Following the years after the 1973 October War (Yom Kippur War) with Israel, the new Egyptian President Anwar Sādāt introduced his policy of infitāḥ (openness) which aimed to open the gates to the West and to re-privatization. It led the way to Egypt’s allying to the United States, which became their aid-giver, and to political appeasement with Israel.
The result of the infitāḥ policy for the Egyptian people has been described in literature as cruel, ugly, and depriving. For example, the infitāḥ period deprived the youth of being able to pay the mahr (dowry) and rent a flat making it impossible for them to enjoy marriage and legitimate sex (reference). This led to much literature dealing with feelings of sexual frustration and impotance.
- Ṣunʿallāh Ibrāhīm (1937 – 2025, Egypt) – al-Lajnah (1981, English trans. The Committee, 2001), in which the protagonist is the victim of a conspiracy. The novel sheds light on the mistakes of the economic Infitāḥ politics which suffocated the middle class, created a gap between the rich and poor, and allowed for foreign companies to destroy the economy (see for more information G: Dysfunctional Governance: Militarism, Secret Services, and the Police State).
- Yūsuf al-Qaʿīd’s (1944-, Egypt) two novels Yaḥduth fī Miṣr Alān (‘It happens in Egypt now’, 1977) and Ḥarb fī Barr Miṣr (‘War in the land of Egypt’, 1978) and his trilogy Shakāwā al-Miṣrī al-Faṣīḥ (‘Eloquent Egyptian complaints’, 1981-5) all treat the political and economic situation in Egypt under the rule of Sadat.
Yaḥduth fī Miṣr attacks the infitāḥ policy and the abolition of land reform measures that impoverished peasants, while Ḥarb fī Barr Miṣr focusses on the question of commitment of the wealthier classes to the defence of Egypt (reference).
The trilogy Shakāwā al-Miṣrī al-Faṣīḥ is made up of Nawm al-Aghniyāʾ (‘Sleep of the rich’), al-Mazād (‘The auction’), and Arq al-Fuqarāʾ (‘Insomnia of the poor’). It revolves around a family that is evicted from their home, which is in a graveyard. As a protest, the eldest of the family, an aspiring author, decides to auction the family on the Tahrir square, leading to a confrontation with the police and their eventual arrest (reference). The novel describes the background of these events and their aftermath, ending with President Sadat’s return to Egypt from his visit to Jerusalem in 1977 (reference). The family’s story provides a peg on which to hang a scathing critique of Sadat’s policies in both the domestic and the foreign spheres, more specifically, the internal economic inequality resulting from the infitāḥ policies, and Sadat’s normalisation with Israel in 1979.
- Arwā Ṣāliḥ (1951 – 1977, Egypt) – al-Mubtasarūn (1997, English trans. The Stillborn, 2018). Having been a member of the political bureau of the Egyptian Communist Workers Party (founded in the wake of the Arab-Israeli War and the Egyptian student movement of the early 1970s), the author in this book looks with critical eyes, combining her personal experience with intellectual analysis, at the Marxism of her generation and the role of militant intellectuals in the tragic failure of the communist project in Egypt (reference) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Communism and Marxism).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Stephan Guth. 1995. “The Function of Sexual Passages in some Egyptian Novels of the 1980’s” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books 123-130
- Hilary Kilpatrick. 1992. “The Egyptian novel from Zaynab to 1980.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Badawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 223-270, p. 261
- Samiyyah al-Shawābakiyyah. 2013. “al-Mītāqaṣ Tajrīban Riwāʾiyan – Qirāʾah fī Aʿamāl al-Riwāʾī al-Maṣrī Yūssif al-Qaʿīd: ‘al-Ḥarb fī Birr Maṣr’ wa ‘Yaḥduth fī Maṣr Alān’ wa tulāthiyyat ‘Shakāwā al-Miṣrī al-Faṣīḥ’.” Majalat Jāmiʿat al-Najāḥ li-l-Abḥāth 27(3): 639- 666, p. 654. 628
- Ursula Lindsay and Marcia Lynx Qualey, hosts. 2018. “Stillborn in Egypt, Fractured in Palestine.” Bulaq Podcast, The Arabist, 21 March 2018. https://arabist.net/Bulaq Podcast/11 (last accessed 2 March 2025)