ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Sharihan Al-Akhras, whose PhD traced the presence of Qur’anic imagery and Middle-Eastern mythology in Paradise Lost, sheds light on a neglected, yet intriguing aspect of Milton studies in the Arab world. Much has been said about Milton’s reception in the Arab world, since the influence by male Egyptian authors on what is acknowledged to be ‘the golden years of the Arab Renaissance’ in twentieth-century Arabic literature is undeniable. However, no attention has been given to the role of female authorship in reading, writing, or rewriting in response to Milton. This chapter provides the first account of female engagement with Milton’s Paradise Lost in Arab countries. This engagement includes teaching Milton, rewriting Milton, or writing in response to Arab male authors who ‘rewrote’ Milton. It also provides the first personal account given by Dr. Mona Prince, an Egyptian female academic who explains the demonisation she faced after teaching the text. The chapter then examines the way other female authors have remodelled ‘Eve’ either in response to male authors echoing Milton, or to reconceive – and at times erase – the ‘first Woman’ in a way that enables them to resist and redefine the role of gender in religion, society, and politics across a wide geopolitical landscape in the Levant and the Gulf, in the age of social media.
