Hidden Faces

After a ten years’ absence, journalist Safaa Fathay returns to her native country Egypt to do an interview with the popular writer Nawal El Saadawi. She not only visits a number of projects set up by El Saadawi, but also her own family in the traditional south of Egypt. Here, she tries to find answers that the writer, to her disappointment, did not provide. Her mother, aunts, cousins and friends explain where a woman stands in the present-day Egyptian society. This does not appear to be very hopeful, although the women talk with cheerful candour about the how and why of their circumcisions. What is gained on one side by progress is reversed on the other by the advancing fundamentalism. So, Fathay’s mother and aunts wear headscarves again and her friend embarks on an arranged marriage with her eyes open.