ABSTRACT
Muslim women have been stereotyped by Western academia as oppressed and voiceless. This volume problematizes this Western academic representation. Muslim Women Writers from the Middle East from Out al-Kouloub al-Dimerdashiyyah (1899–1968) and Latifa al-Zayat (1923–1996) from Egypt, to current diasporic writers such as Tamara Chalabi from Iraq, Mohja Kahf from Syria, and even trendy writers such as Alexandra Chreiteh, challenge the received notion of Middle Eastern women as subjugated and secluded. The younger largely Muslim women scholars collected in this book present cutting edge theoretical perspectives on these Muslim women writers. This book includes essays from the conflict-ridden countries such as Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, and the resultant diaspora. The strengths of Muslim women writers are captured by the scholars included herein. The approach is feminist, post-colonial, and disruptive of Western stereotypical academic tropes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Section 1|72 pages
Memory and Matriarchy
chapter 2|10 pages
Rebuilding Baghdad
chapter 3|12 pages
Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem
chapter 4|11 pages
“Don’t Get in my Face Like Ashiq Peri”
chapter 6|12 pages
Feminist Ethnography, Revisionary Historiography, and the Subaltern in Assia Djebar’s Fantasia
part Section 2|47 pages
Body and Politics
chapter 8|12 pages
Muslim Face, White Mask
chapter 9|12 pages
Same-sex Relations in Modern Arabic Fiction between Empowerment and Impossibility
part Section 3|42 pages
Identity and Crossing Boundaries
chapter 11|8 pages
“A Girl Is Like a Bottle of Coke”
part Section 4|38 pages
Moving to Wider Spheres
chapter 17|13 pages
Documenting Refugee Crisis and Post-migration Living Difficulties in Ebtissam Shakoush’s In the Camps and Social Media Representations
part Section 5|38 pages
Returning to the Scheherazade Within