{"id":186237,"date":"2021-04-15T16:06:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T14:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/woman-at-point-zero-nawal-el-saadawis-radical-african-feminism-was-ahead-of-its-time\/"},"modified":"2021-04-15T16:06:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T14:06:19","slug":"woman-at-point-zero-nawal-el-saadawis-radical-african-feminism-was-ahead-of-its-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/woman-at-point-zero-nawal-el-saadawis-radical-african-feminism-was-ahead-of-its-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman at Point Zero: Nawal El Saadawi\u2019s radical African feminism was ahead of its time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Egyptian author, physician and activist Nawal El Saadawi<\/a>\u2019s recent death<\/a> has brought her writing back into the public eye. <\/p>\n

This is an opportune return, because El Saadawi\u2019s feminism was ahead of its time \u2013 in both the Arab and the African worlds.<\/p>\n

In a recent analysis<\/a>, I focused on her 1975 novel Woman at Point Zero<\/em>. El Saadawi published over 50 books in her lifetime, many of them novels<\/a>. Woman at Point Zero<\/em>, the first of her novels to cause public controversy, tells the story Firdaus, a woman born into poverty in Egypt who survives genital mutilation and several abusive relationships before becoming a sex worker.<\/p>\n

I maintain that the novel occupies the extreme edge of radical feminism, and that this is why it has been either neglected<\/a> or reviled by commentators from the global south. The dominant feminist theories of the time could not accommodate its radicalism.<\/p>\n

Different feminist theories<\/h2>\n

Arab feminist theory is deeply implicated with patriarchal religious debate. By contrast, African feminism is largely secular (not concerned with religion). It appeared in the 20th century as somewhat moderate, mostly positioning itself in opposition to western feminism. With some justification, African gender theorists denounced western feminism as a form of cultural imperialism against which African traditions needed defending. <\/p>\n

Though their thinking on gender was overwhelmingly binary, 20th-century African feminists insisted on the inclusion of men in every progressive crusade. They declared gender issues to be inextricably entangled with other systems of injustice and exclusion such as racism, colonialism and capitalism \u2013 what\u2019s today defined as intersectional feminism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many rejected the name \u201cfeminism\u201d and defined alternative movements such as womanism, Stiwanism, motherism, Umoja, nego-feminism and African womanism.<\/p>\n

\n

Read more: Nawal El Saadawi\u2019s intellectual life reflected eight decades of Arab society and culture<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n

In the 21st century African feminism is changing \u2013 particularly in the South African context. Young women, constantly apprised of the rate of gender-based violence in their country, are losing patience with men. On social media, hashtags such as #MenAreTrash<\/a> and #AmINext<\/a> are becoming viral commonplaces in response to horrifying growth in sexual harassment, rape and femicide. The term \u201crape culture\u201d is used widely, especially on university campuses, where outrage at gender-based violence has spurred consciousness and debate<\/a> but sometimes resulted in the abuse of men suspected of rape. <\/p>\n

In El Saadawi\u2019s Egypt today, too, a burgeoning #MeToo movement<\/a> continues<\/a> to take to the streets and to social media.<\/p>\n

The radical edge<\/h2>\n

Classical Western feminism, as propagated by such theorists as Kate Millett<\/a>, Mary Daly<\/a> and Andrea Dworkin<\/a>, sees patriarchy, in all its forms, throughout history and in all societies, as the foundational system of injustice. Patriarchy is dominant and underlying, not equal and intersectional with, all other systems of oppression. <\/p>\n

The most radical fringe of western feminism is probably embodied in such writings<\/a> as the anonymous 1974 C.L.I.T. Papers<\/em><\/a>, which advocate a complete severance and separation from men, and Valerie Solanas<\/a>\u2019s 1967 SCUM Manifesto<\/a><\/em>, which demands that all men be killed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The first English edition.<\/span> Zed Books<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

El Saadawi\u2019s novel is no less radical. In Woman at Point Zero<\/a><\/em> every male character without exception is an unreclaimable member of the patriarchy who exploits or abuses women \u2013 in particular the female protagonist Firdaus \u2013 whenever opportunity presents itself. Some women characters are also recruited into the patriarchy, which is an overarching system of oppression to which even capitalism is subordinate. <\/p>\n

The narrator goes to some lengths to make the point that all men are equally implicated. Firdaus\u2019s father eats all the food in the house in times of scarcity and beats his wife and children. Her uncle abuses her sexually and marries her off to an elderly, physically repulsive husband when she becomes a liability. Her husband beats and abuses her. The man who rescues her from her marriage later turns her into a sex slave. A young revolutionary she falls in love with dumps her for his rich employer\u2019s daughter. During her time as a prostitute both the \u201cjohns\u201d and the pimps are constantly working to undermine her independence and steal her income.<\/p>\n

Firdaus kills a man<\/h2>\n

In the climactic moment of the book, Firdaus kills a man. The fact that the man is, individually, a murderous pimp, seems irrelevant at this moment. Firdaus experiences an epiphany in which she realises that she \u201chate(s) him as only a woman can hate a man, as only a slave can hate his master\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cA woman\u201d is any, or every woman, \u201ca man\u201d is any man. Her action is generalised so that the two characters are not individuals but representatives of their gender. The woman\u2019s hatred is exclusive to \u201conly\u201d the absolutely oppressed; the distinction between women and slaves is obliterated. <\/p>\n

\n

Read more: An Egyptian woman who dared: the Nawal El Saadawi I knew<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Swiftly taking the knife with which the man would have attacked her, she stabs him again and again, with redundant and extravagant violence. She is \u201castonished to find how easily her hand move(s) as (she) thrust(s) the knife into his flesh\u201d, despite the fact that this is an unfamiliar experience to her. Led on by her sense of ease and fitness, her next thought is the crucial question: <\/p>\n

\n

Why was it that I had never stabbed a man before? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Her answer, \u201cfear\u201d, which can and should be overcome, is a sign that this act can and should be universalised.<\/p>\n

Firdaus\u2019s action is clearly endorsed as the appropriate response not just to her own situation, but to that of every woman. Nothing in the book contradicts it, from the narrator\u2019s reverent attitude to her protagonist to the ways in which all the women in Firdaus\u2019s prison \u2013 including the female guard \u2013 believe that she is innocent and treat her as a martyr.<\/p>\n

Firdaus is eventually executed. But her uncompromising response to the man in her way is the only solution that this novel offers to the problem of patriarchy. It may not be a charitable \u2013 or even a practical \u2013 solution, but it is the logical outcome of a radical feminism. <\/p>\n

It exists as a warning not just to the patriarchy itself but to those who compromise or negotiate with the patriarchy and all its allied systems of inequity.<\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Egyptian author, physician and activist Nawal El Saadawi\u2019s recent death has brought her writing back into the public eye. This is an opportune return, because El Saadawi\u2019s feminism was ahead of its time \u2013 in both the Arab and the African worlds. In a recent analysis, I focused on her 1975 novel Woman at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":186238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-186237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/woman-at-point-zero-nawal-el-saadawis-radical-african-feminism-was-ahead-of-its-time.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}