She Has No Place in Paradise by Nawal El Saadawi

By King Meera -
excerpt from novel by same name

"She was taught at an early age that it did not matter what she thought or felt and she was placed here on earth for one reason only, to please the men and do exactly as they demanded. Her mother told her that she would have paradise one day, but only with her husband. Zeinab took ongoing abuse throughout her whole life. She learned at a very early age that every man that was ever in her life was going to mistreat and abused her because she had no purpose here on earth. She often found herself daydreaming of a beautiful place that had no suffering and pain. After her husband’s death, she wanted to seek happiness with another man, however understanding how others would view her, she kept on mourning. I believe the mourning was for her own torture, not the loss of her husband. This story was a little confusing. I hope that I am reading this right. The way I read this, it seemed that she faked her death to finally see paradise and found that her husband did the same to live with other women. She realizes that there is no escape for her. Even in paradise, she will be viewed as a black woman with no meaningful purpose. I hope that I got the right meaning out of this story. Paradise is in the eye of the beholder and in her eyes she was made to see that she had no meaningful purpose. Her place was to take the abuse of men and to pretend like she enjoyed it. So therefore Paradise in her eyes would be some form of bondage that she could never escape from. I would view this like a winged angel in chains." (from laura-shehasnoplaceinparadise.blogspot.com)

theme of alienation in Arab society 

"In this novel, Saadawi (1987), an Egyptian feminist writer and physician, focuses on the private realm of gender relations (e.g., relations between friends, father-daughter, mother-daughter, and husband-wife relations) and illustrates how the process of modernization and the conflict between traditional and modern values creates a sense of alienation in both women and men."

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