Eyes as Memory, Social Meaning

Nawal El Saadawi tells the story of Firdaus, an Egyptian woman who, because of her societal position faces unending struggle.  Her story is tragic, her experiences are brutal, but her ability to fight back is—as Saadawi ultimately concludes—a testimate to truth itself.  Saadawi’s discovered truth: women are human and their oppression at the hands of men is unjust.

Saadawi begins by describing meeting Firdaus for the first time.  Upon looking into her eyes, she writes feeling “as though I had died.”  She goes on to say that “they were the eyes that killed, like a knife, probing, cutting deep down inside, their look steady, unwavering.”  At first, I mistook Saadawi’s description of a killer’s cold stare.  Eyes that were trying to provoke.  But as I read the novel I began to consider Firdaus’ eyes as brave and all knowing.  Eyes that were constantly trying to ward off the evil around her.  Her eyes are unwavering in their stare. Firdaus is urgent, commanding.  She instructs: “Let me speak. Do not interrupt me.”  Yet it is not necessarily voice that showcases her agency.  Her eyes are powerful filters of memory and meaning. 

Her childhood, her first steps are remembered via “two eyes.”  Firdaus explains that “they are eyes that watched me.  Even if I disappeared from their view, they could see me, and follow me wherever I went, so that if I faltered while learning to walk they would hold me up.”  Although these eyes watch her carefully, they do not gaze lovingly. These eyes, her mother’s eyes, are desperate.  They peer at her even when she isn’t looking into them. Her mother’s eyes are piercing while her father’s often indicate brutality.  When young Firdaus carries water past the Mosque men’s eyes indicate ill intentions even as their voices speak of prayers and religion. The juxtaposition of mouth and eye highlights misogyny, hypocrisy.  The eyes always reveal the truth. 

Later, Firdaus copes with her changing self identity by being “born anew.”  She describes living with her sexually abusive uncle, who inhabits a higher social positioning because of his education.  Yet, she must rely on him to gain access to knowledge, not to mention food, clothing and a roof over her head.  Firdaus flicks a light switch and is overwhelmed by brightness, her first experience with electricity.  She likens this to “looking out through them [her eyes] for the first time,” or being born a second time. It is at this point that she discovers a mirror as well.  She inspects her body, but is disturbed by it. 

Perhaps one of the most heart breaking aspects of Firdaus’ story is that she is unable to fully express love, or her love is never entirely reciprocated.  Love is described through eye interaction.  Miss Iqbal is her first love, which makes sense because school is a sacred, empowering space for her.  She breaks down in the library, begins to sob and Miss Iqbal comforts her.  Soon Firdaus is overwhelmed with longing for Miss Iqbal.  She explains that  “the more I stared into them [Miss Iqbal’s eyes] the bigger they grew, expanding […] The black circle kept growing until it reached the size of the earth and the white circle expanded into a piercingly white mass, large as the sun.”  Next, her own eyes become blinded by the enormity of her feeling.  Suddenly all eyes—all of the characters in her life—become one blinding mass.  Love is the uniting force.  Love blurs the hierarchy between individual people’s eyes.  Sadly, love is a rare aspect of her life.  Instead, the male gaze is a common antagonist, which hunts her down, particularly in the public sphere.  She runs away from her abusive uncle and is left to fend for herself on the streets, which are especially dangerous as night falls.  In one scene, the narrator provides a vivid description of the male gaze:

“In the dark I suddenly perceived two eyes, or rather felt them, moving towards me very slowly, closer and closer.  They dropped their gaze with slow intent down to my shoes, rested there for a moment, then gradually started to climb up my legs, to my thighs, my belly, my breasts, my neck and finally came to a stop, fastening themselves steadily in my eyes, with the same cold intent.” 

I found this to be a poignant description of why the male gaze hurts women.  These eyes are similar to the men leaving the mosque.  They are crippling.  She goes on to explain that “ I was not confronted with a hand holding a knife or razor, but only with two eyes, nothing but two eyes.”  What makes these eyes so powerful is that they are not connected to any one body.  Still the male gaze represents enslavement.  Even in the private sphere Firdaus cannot escape the male gaze.  Bayoumi, once seemingly helpful to her, hones that same stare when he forces her to prostitute herself.  His eyes “travelled with an infinitely slow movement over my face, and my neck, and then dropped downwards gradually over my breast […] in between my thighs.”  The male gaze seeks to exploit her sexuality.  Ultimately, it is this gaze that she conceptualizes as her sole method of social movement.  The male gaze ushers in Firdaus’ life as a sex worker. 

She escapes Bayoumi and befriends a prostitute who helps her discover that she has “black eyes, with a sparkle that attracted other eyes like a magnet.”  She never looks into the eyes of the men that she sleeps with.  She closes her eyes, but often lies to them when they ask her if it feels good; another contrast between mouth and eyes.  She is able to provide for herself.  Firdaus describes having her own money.  She uses this money to buy food and the waiter’s “eyes looked elsewhere, did not linger over my plate.”  At this moment, the first time that she feels any sense of authority, she describes the eye’s movement as “like a knife through the veil, which hung over my eye, and I realized this was the first time in my life I was eating without being watched by two eyes.”  Again, the eyes are significant in that they nearly wield physical power.  Over and over they are likened to knives, cutting, piercing and stabbing.  This may have been due to the translation from Arabic to English.  Are there more words to describe these weapons?  Overall, I gathered that eyes are a meaningful symbol in Egyptian culture—an ancient one.  I felt that their importance was perhaps not adequately conveyed using English prose.       

Nevertheless, Firdaus kills Marzouk only after she senses fear in his eyes, and the eyes of men. At that moment, she discovers that she is as human as he is and the only thing that separates them is social positioning.  After killing Marzouk, she has sex with a prince, but when she is given a large sum of money she tears it to pieces.  This action seems to represent the last “true enigma of […] life.”  The true enigma cannot be seen until Firdaus cuts through the final veil from before her eyes.  This enigma was that no matter what she did—prostitute or respectable business woman, wife or independent woman—she was constantly being oppressed.  The evil eye is the male gaze.  Yet, there was no real, physical difference between her fear and the fear that men experience.  Even the Prince has fear in his eyes.  Eyes can be a uniting force.

In the novel’s conclusion, El Saadawi seems to be especially cognizant of her own social positioning.  As an educated, respectable woman, she feels ashamed; she gets into her car and her eyes drop to the ground.  In my opinion, this gesture is symbolic of the humility we all need to have.  All men and women, regardless of social positioning, should strive to be courageous and ensure global gender equality.