Documenting Incarceration: A Perusal of Nawal El Saadawi’s Memoirs from the Women’s Prison

Abstract

Women’s writings from prison are remarkable for their power to break the chains of silence in order to disrupt the power structure often characterised by male dominance. Women prison authors become warriors to safeguard the rights of ordinary women and women prisoners. They strive to challenge oppressive and patriarchal notions promulgated by the regime and society. The collectiveness in these works serves as a mouthpiece for all oppressed women, irrespective of their class, colour, religion, nationality, etc. These works also have more gravity in experience than ordinary feminist writings, as they emanate from the hostile spaces of prison. Prison literature is dominated by the writings of men, and the writings of women are often side-lined. What differentiates women’s prison writing from that of men is their sense of double victimisation. Their writings delineate the sufferings not only within society but also inside the prison. The prison authors discover their own ways to inscribe their harrowing experiences, where toilet papers, cigarette covers, barks of trees, etc. act as writing material and blood, coal, etc. as alternative tools. This paper discusses how the documentation of carceral experience surpasses the challenges inside the bars and disrupts the power structure of both patriarchy and the state, thereby giving ample opportunities for Saadawi’s memoir to excel over men’s prison writing.