- Ghāʾib Ṭuʿmah Farmān’s (1927 – 1995, Iraq) short story ‘ʿAmmī ʿAbburnī’ (‘Please sir, help me cross the street’). Through the story of Khayriyyah, a poor blind girl who wants to move from one side of the Baghdad’s riverbank to the other, this work criticizes the regime’s indifference to the sufferings of the average Iraqi citizen in the twelve years before Iraq was transformed from a monarchy into a republic (reference). Conversations in this novel are written in the Iraqi dialect. The story can be found in the collection Mawlūd Ākhir (‘Another newborn’, 1959) (see also L: Languages and Dialects: Dialects: Iraqi dialect).
- Rabah Belamri (1945 – 1995, Algeria) – Le regards blessé (‘Shattered vision’, 1995). Written in the form of a diary, this novel describes the dire situation of Algeria after the war through the story of its increasingly blind character, Hassan. Blindness is used symbolically, as Hassan cannot literally see the world around him, but is dependent on other senses (reference). Belamri’s novel also makes mention of the harkis, a social group who fought with the French during the Independence war and were rejected and hunted for by Algerian society following the war (reference) (also in 1954 – 1962 French Algerian War and Algerian Independence).
- Yūsuf Idrīs’ (1927 – 1991, Egypt) short story ‘Bayt min Laḥm’ (‘House of meat’), in which a young blind sheikh marries into a family of single women. Although he was first brought into the family as ‘bait for more men’, each of the women secretly take turns sleeping with him, and he himself does not notice or pretends to not notice. Each character sees, hears, or senses what is going on, but never articulates it (reference). The story was written in the 1967 defeat of Egypt when the Arab world failed to understand, or even acknowledge, the defeat, leading to illusions and distortions of reality (reference). The short story can be found in similarly titled collection of short stories Bayt min Laḥm (1971).
- ʿAbd al-Malik Nūrī’s (1921 – 1992, Iraq) short story ‘Rīḥ al-Janūb’ (‘The southern wind’), tells of a journey by a mother and her blind daughter to the town of the holy man Muḥyī al-Dīn, who spits into the eyes of the blind after which his holy spirit cures them of their condition (reference). Blindness in the story is used symbolically to criticize the exploitation of the poor and those who blindly believe in others’ healing powers, in this case in the holy man’s saliva. The story can be found in the collection Nashīd al-Arḍ (‘The anthem of the earth’, 1954).
- Rachid Mimouni (1945 – 1955, Algeria) – Tombéza (‘Tombeza’, 2000). Although not blind, the young adult hero of this novel, Tombéza, is ousted because of his visual disability and his effeminate appearance, which in his society is considered a disability, and the fact that his birth stems from rape (he is thus illegitimate) (reference). The novel narrates Tombéza’s experiences of exclusion, as well as the polarizing impact that the presence of French settlers had on Algerian society. The novel also sheds light on the abuse of disabled women in Algeria (also on S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Gender Issues).
- Alīfah Rifaʿat’s (1930 – 1996, Egypt) short story ‘ʿUyūn Bahiyyah’ (‘Bahiyya’s eyes’, 1990). The elderly Bahiyyah tells her daughter about her loss of sight. While her doctor says her loss is due to natural causes, Bahiyyah is convinced that it is because of the suffering she saw in her life and recounts her story. Among others, she reflects on patriarchal society and how ascribed gender role differences between men and women has affected her course of life (reference). Through this dialogue between mother and daughter, this former gives advice to the later, whose future is still before her (reference). The story was published in the magazine Hilāl in October 1990 (also in F: Children and Family Life: Parent and Child: Mother and Child).
- Nabīl Sulaymān (1945-, Syria) – Ṭārīkh al-ʿUyūn al-Muṭfaʾah (‘The history of extinguished eyes’, 2019). This novel uses real and metaphorical blindness to reflect on daily life in three imaginary countries that experience political oppression: Bir Shams, Kambā and Qamūrīn. Mawlūd first flees from Kambā to Bir Shams and then to Qamūrīn, where he gradually becomes part of the intelligence services keeping an eye on the opposition, including his girlfriend. His brother joins and ends up setting up an ‘eye bank’, where the eyes of opposition members are gouged out and sold to those suffering from the widespread ‘blindness pandemic’ (reference). The novel also references different famous blind people such as the author Ṭaha Ḥussayn and discussed the relationship between blindness and art.
- Fuʾād al-Tikirlī (1927 – 2008, Iraq) – al-Wajh al-Ākhar (‘The other face’, 1960), portrays the psychological state of Muḥammad Jaʿafar, whose wife has become blind after the birth of their first stillborn child (reference). He arranges for maids to help her around the house. Yet he himself does not help her, as he cannot stand the sight of her pain when she screams or tries to eat and starts to long for their young neighbor girl Salīmah. He proceeds to divorce his wife without telling her and sends her back to her parents. The novel reflects on the protagonist’s (lack of) responsibility, but also on the condition of Iraq of the 1950s (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Hilla Peled- Shapira. 2013. “Religion and Politics: On the Motif of Blindness in ʿAbd al-Mālik Nūrī’s “Rīḥ al janūb” and Ghāʾib Tuʿmah Farmān’s “ʿAmmī ʿAbburnī’” JAL 44: 371-393, p. 377
- Françoise Sule and Christophe Premat. 2018. “Literature and traumas: the narrative of Algerian war in ‘Un regard blesse’ of Rabah Belamri and ‘La Malédiction’ of Rachid Mimouni.” Human and Social Studies. Research and Practice 7(1): 65-79, p. 75, 77
- Sabry Hafez and Catherine Cobham ed. 2011. A Reader of Modern Arabic Short Storis. Saqi: London, p. 115, 116
- Hilla Peled- Shapira. 2013. “Religion and Politics: On the Motif of Blindness in ʿAbd al-Mālik Nūrī’s “Rīḥ al janūb” and Ghāʾib Tuʿmah Farmān’s “ʿAmmī ʿabburnī’” JAL 44: 371-393. p 377
- Saloua Ali Ben Zahra. 2018. Arab Islamic Voices, Agencies, and Abilities: Disability Portrayals in Muslim World Literature and Culture. Lexington Books: Lanham, Boulder, New York London, p. 44
- Sumiyyah Al-Ḥājj. 2015. “Al-Khiṭāb al-Histīriyyah fī al-Kitābāt al-Nisawiyyah: ‘ʿUyūn Bahiyyah’ li-Alīfah Rifʿat Mithālan.” www.7iber.com, 5 July 2015, https://www.7iber.com/culture/hysterical-discourse-in-feminist-literature/ (last accessed 1 March 2023)
- Amīn al-Zāwī. 2020. “Nabīl Sulaymān fī ‘Tārīkh al-Uyūn al-Muṭafʾah’: al-qamaʿa la jinsiyah lahu.” www.independentarabia.com, 8 October 2020. (last accessed 24 January 2021)
- Wiebke Walther. 1995. “Distant Echoes of Love in the Narrative Work of Fuʾād al-Tikrilī” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books, 131-139, p. 135
- Batūl Qāssim Nāṣṣir. 2013. “Fuʾād al- Tikirlī … Fann ‘al-Wajh al-Ākhar’.” www.ahewar.org, 5 May 2012 https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=359022 (last accessed 8 August 2021)