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ISIS
A Play in Two Acts
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Introduction
In her introduction to Isis (1986), Nawal El Saadawi explains, āThis play, which I am presenting now, is the Egyptian Isis as I understand her from history. History belongs to everyone who possesses an amount of imagination, brains, and a genuine curiosity to know the truth.ā This declaration sparked my curiosity (as an Arab woman and an American educator) to investigate how a writer from the same region as mine might reinterpret history. What I discovered after reading Isis was, no, El Saadawi did not correct history; she attempted to reassess what had been set out before her. Of course, it is expected of Nawal El Saadawi that she would reform inconsistencies and introduce truths because she is a woman who dares.
I met Nawal El Saadawi at The Spring Literary Festival at Ohio University in 2007, but I knew about her from her writings three decades earlier, while I was still a student at the University of Damascus in Syria in the 1970s. Who back then could resist reading Memoir of a Woman Doctor (1958), Women and Sex (1972), and The Naked Face of Arab Women (1974), the marvelous early books of Nawal El Saadawi? Her topics appealed to my generation because they discussed taboo subjects that we were eager to explore, and they taught us the secrets of femininity and the importance of self-appreciation. We could not put down a book by Nawal El Saadawi once we started reading it and my group of friends and I used to hide Women and Sex inside a textbook to read without interruption.
Parents and teachers monitored the activities of their youths and kept a close eye on their behaviors; therefore, we did not want to be caught red-handed with illicit material. Reading provocative literature would attract attention to our rebellious nature, demonstrating our awareness of forbidden subjects, which would, consequently, affect our privileges. Accordingly, these books became precious items for their content. In this regard, we depended on El Saadawi to educate and unify young people who wanted to learn, investigate, and grasp the potential of their bodies and illuminate their minds. It is also important to mention that books by Nawal El Saadawi were not restricted to female readers. My introduction to these books actually came about through my older brother, Bassam, who suggested Women and Sex after he had read it. I considered him my best friend and intellectual advisor, someone who inspired me to read classics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, and Madame de Bovary, and whom I witnessed engaging in night-long debates with a group of passionate friends in spontaneous discussions about all kinds of interesting topics. It was among these friends that we were able to exchange the most interesting books and my copy of Women and Sex ended up with the sister of another member of this enthusiastic group.
I was also interested in the literature about ancient Mediterranean deities, a topic that was not commonly discussed in Islamic cultures and for which resources were rare. In most cases, the topic of ancient goddesses and gods was broached to highlight and reinforce the relevance of the prevailing religions of Christianity, Islam, andāto a certain degreeāJudaism (which were not emphasized due to the conflict with Israel) as a means of saving our species from the destruction and harm of previous ...
