Entry 10-Nawaal El-Saadawi

So I already wrote my abstract, as seen on entry 9, but I have actually started reading some more modern stuff and may shift my perspective or something like that and edit that abstract. I read a lot of articles by a writer for Al-Ahram Weekly named Nevine El-Aref who I believe is a woman, or at least they call the writer she in a few headings. She is the main writer for any heritage articles that appear on the website. I e-mailed her about my project and we shall see what she says, if she responds. Her articles were very informative and I will probably use them to show how Egyptology still factors into the lives of some Egyptians. Her most interesting article was about the portrayal of Cleopatra in a modern televised series. The show was apparently pretty bad, based on the people she quoted, but interestingly there is very little of her own voice in the article. She mostly quotes males who are involved with Egyptology or males who make the films, rather than review it herself. I might look up more reviews for that piece to see what other sources have said.

Besides that, I also found a lot of work by Nawaal El-Saadawi who is a modern(ish) Egyptian Feminist and is rather polemical and extreme even though she is like 70+ years old. Based on what I've seen, I think she is more in the vein of a Westernized ( # wave) feminist movement. She also has a website that has some of her articles and the ability to listen to some of her talks as well. I picked up one of her books and she explicitly makes connections with the past going back to Ancient Egypt in order to make arguements for women's rights in Egypt, as seen in her autobiography Daughter of Isis . That is the sort of thing I wanted to look into and is a great connection. I also may e-mail Gay Robins who is an art historian who focuses on Ancient Egypt and see what she has to say or if she can direct me to more articles.