Contrasting representations of female characters in Mahfouz's 1966 novel Adrift on the Nile and Hussein Kamal's 1971 film adaptation After reading Naguib Mahfouz's Adrift on the Nile and Having seen the film of the same title released in 1972, you will undoubtedly notice the stark contrast between the portrayals of women in each of these works. Critics such as Ibrahim El-Sheikh and Pamela Allegretto-Diiulio have argued that by realistically depicting the social condition of Egyptian women, Mahfouz's literature protests against the country's patriarchal society and challenges the idea that women are not equal to men. The novel is clearly in line with these criticisms. Women in the novel are depicted as strong, independent, intellectual, and on equal footing with their male counterparts. The film, however, departs significantly from these positive portrayals of women. The women in the film are mostly shown as vapid sexpots. Although Mahfouz did not write the screenplay, he held positions as director of censorship at the Office of the Arts, director of the Foundation for the Support of Cinema, consultant to the Ministry of Culture, giving him a heavy hand in the final product of the film . It is therefore safe to say that Mahfouz sacrificed the feminist message of his novel in the film adaptation, but to what end? The film takes on a more overtly political tone than the novel, but takes steps backwards in its portrayal of women. In his essay, The Role of Naguib Mahfouz in Egyptian Cinema, Hashim al-Nahhas addresses the differences between the novel and cinema as a medium. He asks to what extent a film can be faithful to a text, and also states that we must ask ourselves why and how a director can transfer a novel to the screen without... middle of paper... hfouz: a Western and Eastern cage of entrapment female. Youngstown, NY: Cambria, 2007. Print.Al-Nahhas, Hashim, and Trevor Le Gassick. "The role of Naguib Mahfouz in Egyptian cinema". Critical perspectives on Naguib Mahfouz. 163-173. Washington, DC: Three Continents, 1991. MLA International Bibliography. Network. 22 October 2012.Maḥfūẓ, Najīb. Drifting on the Nile. Trans. Francesca Liadet. New York: Anchor, 1993. Print.Mikhail, Mona. Seen and Heard: A Century of Arab Women in Literature and Culture. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch, 2004. Print.Mikhail, Mona. Studies on the short fiction of Mahfouz and Idris. New York: New York UP, 1992. Print.Moosa, Matti. The Early Novels of Naguib Mahfouz: Images of Modern Egypt. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, 1994. Print.Mulvey, Laura. "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema". Screen 16.3 (1975): 6-18. Press.