Reading Week 15: Saadawi, Part X


Nawal el Saadawi:

- 1931 to present day
- Egyptian woman novelist who covers gender discrimination in the Arab Islamic world
- Says she was "born female in a world that only wants males"
- Born to a well off family with connections to the elite, which allowed her parents to send her to a university, where she would be educated and also participate in student protests
- Became the director of public health in the Ministry of Health in Egypt but was removed from her position when Egyptian authorities read her book "Woman and Sex" and took issue with it being critical of female circumcision (female genital mutilation)
- Her overall work is dedicated to women's liberation, understanding gender and sex better, and stopping sexism

In Camera:

- "In Camera" is another term for "closed session", which is what the trial that occurs in the story is. Closed session is when the public is not allowed to attend.
- Told in "stream of consciousness" style
- The protagonist is a young woman named Leila
- Leila is on trial for calling the leader of her nation stupid
- Before this she was held in prison for four months where she was forced to sleep while standing, abused, and raped repeatedly by ten men. She finds joy when she is finally allowed to sit down, and tries not to think about the abuses she suffered.
- She thinks about her rape a lot, and how to even her own parents what matters most is that she lost her honor, not that it hurt her emotionally.
- In the end, she is taken back to prison even though everyone agrees that what she said was true and applauds her, they think it should only be said in private because if they are said in public people may come to agree and cause problems

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