Women’s Writing in the Land of Prohibitions: A Study of Alifa Rifaat and Female Body Protest as a Tool for Rebellion

Arab women’s writing has a long history of social and political rebellion against prohibitions that curb women’s freedom. The female body, with all its sexual and emotional needs, tops the list of prohibited subjects that Arab women’s writing has dared to address. This literature has long struggled against the values of conservative Arab societies that, in attempting to safeguard the female body, subject it to a host of extreme traditions as well as to oppressive, gender-based sexual norms.