- ʿAlī Badr (?, Iraq) – ʿĀzif al-Ghuyūm (‘The musician of the clouds’, 2016). This novel tells the story of the cellist Nabīl who flees Iraq to Brussels, Belgium, because Islam extremists find his music playing sinful. In Belgium, he ends up disillusioned to find that the Europe he had idealised for its music, romanticism, and musicians, is not reflected in the neighborhood he comes to live in, which is poorer than his neighborhood in Baghdad. The novel is a critical reflection of cultural identity in Europe and the fact that Nabīl remains an outsider in this multicultural society (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Music).
- Muḥammad Barakah (1972-, Egypt) – Ashbāḥ Brūksil (‘Ghosts of Brussels’, 2019). From the point of view of an Egyptian journalist working in Brussels, this novel points to the opportunistic way in which his fellow Arabs who settled in Europe find loopholes in the Belgian law to benefit themselves (reference). It also criticizes Muslim fundamentalists who fail to integrate and forbid their family members from making use of the freedom that Belgium offers them.
- Zuhayr Karīm’s (1965-, Iraq) short story collection Mākīnah Kabīrah Tadhas al-Mārrah (‘A large machine runs over pedestrians’, 2017). In ten stories, this collection paints the lives of Iraqi migrants who escaped war and resettled, living in an emotional world of fear of death and loneliness while paving their way amidst the pandemonium of Western societies. The short story ‘al-Rākib al-Waḥīd fī al-Ḥafilah’ (‘the only passenger on the bus’) for example, takes place in Brussels. The collection is dedicated to the Belgian writer Henri Michaux, who in his work focused on the life of the socially marginalized (reference).
- Fouad Laroui’s (1958-, Morocco) short story collection L’Étrange Affaire du pantalon de Dassoukine (2012, English trans. The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers, 2016) and L’insoumise de la porte de Flandre (‘The rebelliousness of the Porte de Flandre’, 2017).
This first includes several stories that are set in Belgium. One example is the title story in which a Moroccan government official is sent to Belgium to buy flour but is mistaken to be a waiter and has his nice pants stolen forcing him to face Belgium officials in golf pants.
L’insoumise de la porte de Flandre centres Fatima, who leaves the predominantly Moroccan neighborhood Molenbeek in Brussels wearing a hijab, towards the Porte de Flandre, where she sneaks discreetly into a building and comes out dressed in a light dress. But one day Fawzi, her neighbor who is secretly in love with her, decides to follow Fatima.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Samiyyah ʿAbd al- Munʿam. 2019. “‘Ashbāḥ Brūksil’ Takshif Khaṭāyā al-ʿArab fī Uwrūbā” www.alwafd.news, 24 May 2019 https://alwafd.news/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1/2388335– (last accessed 14 November 2021)
- Sufyān Rajab. 2017. “Mākīnah Kabīrah Tadhas al-Mārah, Muqāwimah al-ʿUzla al-Ṣaqīʿ wa al-Mawt bi al-Sard.” www.alraipress.com, 29 April 2018 https://www.alraipress.com/news38886.html (last accessed 27 October 2021)