Nawal El Saadawi - Collected Works (20 books)

* Nawal El Saadawi - Collected Works (20 books)

NAWAL EL SAADAWI (1931–2021) was an Egyptian writer, physician, psychiatrist, and a fierce advocate for women’s rights in the Arab world. She wrote numerous books on women in Islam, focusing on issues affecting women in the Global South, including sexuality, patriarchy, social class, and colonialism. Her medical background deeply informed her writing, leading her to approach societal issues with scientific precision and uncompromising honesty. Because of her radical ideas, El Saadawi faced intense backlash from both religious institutions and the state, resulting in censorship, the loss of her government job, and imprisonment in 1981 under President Anwar Sadat. Despite these threats, she remained an indomitable voice for the marginalized until her death.

Her non-fiction writing laid the theoretical groundwork for modern Arab feminism, directly confronting deeply taboo subjects. She gained widespread attention with her groundbreaking study, WOMEN AND SEX (1972), which analyzed the physical and psychological aggression inflicted on women's bodies, including female genital mutilation. The book outraged religious and political authorities, costing El Saadawi her position as Egypt's Director General of Public Health. Undeterred, she continued her sociological exploration of systemic misogyny in works like THE HIDDEN FACE OF EVE (1977), which introduced her sharp critique of patriarchal systems to a global audience when it was translated into English. It examined how people's sexual and emotional lives cannot be separated from their economic lives and their productivity, and therefore the personal status laws in Arab countries must be a priority for socialists.

El Saadawi’s fiction is equally powerful, often drawing from her real-life encounters to give voice to disenfranchised women. Her most famous novel, WOMAN AT POINT ZERO (1975), is based on her interview with a death-row inmate in Cairo’s Qanatir Prison. The novel tells the harrowing story of Firdaus, a woman who reclaims her autonomy only after rejecting the constraints of a corrupt societal system. Another major fictional work, GOD DIES BY THE NILE (1974), strips away the facade of village morality to expose how elite class privilege and religious hypocrisy intersect to exploit poor women.

Her experience behind bars directly inspired her poignant memoir, MEMOIRS FROM THE WOMEN'S PRISON (1983). Written secretly on rolls of toilet paper using a smuggled eyebrow pencil, the book offers an intimate look at political imprisonment and solidarity among female detainees. El Saadawi’s relentless interrogation of power dynamics is also evident in later works like THE FALL OF THE IMAM (1987), a novel that fiercely satirizes the tyrannical rule of autocratic leaders who twist religion to maintain control over women and society.

Through novels, plays, and essays, El Saadawi built a literary legacy that viewed bodily autonomy and intellectual freedom as inseparable. Her works, translated into over thirty languages, continue to serve as vital texts for understanding transnational feminism and postcolonial literature. By forcing the world to look at the intersection of gender, class, and politics, El Saadawi permanently altered the landscape of contemporary Arabic literature.


The following books are in ePUB and/or PDF format as indicated:

== NOVELS & NOVELLAS ==

* The Circling Song [included in God Dies by the Nile & Other Novels]
* Death of an Ex-Minister [tr. Eber] (Methuen, 1987) – PDF
* Fall of the Imam [tr. Hetata] (Telegram, 2012) – ePUB
* God Dies by the Nile & Other Novels [tr. Hetata & Eber] (Bloomsbury, 2024) – ePUB
* Innocence of the Devil [tr. Hetata] (California, 1994) – PDF
* Love in the Kingdom of Oil [tr. Hatim & Williams] (Saqi, 2001) – ePUB
* Memoirs of a Woman Doctor [tr. Cobham] (Saqi, 2000) – ePUB
* Searching [included in God Dies by the Nile & Other Novels]
* Two Women in One [tr. Nusairi] (Saqi, 2020) – ePUB
* The Well of Life and the Thread: Two Short Novels [tr. Hetata] (Lime Tree, 1993) – PDF
* Woman at Point Zero [tr. Hetata] (Zed, 2007) – ePUB / PDF
* Zeina [tr. Nowaira] (Saqi, 2011) – ePUB

== SHORT STORIES ==

* She Has No Place in Paradise [tr. Eber] (Minerva, 1989) – PDF

== PLAYS ==

* The Dramatic Literature of Nawal El Saadawi [ed. Newson-Horst] (Saqi, 2012) – ePUB
* Twelve Women in a Cell [play] (1994)

== MEMOIRS ==

* A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi [tr. Hetata, 2e] (Zed, 2009) – PDF
* Diary of a Child Called Souad [tr. Amin] (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) – PDF
* Memoirs from the Women’s Prison [tr. Booth] (Women's Press, 1986) – PDF
* My Travels Around the World [tr. Eber] (Minerva, 1992) – PDF
* Walking Through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi [tr. Hetata] (Zed, 2009) – ePUB / PDF

== NON-FICTION ==

* Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World [tr. Hetata] (Zed, 2015) – ePUB / PDF
* Off Limits: New Writings on Fear and Sin [tr. Youssef] (Gingko, 2019) – ePUB

== ANTHOLOGY ==

* The Essential Nawal El Saadawi: A Reader [ed. Newson-Horst] (Zed, 2010) – ePUB / PDF


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