Arab Women Writers

Fatima Mernissi b. 1940
Sociologist and memoirist. Almost single-handedly begins the feminist movement in Morocco—she herself raised n the women’s quarters and behind the veil.
Our selection is from her first autobiographical work, Dreams of Trespass.
“The Harem Within.” Begins with a long bit on nature. Beautiful flowers that the women could enjoy were in brocade and embroidery. Except that once a year (!) they went on a picnic. Its Mother who is a bit rebellious (‘when you’ve spent a day among trees, waking up with walls as horizons is unbearable.”
The preference of confronting Ahmed to going the clandestine, terrace way, as a gesture of principle of women’s right to free movement.
The no-nature to picnic and back is contrasted with the life of Yasmina’s farm. Yasmina the wise (she advises the narrator to let go of this right-wrong business/ she looks at the layers of meaning in words.)
“Once you knew what was forbidden, you carried the harem within.” Uses the fact that the peasant will shield his sight if he sees the women walking in the farm to illustrate his harem within. Talks about the necessity of reading the invisible rules that abound everywhere (the qa’ida) and the fact that so many things in this life are in the forbidden category.
The child has the conclusion—that if Yasmina’s farm in not strictly hurriya (freedom then what did hurriya mean?
In the end, the answer seemed to be not to obsess about the walls and the forbidden, but to focus on happiness. This seems sound, but in the end, her answer to “will I be Happy?” seems to involve a lot of trespass by the young Fatima on forbidden ground. Although maybe not, since all the things ascribed to her future could be experienced inside the walls.

Hanan al-Shaykh (b. 1945)
Known as a Lebanese writer—and well known throughout the literary world.
“A Season of Madness” is a simple story. Main plot—a woman feigns madness instead of admitting to an adulterous affair.
The first acts of madness are directed toward mother-in-law.
The story is all madness until the watercolors are mentioned—these are able to calm her down. Describes the old Fatin—who is unable to say yes).
Mid-795. Here the husband is leaning towards leniency and towards compassion (as opposed to the m-in-l)
when she hears his vow that he will never abandon her, that is when she feels she must come into the light with the real reason behind her madness. The relationship with the other man is a wholly different kind of relationship[ for her—he is interested in her, worshipful even, and catches her at doing something which is by her choice, through her passion.
Her tactic is to try to make herself disagreeable by all kinds of odor inducing foods.
The thing that is impossible for them to believe is that she had had an affair and wanted a divorce. For the pair, this is utter confirmation of her madness. It is kind of funny.

Fadwa Tuqan (b. 1917)
Palestinian—from a family that had possessed land. At a young age her home becomes her prison (for the crime of accepting a rose from a young boy at the age of 10). Her first poetry about the hypocrisy of the patriarchal double-standard.
The poem “In the Aging City” is primarily about the feeling of isolation and alone-ness in the mist of the city’s throngs. During the red light there is a moment of reflection, of memory, and she remembers Aisha—she who is truly alone in the darkness of the prison. Aisha’s crime seems to be setting ablaze a thick forest of trees. Look up whether this kind of arson is prevalent.
In this ending conversation—is this with a guy who is trying to pick her up?
“In the Flux”
“Face Lost in the Wilderness”
A sad elegy to loss—of her country, of love and love’s possibilities, of the seasons and the moon and everything except this bitter reminder of what for her are the occupying forces.

Farough Faroghzad (1935-67)
One of Iran’s best know poet of any gender.
Not characteristic of many of Faroghzad’s poems, which are often defiant, openly erotic declarations of love and desire. Here, to some extent, a poem chronicling the loss when the fierce independence is insisted upon. “I shall be what I am called to be, I said. But oh, the misery that “woman” is my name.”