- Yusrī al-Ghūl (1980-, Palestine) – Gazzah 87 (‘Gaza 87’, 2017). Highlights the hardships of life in Gaza, specifically in the refugee camp of Jabalia, during the 1987 Intifada (reference). It specifically focuses on Palestinian workers crossing into Tel Aviv, Israel, to make their daily bread who were exposed to terrible working conditions, such as the harassment of young Palestinian men by Israeli women (also in I: Israel and Palestine: West Bank and Gaza).
- Laylā al-ʿUthmān’s (1943-, Kuwait) short story ‘Kull al-Aydī Mutashābiha’ (‘All Hands are Alike’) is set in Kuwait against the background of the Palestinian intifada. The female protagonist attends a meeting where artists voice their solidarity with the Palestinians when she notices a man of high reputation whose hands, she feels a desire to kiss. The story remains focused on the hands, whose meaning develops: first they remind the narrator of her father’s hands which she had to kiss, later they embody the rebellious stone-throwing hands of the Palestinian youths. Eventually the heroine compares her desire for the man’s hand to the Palestinians’ desire for a homeland (reference). The short story is to be found in the collection Ḥalāt Ḥubb Majnūna (‘A case of crazy love’, 1989).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Saʾīd Abū Ghazza. 2017. “Qirāʾah fī Riwāyah ‘Ghazzah 87’, li-Yusrā al-Ghūl.” www.maannews.net, 16 October 2017, https://www.maannews.net/news/925884.html (last accessed 2 May 2023)
- Angelika Rahmer. 1995. “The Development of Women’s Political Consciousness in the Short Stories of Laylā al-ʿUthmān” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books, 175-184, p. 178