Nawal El Saadawi’s The Hidden Face of Eve is one of the major feminist texts of the late twentieth century.

It draws upon memoir, political analysis, medical testimony, and carries itself through the force of refusal. Drawing on her work as an Egyptian doctor, psychiatrist, writer and activist, El Saadawi examines sexuality, marriage, female genital mutilation, religion, class, colonialism and patriarchal honour systems across Arab societies, with particular force around the ways women’s bodies are made into social property.

First published in English by Zed Press in 1980, the book remains sharp because it does not politely separate the intimate from the political. El Saadawi writes from inside the machinery: clinics, families, law, religion, education, the bedroom, the operating table. It is heavy, direct, historically important feminist writing — not a comfort read, more a brick through a very old window.

Rare original Zed Press paperback edition, third reprint, November 1982. Translated and edited by Sherif Hetata. General shelf wear to covers, including rubbing, edge wear, creasing and surface marks; pages age-toned but clean, binding sound.