- Fātin al-Fāzʿa (?, Tunisia) – Asrār ʿĀʾiliyyah (‘Family secrets’, 2018). This was the first novel in the Tunisian dialect written by a woman. The novel centres Ghāliyyah, a young mother of two, who leaves her restrictive husband but faces many difficulties as she tries to vie for herself. The novel reflects on the difficulties of divorce in Tunisia, including social attitudes towards divorced women. It won the Ali Douagi Prize in 2018 (also in L: Languages and Dialects: Dialects: Tunisian dialect).
- Umayymah al-Khamīs (1966-, Saudi Arabia) – al-Wārifah (‘The leafy tree’, 2009) portrays the doctor Jawharah, who works in a hospital in the Ulaishah neighbourhood of Riyadh in the 1980s and 1990, and portrays her inner tensions between the desire to live the way she wants, and the social constrains that bind her (reference). Jawharah is portrayed as a working woman, but also as someone going through a loveless marriage and a divorce, and, as such, reflects on love in a patriarchal society (reference). The story centers on female voices; in addition to Jawhara, there are her two sisters, Hind and Ruqqayah, and her mother, Haylah (reference) (also in C: Cities: Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Doctor’s Stories).
- Muhammed Mrabet (1936-, Morocco) – Marriage with Papers (1986). This novella is an autobiographical recounting the protagonist’s marriage to Zohra. He suspects his wife wants to poison him and the couple lives separately without divorcing. Mrabet recounted his story to Paul Bowels, who, as he did with many of Mrabet and others’ stories, wrote it down into the English language (reference).
- Laylā Abū Zayd (1950-, Morocco) – ʿĀm al-Fīl (1984, English trans. Year of the Elephant, 2011), is a collection of a novella along with several short stories. The main story, ʿĀm al- Fīl’ is centred on Zaḥra, a peasant woman who divorces her husband (reference). In the process it examines the existing attitudes towards divorced women, both socially and legally, while it interweaves her story with that of historical events, namely, the struggle for Moroccan independence. This novella was the first by a Moroccan woman written in Arabic to be translated to English.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Amīrah Muḥārib al-ʿUtaybī. 2021. “Taʾwīliyah al-Ḥiss al-Unthawī fī al-Riwāyah al-Nisāʾiyah al-Saʿūdiyah: Riwāyāt Umayymah al-Khamīs Namūdhijan.” In Majallah Kuliyyah Dār al-ʿUlūm 38(136): 251-275, p. 258, 271,
- Richard F. Patteson. 1992. “Paul Bowles / Mohammed Mrabet: Translation, Transformation, and Transcultural Discourse.” Journal of Narrative Technique 22(3): 180-190, p. 182
- miriam cooke. 1992 “Arab Women writers” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 443-463, p. 457