortunate to have a father who was strongly opposed to the Turco-Albanian monarchy and British control over Egypt. His price was denial of career opportunities in the Ministry of Education and being marginalized as a school inspector in his own poor, rural village. It was a price paid by his entire family.

My father’s dreams were different. He wanted to liberate his country from colonial rule, free himself from the bondage of his government job, become a poet, or a writer. He died without achieving any of these, without writing anything, lived a life of semi-exile in faraway corners of the country with nothing to keep him going except his love for his family and an inner pride, the feeling that he had never given up, had always struggled for what he believed was right. (p. 6)

Al-Sayed Habash El-Saadawi’s love for learning, however, was tempered by his more compliant acceptance of gender. His dilemma was that Nawal’s older brother was far less successful at school. As the eldest of six sisters, Nawal opened their path to secondary and post-secondary education, one that was denied her female cousins. It was Nawal’s mother who enabled her daughters to defy gender conformity.

The importance of a mother’s education and attitudes about education for girls is recognized by sociologists of education as critical in the educational achievement of children, particularly girls. It is noteworthy that Dr. El-Saadawi’s mother, Zaynab, was the first and most important supporter of her education. In fact, it was her mother who set her course in life.

Although Zaynab came from the ruling Turco-Albanian class --indeed, her father was a Bey, -- her family had fallen into gentile poverty. She was married off at the age of fifteen to a man sixteen years her elder who came from the lowest class, the peasantry. Dr. El-Saadawi’s father, Al-Sayed, was the first man to leave his village of farmers in a suit. He had succeeded in rising to the middle class through educational achievement and spent his entire working life as a civil servant fighting to extend education to all Egyptians.

Perhaps because she was forced to stop her education, Zaynab Hanem Mahmoud Shoukry was determined that her daughters would not be denied higher education. Nawal (p. 6) recounts her mother’s regrets in life, indicating that they had a profound effect on her:

My mother was not a doctor, or a writer. She had no job, no income of her own, no place in which she could live apart from her husband’s home…

[but] Mother had a happy life in many ways. She was not like the other women in the family. She regretted being just a housewife. Ever since her early school days she had dreamed of other things…“I wanted to be a musician, and play music, or to finish my education and find a place where I could experiment and invent something useful. I dreamt of galloping on a horse to the horizon, of riding in an aeroplane to see the world, but your grandfather Shoukry took me out of school and married me off to your father.”

Even though Zaynab died at the age of 45, she lived to see all of her daughters educated. The many sacrifices made by Nawal El-Saadawi’s parents in order that their nine children receive a good education is eye-opening to many Westerners who take good quality education and a much higher standard of living for granted. It also highlights the importance, however, of cooperation between parents and teachers in the education of children. Teachers are much more effective if they are aware of the circumstances and values of their students’ families and if they can involve those families in the education of their children.

Nawal El-Saadawi’s values, goals, and life path were born of the conflict she experienced within her family, community, and society. Being raised by families coming from opposite ends of the social spectrum introduced her to the many injustices still inherent in Egyptian society. As Nawal (p. 18) describes her parents’ families:

First the family of Shoukry Bey, noble descendants of a lineage going back to the great Tala‘at Pasha of Istanbul. Then the family of Al-Saadawi, from Kafr Tahla, with their dark, dusty faces, and the bare skin of their cracked heels looking out from under the hem of their long garments. The smell of mud and sweat in the threadbare gallabiyas, the long robes worn by peasants, mingled with the sweet scent of French perfumes in the flowing silk dresses and the smell of whiskey and dark tobacco rising from the foreign-cut suits made of English wool.

Another important aspect of this autobiography is Nawal El-Saadawi’s struggle to understand and accept Islam as a religion valuing education and social justice. She rejected the dogmatic, literalist, patriarchal interpretation of Islam which was held by many of her relatives and is still commonly held in Egyptian society. Her recounting this journey is insightful and useful to readers, whether Muslim or not, particularly in light of the recent terrorist attacks in the U.S.A. by militant Islamic fundamentalists. The interpretation of Islam held by these terrorists is neither reflective of nor condoned by most educated religious scholars throughout the Muslim world. Thankfully, Western politicians and military leaders have emphasized that their impending war on terrorism is not a war on Islam. Most Muslim states have made it clear that this is a struggle against those who misuse the concept of jīhād and commit acts of terror against civilians.

Given the numerous protracted wars waging around the world today, and the fact that most warring groups claim to have “God” on their side, it is absolutely necessary for political, military, and religious leaders of all faiths to oppose war and work actively towards a peaceful settlement. Peace is only secured if it is based on social justice.

Westerners should not fall into the false dichotomization of faith and reason so typical of modernity and which has more recently been seriously challenged by post-modernists. Some of the ancient Greek philosophers, great Islamic philosophers, and Jesus Christ himself have not fallen into this trap of the false dichotomy. Dr. El-Saadawi remembers her illiterate grandmother resisting unjust officials saying, “We are not slaves and Allah is just. People have come to know that through reason” (p. 7).

Nawal El-Saadawi reminds us that setting reason and the rational against faith and emotion is used by patriarchal religions and societies as a basis for subordinating and discriminating against Others, particularly women. It is also used to pit West against East, North against South, urban against rural. Not only is this a false dichotomy, it is a very destructive one for human beings. In addition, lack of religious freedom and domination by a state-sanctioned religion is the case in most countries and would be true in practice even if not strictly in law. This is an important factor when discussing religious values in general, and even more so in terms of state education.

Nawal El-Saadawi provides great insight into this and many other significant issues which arose during her school days. The reality of diversity of views amongst students, parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians is really no different for Nawal than it is for many of us in other countries today. Nawal’s experience navigating through and learning from this diversity is fascinating and instructive for all readers.

Schools are a microcosm of society, and Nawal El-Saadawi discovered that she faced many of the same issues, challenges, and barriers throughout her life, whether as a student, a psychiatrist in private practice, a university professor, a deputy minister of health, a writer, or a human rights activist. Imprisoned and exiled for her advocacy of human rights for all Egyptians, demonised by many in the Arab world for her unfailing support of women’s rights in Islam, and misunderstood by many Westerners, Dr. Nawal El-Saadawi is an inspiration for all of us to work more diligently for social justice in our own communities as well as in partnership with others. As Nawal learned from her father, “Allah is our conscience which tells us we have done something wrong when we do not stand up for justice. God’s voice comes to us from our depths and not from the pulpit of the mosque” (p. 7).