A Feminist Approach and Analysis to El Saaddawi's "In Camera"

Nawal El Saadawi , a modern day Egyptian feminist author and civil activist, realized at an early age that she “had been born a female in a world that wanted only males,” and has sought to expose the injustices which women have been  treated to. Throughout the means of novels, short stories, essays and autobiographies, El Saadawi has demonstrated the women’s predicament over the span of fifty years to multiple countries (1191). In one of her most popular short stories, “In Camera”, she depicts a female protagonist being tried in a courtroom for calling her un-named country’s King “stupid.” Through an intimate omniscient third person account and shifting of characters, El Saadawi purposely constructs an emotional account of the female de-humanization of a young woman at the hands of an unjust patriarchal society.

Leila, the narrator of the beginning of the story, is a woman in an Arabic society who is on trial for expressing her personal beliefs on the corruption of the patriarchal government. She was arrested for speaking her thoughts and sent to prison. While in prison, the guards tortured her by raping her. Over three thousand and twenty-five hours (126 days), Leila suffered numerous counts of rape. Leila’s fragility while sitting in the courtroom is depicted from this starting point and leads throughout the story.

Besides the rape, Leila also suffers with her eyes adjusting to light in the courtroom, thinking, “light was painful, even though her eyes were still shut,” for while she was imprisoned, she was kept in a dark area. She is unable to fully see the courtroom in its light, due to being in the dark prison for so long, so that the images she can make out seem to be in a thick fog (1196). She is also suffering a terrible pain from a wound in her lower abdomen caused by the rapes. Yet, when Leila thinks of the suffering she has endured, and the corruption of the higher officials, she becomes fully mentally aware of her feelings towards them. She thinks, “And what inner corruption! She wished at that moment they would give her pen and paper so that she could draw that corruption,” (1195). She continues to recall an Egyptian mythological story of Isis and Osiris, comprehending the fervor of splitting one’s body for the truth to be told. Her immense awareness and cognitive comprehension of the wrong-doings of the political scene are strong, even though her senses and her body are weak like an animal (1194). El Saadawi alludes that it was Leila’s mind which kept fighting for survival while in prison.

The text’s narration shifts to Leila’s mother, who remains unnamed, for a few paragraphs in the middle of the short story. Her mother laments over her daughter’s suffering, thinking to herself, “God of Heaven and Earth, how could you let them do all that? How, my daughter, did you stand so much pain?” (1197) Her mother reflects on Leila’s “capability to do anything” and the immense strength she showed from when she was an infant, stating “…your movements were strong while you were still a fetus and shook me from inside, like a volcano shakes the earth,” (1197). Leila’s mother’s lamenting reflects the sheer torture in which she felt while her oldest daughter was being tortured for her disobedience to her patriarchal society. 

Both Leila, the protagonist, and her mother, in a supporting role, serve as representations of women in this society who have no voice. The role of both women is to represent the female suffering which occurs in a highly patriarchal society. In “In Camera,” both women’s voices are exposed through the privacy of their own intimate thoughts to reveal their ideas since free speech for women is not allowed; their sufferings are exposed through their silence.

Throughout “In Camera,” men are the only characters who are given titles and who speak out loud. In the courtroom, the judge exudes his power with his large hammer and speaking voice, reading out loud the charges of the young Leila. Towards the end, the judge is in a conference with his male aides, who inevitably take Leila “back to where she’d been before” (1202) thus exuding their power over the female character who is helpless in her position. Even Leila’s father, who at first was filled with pride over his daughter’s speaking of the truth, is left feeling shameful and embarrassed to call her a member of his family once he realizes his honor is no longer valid since she was raped. His thoughts sum up how entirely backwards this patriarchal society is, for instead of feeling pity for his daughter like any caring father would, he is ashamed of her. He thinks:           

“Had he not told her bitterly: Politics, my girl, is not for women and girls. But she had not listened to him. If she had been a man, he would not be suffering now the way he was. None of those gods would have been able to violate his honor and dignity.”

The attitudes the men of “In Camera” have towards women is one of their culture- that women are undeniably less than men and do not have the right to free speech. Women are not honored, nor allowed to speak their mind in this oppressing society. Leila’s mother remembers the sadness her own mother felt when Leila was born, recounting how “grandmother pursed her lips in sorrow and said, ‘A girl and ugly, too! A double catastrophe!’” (1197) Women, in this society, were viewed as the weaker sex, or the “other”, which give power to the men.

El Saadawi did not share the same ideas of this men- controlled Arabic society. Born into a similar society, she began her long struggle for her individual right of expression and of her crusade for female emancipation in Egypt and the Arab world generally by the publication of her first book Women and Sex . After suing the government for closing her organization for women’s rights, Arab Women’s Solidarity Association, and losing the case, El Saadawi fled to America for safety for fear of assassination (1191). She experienced a firsthand account of the suffering of women in the Arab world, and sought to write the truth of women’s disadvantage. Through the short story of “In Camera” she exposes the voice of the women which cannot be heard out loud in their communities.

Work Cited:

Simon, Peter, ed. Norton Anthology of World Literature. Shorter Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.

“El Saadawi, Nawal.” Simon. 1191- 1202. Print.