In "Diary of a Child Called Souad," El Saadwi gives us a young female protagonist whose spirit longs for freedom from the restraints in her world that she does not understand. Through Souad s eyes, we see the oppression of women within a household, as we witness her grandfather s fierce dominance over her family and her grandmother s and aunt s unbearable silence. With Souad s story, El Saadwi paints a precise, tragic portrait of the personal yet universal tragedy experienced by an entire society of Egyptian girls."