Women’s oppression reflected in El-Saadawi’s love in the kingdom of oil: an Islamic view

Islam often receives negative sentiment regarding its teachings in positioning women in marriage. Some understandings of Islamic teachings are often misused and misunderstood as oppression towards women. Nawal El-Saadawi in Love in the Kingdom of Oil (2001) criticizes the oppression of women in marriage in the name of Islamic culture and religion. Therefore, this research aims to examine the forms of oppression experienced by women in marriage as reflected in the novel Love in the Kingdom of Oil and examine them based on Islamic teachings. This research must resolve two problems: (1) How is women’s oppression in marriage depicted in Love in The Kingdom of Oil? (2) How is women's oppression in marriage depicted in Love in The Kingdom of Oil viewed based on Islamic teachings? This research used a qualitative approach, which is used to examine the phenomenon of the subject under study. This approach was also used to explore, understand, and interpret the meaning of textual data originating from narratives and conversations between characters presented as research subjects. Data was collected by collecting quotations in the novel into a data table to simplify classifying the data. Then, the researcher classified important data according to the research topic. After that, the researcher analyzed and identified the important data obtained to find the forms of oppression experienced by the female characters in the novel using Iris Young's theory of oppression. Finally, the analysis continued by examining these forms of oppression from the perspective of Islamic teachings through various secondary sources such as interpretations of the Quran and hadith, books, journals, encyclopedias, and other articles. The results of the study showed that the marital oppression experienced by the protagonist and the women in this novel came from the existence of a male guardianship system, the practice of domestic slavery, marital rape, physical violence, and polygyny. These practices contain oppression in the form of exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, violence, and cultural imperialism. Then, after examining them from the perspective of Islamic teachings, those oppressive practices occurred due to a misunderstanding in understanding the teachings of the Islamic religion because it strongly opposes the practice of oppressing women in marriage for any reason.