From Egypt to America: Manipulating the Prison Experience in Women’s Prison Literature

This paper examines the manipulation of the prison experience in Farida Al-Naqqash’s Al-Sijn: al-Watan (Prison: Homeland) (1983) and Cyntoia Brown-Long’s Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System (2019). The study explores how both authors transform personal incarceration into narratives that expose the mechanisms of power. Central to this inquiry is how Al-Naqqash and Brown-Long manipulate depictions of imprisonment to critique the socio-political systems that sustain state control. Set against the backdrop of authoritarian Egypt and the racialized American penal system, these narratives reveal prisons as disciplinary sites designed to normalize and regulate the individual. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish (1975), these analyses demonstrate how carceral mechanisms produce “docile bodies”. By utilizing the prison as a metaphor for Egypt, Al-Naqqash connects political imprisonment to the repressive patriarchal structures, illustrating how gendered power silences voices while simultaneously inspiring resilience. Conversely, Brown-Long explores how the intersection of race, class and gender restricts marginalized women within the United States. Ultimately, both authors frame their narratives as acts of resistance; while Al-Naqqash tackles Middle Eastern patriarchy and political repression, Brown-Long challenges systemic racism and gendered repression within a democratic framework. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of comparative prison literature by highlighting how divergent political context utilizes similar narrative strategies to defy power system.