Abstract

Nawal El Saadawi is arguably one of the most well-known Egyptian feminist authors and activists of all time, and many of her novels have gained overwhelming critical attention throughout the years. The 2020 re-publication of one of her lesser-known works originally published in 1985, Two Women in One, has sparked new interest in Saadawi, and more recent feminist theories by Arab thinkers make the analysis of this novel even more intriguing. Before Saadawi became a renowned author and activist, she had a career in medicine and public health, which greatly influenced her writings. The novel, Two Women in One, explains in part why Saadawi chose to abandon the medical profession for being part of a patriarchal, exploitative system. Through the novel’s protagonist, Bahiah Shaheen, the reader gets a glimpse of what life was like for a young female medical student in 1950s Cairo, but it also explains how Bahiah (and ultimately Saadawi) could reconcile the “two women” inside her, an authentic self and the expectations that society held for her. This article explores the connection between the lack of sexual rights and women’s second-class citizen status in Egyptian society. In addition to citing Saadawi’s own theories presented in her various essays, this analysis also includes critical perspectives by prominent feminists from the Arab world and/or the Global South such as Guèye, Yaqub, Quawas, El Feki, Eltahawy, and Slimani.