Carolina QuotesWhen I travel in the Arab countries, I notice that the TV screen often shows two contradictory images one after the other. A religious man talking about the need to veil women appears on the TV screen, and immediately following is a half-naked woman or belly dancer advertising some makeup or perfume. Girls and women in our countries are torn between these images. According to the moral and religious system, they are supposed to be veiled, but they are also supposed to be exposed and naked (fashionable, feminine, beautiful) in order to conform to the media advertisements and the global culture.
Nawal El Saadawi Connected to the Carolinas
Source
"Women, Religion, and Literature: Bridging the cultural gap" (1994), included in The Nawal El Saadawi Reader
- year
- 1994
Cite this record
“When I travel in the Arab countries, I notice that the TV sc…” Nawal El Saadawi. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-92976C5E79. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/92976c5e79
More from Nawal El Saadawi
The hijab has nothing to do with moral values. A woman's moral values are reflected in her eyes, in the way she talks, and in the way she walks. They put on a hijab and go dancing, wearing high heels and lipstick. They wear tight jeans that show their bellies.
I spent ten years comparing the Old and New Testaments with the Koran – they are very similar; the differences are minimal. So we can say that the root of the oppression of women lies in the global post-modern capitalist system, which is supported by religious fundamentalism. This is because they need a god to justify oppression, their political hypocrisy, colonialism and the killing of people. How can the invasion of Palestine or Iraq be justified?! How can it be that today, 50 per cent of Egyptian people live below the poverty line while two percent have billions of dollars? How can we justify this? You need God in order to justify it. (2014)
I knew that [prostitution] had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.