- Dayzī al-Amīr’s (1935 – 2018, Iraq) short story ‘Marāyā al-ʿUyūn’ (‘Mirrors of the eyes’), depicts a professional woman attending a conference who becomes annoyed and deviant when she realizes she is the only female in a mirror-lined hotel restaurant. After withstanding being stared at while waiting for her food, she eventually returns to her room in disgust (reference). The short story is to be found in al-Amīr’s short story collection Wuʿūd li-l-Biyʿa (‘Promises for sale’, 1981).
- Suhayr al-Qalamāwī’s (1911 – 1997, Egypt) short story ‘Imraʾa Nāiḥa’ (‘A successful woman’) portraits the young Naʿīma, whose attraction to her hairdresser boss is derailed when he marries a rich woman. She returns with her mother to their village where opens her own hairdressing salon and is highly successful (reference). The story can be found in the collection al-Shayāṭīn Talahū (‘The devils are having fun’, 1964).
- Nawāl al-Saʿadāwī’s (1931 – 2021, Egypt) short story ‘Mawt Maʿālī al-Wazīr Sābiqan’ (‘Death of an ex-Minister’) in her collection by the same title (1980), tells the story of a Minister who believes that a woman’s place is in the home. He narrates a sequence of events as he finds himself confronted with a female employee who, while she does her job well, stares him straight in the eye and steadfastly refuses to be overawed by his presence. The situation obsesses him to such an extent that he loses his concentration during an important meeting and is fired (reference).
- Ghādah al-Sammān (1942-, Syria) – Yā Dimashq Wadāʿan (2015, English trans. Farewell Damascus, 2017). Tells the story the 18-year-old rebellious university student Zayn who lives in Damascus during the period of social and political change in the 1950s and 1960s. Zayn has fallen out of love with the rich young man who she married despite of her family’s protest. She divorces him following an abortion, and her bad example in love is used by the older generation of her family to suppress their own children’s freedom in love. Zayn, however, is set to not let the social constrains shape her life and forges a career in writing literature, broadcasting, and studying (reference). The novel also reflects on Zayn’s relationship with her city Damascus (also in C: Cities: Syria: Damascus).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Roger Allen. 2019. Selected Studies in Modern Arabic Narrative: History, Genre, Translation. Lockwood Press: Georgia, p. 56
- 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. Saqi Books: London, 77-90, p. 83, 84
- Haytham Ḥusayn. 2015. “Yā Damashq Wadāʿan … Ghādah al-Sammān wa Fasīfasāʾ al-Tamarrud” www.aljazeera.net, 10 March 2015 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2015/3/10/%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%B4%D9%82-%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%A7-%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%88%D9%81%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A1 (last accessed 26 January 2019)