- Ghādah Abdul ʿĀl (1978-, Egypt) – ʿAwza Atgawwiz (2008, English trans. I Want to Get Married, 2010). This Egyptian novel is based on a satirical blog from the same author, who was herself past the ‘expiration date’ of marriage and wrote about her search of a potential husband. It describes the many failed marriage proposals she has gone through, including descriptions of her suitors visiting her parents’ living room and judging her over a cup of tea. The blog and book have been made into an Egyptian TV-show.
- Iḥsān ʿAbd al-Quddūs (1919 – 1990, Egypt) – ʿAyna ʿUmrī (‘Where is My Life’, 1954). This novel portrays a 16-year-old Egyptian girl, ʿAliyyah, who is married off ʿAzīz, friend of her deceased father who is more than thirty years her senior (reference). When ʿAzīz becomes ill and passes away when ʿAliyyah is twenty-nine, she is left with a feeling of having lost her best years and compensates by wearing beautiful dresses and meeting men in her own age until she finds love with Khālid, her late husband’s doctor. The novel was made into a movie with the same title in 1957.
- Laylā al-Ṣaqr’s (?,- Bahrain) short story collection ʿAindama Tazawwaj Qays Laylā (‘When Qays married Layla’, 2015) includes a short story with the title ‘Imraʾah Ukhrā’ (‘Another woman’), which tells the story of a single woman in her thirties who is in love with a married man. The story is divided in three chapters, each shedding light on their relationship from a different point of view: that of Miryam, the protagonist, that of Ibrāhīm, the man she loves, and that of Fāṭimah, his wife (reference).
- Ḥanān al-Shaykh’s (1945-, Lebanon) short story ‘Bint Ismuha Tuffāḥa’ (‘A Girl Named Apple’), tells the story of a woman who, while hoping the prospect of marriage, continuously resists the communal means of advertising her availability, namely putting a colored flag on the roof of the house – the color depending on the age of the prospective bride (reference). The short story can be found in the collection Wardat al-Ṣaḥrāʾ (‘Flower of the Sahara’, 1982).
- Fāḍil al-Sibāʿī (1929-, Syria) – Thumma Azhara al-Ḥuzn (‘Then sadness bloomed’, 1963) portrays Kawthar, the mother of a family living in Aleppo, Syria, who struggles to provide for her family of five daughters and a baby after her husband dies. She does this while resisting the advances of the polygamous al-Ḥājj Hilāl to maintain the educational progress and moral rectitude of her daughters (reference).
- ʿĀliyyah Ṭālib (1957-, Iraq) short story ‘Intidhār Jadīd’ (‘A New Wait’, ) tells the story of a woman who is left with her son who was conceived on the eve of her husband’s departure to serve in the Iraqi war six years earlier. Holding on to her memories of her husband, she lives between the past and present, while holding on to a fragile façade of normality. She has turned the young boy into an exact image of his father, who returns wrapped in the national flag (reference).
- Mustapha Tlili (1937 – 2017, Tunisia) – Le montagne du lion (1988, English trans. Lion Mountain, 1997). This novel is set during the French colonisation of Tunisia up until Bourguiba’s rule, and centres the struggles of a young widow, Horia El-Gharib, living in the rural area of Tunisia with her two sons. To survive, Horia takes on a conventionally man’s role in commerce and trade. When the authorities decide to make her village and the sacred ‘Loin Mountain’ that surrounds it a touristic destination, Horia heavily protests the strong influx of tourists together with her servant, the Nubian Saad (reference) (also in N: Nature: Extraction).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Randa ʿAlī. 2021. “‘Ayna ʿUmrī’ wa Zawāj al-Qaṣriyāt.” www.middle-east-online.com, 30 June 2021 https://middle-east-online.com/%D8%A7%D9%94%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA (last accessed 25 May 2023)
- Ḍiyāʾ ʿAbdallah Khamīs al-Kaʿabī. 2016. “Sardiyyāt: Sardiyyāt Laylā al-Ṣaqr fī ‘ʿAindama Tazawwaj Qays Laylā’.” www.akhbar-alkhaleej.com, 26 March 2016 http://akhbar-alkhaleej.com/news/article/1012417 (last accessed 26 October 2021)
- Roger Allen. 1995. “The Arabic Short Story and the Status of Women.” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books, 77-90, p. 81
- Roger Allen. 1992. “The Mature Arabic Novel Outside Egypt.” in Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 193-223, p. 210
- miriam cooke. 1995. “Death and Desire in Iraqi Literature.” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books, 184-200, p. 191
- Jean Déjeux. 1988. “Mustapha Tlili, ‘La Montagne du lion’, 1988.” Hommes & Migration 1116: p. 43