The ‘Bidūn’ is a social class mainly in Kuwait, but also in other Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar) and Iraq, of which the members have no citizenship rights. The Bidūn can be divided in three classes: tribesmen whose ancestors settled in Kuwait but were excluded from registration at the time of the state’s independence; former citizens of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries who abandoned their original nationality to join the Kuwaiti military and police in the 1960s and 1970s; and children of Kuwaiti women married to Bidūn men.
Not included in this list are many authors from the Bidūn who write poetry, such as Sulaymān, Munā Karīm, Karīm al-Hazāʿa, Dakhīl al-Khalīfah, Saʿadiyyah Mufraḥ, and Sulaymān Falīḥ.
- Bāsimah al-ʿAnzī (1972-, Kuwait) – Ḥidhāʾ Aswad ʿAlā al-Raṣīf (‘Black shoes on the sidewalk’, 2014). Set in Kuwait, this novel describes several characters working in a big company and describes many issues in Kuwaiti society, including that of the Bidūn, the status of working women, and the dreams of the downtrodden working within major corporations. Two of the characters, the receptionist Jihād and her colleague Mehdī, fall in love, but their love is forbidden because they are both Bidūn.
- Buthaynah al-ʿĪssā (1982 -, Kuwait) – Irtiṭām lam Yasmaʿ Lahu Dawī (‘A crash that did not sound loud’, 2004). The young Kuwaiti student travels to Sweden to complete her studies in biology. During her stay in Sweden, she is confronted with several culture shocks, and she meets a young man from the Bidūn whom she falls in love with (reference).
- Ismāʿīl Fahd Ismāʿīl (1940 – 2018, Kuwait) – Fī Haḍrat al-ʿAnqāʾ wa al-Khal al-Wafī (‘The phoenix and the faithful friend’, 2014). This novel is the life story of Mansi ibn Abihī (meaning ‘Mansi the son of his father’), an inhabitant of Kuwait from the Bidūn class. He narrates his story to his daughter, Zaynab, who he has never seen, after being released from a Kuwaiti prison after the country’s liberation from Iraq. Among others, he describes his suffering as a Bidūn in Kuwait, the invasion of Kuwait, his time in the Iraqi army and his escape to join the Kuwaiti army, and his imprisonment (also in 1990 Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War: The Kuwaiti side).
- Khālid Turkī (1995-, Kuwait) – Thalāthat min al-Shamāl (‘Three from the north’, 2017). This novel describes two socio-political issues in Kuwait: that of the Bidūn, and that of the Kuwaiti government retracting citizenship from its opposition. It describes the experiences of three characters: a former Bidūn who emigrated from and returned to Kuwait after obtaining citizenship in a foreign country; a Bidūn with no citizenship; and a Bidūn who lost his citizenship (reference).
- Nāṣṣir al-Ẓafīrī (1960 – 2019, Kuwait) wrote a trilogy about the Bidūn titled al-Jahrāʾ (‘Jahra’), which includes Al-Ṣahad (‘The heat’, 2013), Kālīskā (‘The cayote’, 2015) and Al-Masṭar (‘The document’, 2017). The trilogy discusses statelessness / homelessness, identity, and exile. Its first novel, Al-Ṣahad, reflects on the city of Kuwait, the Kuwaiti desert, and the social conditions of the Bidūn (also in C: Cities: Kuwait: Kuwait). The second novel, Kālīskā, describes a Bidūn man, ʿAwwād, who falls in love with a woman from a different social class, for which he is punished by her brother (reference). He is exiled into Syria and eventually moves to Canada, where he becomes obsessed with his desire to take revenge on the brother who destroyed his life. The last in the trilogy, Al-Masṭar, deals with identity in exile and the history of the Bidūn as related to the history of Kuwait, such as their deployment in the wars of 1967, 1973 and 1990.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Tasnīm al-Khumāsiyyah. 2020. “Murājiʿah Riwāyat ‘Irtiṭām lam Yasmaʿ Lahu Dawī’.” www.methaal.com, 19 September 2020 https://www.methaal.com/%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%B9%D8%A9_%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%85_%D9%84%D9%85_%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%B9_%D9%84%D9%87_%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%8A (last accessed 29 July 2023)
- Abrar Alshammari. 2019. “The Rise of Bidun Literature: Representation and Advocacy in Kuwait.” Blog Spot, The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, December 2, 2019 https://agsiw.org/the-rise-of-bidun-literature-representation-and-advocacy-in-kuwait/ (last accessed 23 March 2019)
- Areej Alshammiry. 2020. “Writing in Exile: Bidoon Resistance and Speaking Truth to Power.” Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry. 12(1): 149-164, p. 155