The Nawal El Saadawi Reader

Writer, doctor and militant, Nawal el Saadawi has had a major influence on the lives of women and men globally. Author of many books, both fiction and non-fiction, which challenge our thinking about the politics of sex, Third World development, the Arab world and writing itself, she has been a constant thorn in the side of the class and patriarchal systems.

This collection of her non-fiction writing since the publication of her seminal book on Arab women The Hidden Face of Eve (Zed Books, 1980) presents the full range of her extraordinary work. She explores a host of topics from women's oppression at the hands of recent interpretations of Islam to the role of women in African literature, from the sexual politics of development initiatives to tourism in a ? post-colonial? age, from the nature of cultural identity to the subversive potential of creativity, from the fight against female genital mutilation to problems facing the internationalization of the women's movement. Throughout her writing, she sheds new light on the power of women in resistance - against poverty, racism, fundamentalism, and inequality of all kinds.

Showing the intellectual and political development of an important thinker for the late twentieth century, this book is essential reading for students and lecturers in women's studies, development studies and social theory. It is also a book anyone who wants to understand current global politics - in their widest sense - can not do without.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Gendering South-North Politics
1. Women and the Poor: The Challenge of Global Justice
2. Women in the South in Relation to Women in the North
3. Women's Voices in the North-South Dialogue
4. The Enigmatic South: Different Stages of Development
5. Cairo '94 and the Dignity of Feeding Oneself

Part II: Women's Health
6. Women and Health in the Arab World
7. The Bitter Lot of Women: An Interview

Part III: Women/Islam/Fundamentalism
8. Women and Islam
9. Islamic Fundamentalism and Women
10. The Impact of Fanatic Religious Thought: A Story of a Young Egyptian Muslim Woman
11. Fundamentalism: Old Friend, New Enemy

Part IV: Orientalizing Women
12. Why Keep Asking Me About My Identity?
13. Women, Religion and Literature: Bridging the Cultural Gap.
14. Women and Development: A Critical View of the Wellesley Conference

Part V: Decolonizing the Imagination
15. Dissidence and Creativity
16. Culture in the Dialogue of Civilizations
17. Democracy, Creativity and African Literature
18. Creative Women in Changing Societies
19. Prosecutive Journalism
20. Seeking the True Colour of Things

Part VI: Women Organizing for Change
21. Arab Women and Politics
22. Women in Resistance: The Arab World
23. Women and Politics in Britain

Index