BEIRUT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE MAY 1, 1985, Vol. IV, No. 32

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

Women and Literature (Rose Ghurayyib) ...... 2

PIONEER

Thorayya Malhas - Jordan - ...... 3

ARTICLES

Arab Feminine Literature Between 1980 and 1950 ...... 4 - 5

POEMS

- Liban (Amal Saleeby) ...... " .... 6 - Un mal d'Enfance (Andree Chedid) ...... 6 - Where is Thy Sting, 0 Death (Lamia Abbas Amara) ...... 7

PROFILES

I ) Alifa Rifaat ()...... 8 2 ) Dr. Mariam Bagdadi (Saudi Arabia) ...... 9 3 ) Souad Abou Sabbah (Kuwait) ...... 10 4 ) Leila Abou Zeid (Morocco) ...... 11

REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

I ) Claire Gel>eyli awarded Edgar Poe Prize ....• 12 2 ) French Minister Feminizes Language ...... 12 ,3 ) New Women's Journal in Sudan ...... 12

LECTURE

Contemporary Lebanese Women Writers (;-./aiik Saba Yared) ...... \3 - 16 ( Editorial )

Women and Literature

The «gift of the tongue» has been generally them a unique means for claiming their rights and acknowledged as one of women's chief aptitudes. In expounding their demands and their needs. Literary world mythology and history, women performed several production has the possibility of travelling, of spreading roles requiring eloquence and fluency: those ofpriestess, far and wide and reaching every corner of the world. prophetess, mourner, poetess, sorceress, soothsayer, Through literature women are able to emerge as a world singer, mourner and story-teller (for ex. Scheherazade). power, as a «global sisterhood». In this respect, they may We read that Maysoun, wife of the first Omayyad Caliph, strive for improvement and reform in every field and Mu'awia, longed to return to her Bedouin tent in the claim the instauration of justice and the elimination of desert, which she preferred to the sumptuous Damascene exploitation not only in their own spheres but also in those Palace. She expressed her longing in a famous poem of men. After all, those who commit or permit injustice which so moved the Caliph that he decided to grant her toward women also do it in their dealings with men. It is wish. Another woman poet from Andalusia was commonly accepted now that a really developed country immortalized by a verse which she improvised as a is one which has a single, not a double, standard of complement to an improvised one by King Al-Mutamid justice. of Sevilla. The King was so delighted by her witty As a conclusion, I find it convenient to quote from response that he decided to many her. Robin Morgan, a dedicated feminist, poet, andjournalist, the following paragraph which ends the preface of her A well - known saying warns against indulgence in masterly compilation: «Sisterhood is Global»(*) speech, by quoting a fable attributed to Esop, which says that the tongue is the source of all evils; but those who «Male-led revolutions, so often and so tragically mere quote it forget that part of the fable which affirms that the power exchange in a basically unaltered structure, have tongue is equally the source of all blessings. left dramatic accounts of their crises and heroism .... If such revolutions sometimes seem to have been based on Women of to-day, like those of the past, have been the concept of dying for a cause, woman-conceived using their literary skills for self - expression and self - transformation seems more about daring to live for a assertion, but on a much wider scale. In Third World, as cause, a heroism more difficult because it is daily and in First and Second World, countries, women have ostensibly less dramatic». distinguished themselves as poets, novelists, journalists, Rose Ghurayyib lawyers, educators, lectures, actresses, politicians and other professionals who depend on language and literature for handling their arts. The literary field offers women of "* R. Morgan (ed), Sisterhodd is Global, Anchor Books, today unprecedented opportunities for work. It also gives N.Y. 1984.

2 ( Pioneer

Thorayya Malhas a Pioneer from Jordan

Thorayya Malhas is widely regarded as the first ambition culminated in a collection of English free verse, Jordanian woman writer to declare her rebellion against «Prisoners of Time», which she published in 1958. While obsolete ideas, and to attack, through her way of life and she took teaching as a career, her love for knowledge led her writings, the «cave-dwellers» who cling to tradition her to continue her study and research in ancient and as a means of preserving their privileges or justifying modem literature. After years of investigation in their wrong acts. linguistics, she decided to make a historical study of Kushagem, one of the lesser renowned Abbasid poets, When she was still a student preparing a master'! and, for that study, she abtained in 1978 a Ph.D. degree degree at the American University of , she with honors from the University of St. Joseph. published, in 1949, a collection of free verse, «An-Nasheed-ut-Ta'eh» (The Meandering Song), in Thorayya Malhas's writing is characterized by a which she condemned both traditional forms of writing spontaneous expression of feeling and thought, and by and reactionary ways of thinking. Like many Arab little polish and embellishment. She is one of several intellectuals who chose to live outside their countries, in contemporary women writers who have devoted a spot where they could move and speak-out freely, themselves to so called «committed writing», thus she Thorayya decided to settle in Lebanon where she joined stands out by virtue of her unusual vehemence and hands with a number of socially conscious writers, poets frankness . and journalists; she participated in their efforts to R. G. modernize Lebanon and make it a center point of cultural radiation in the . While many of her Wonder colleagues and associates quit and went each in a If I could reach the sky different direction, she remained faithful to her ideal. Her I wonder if I writings echoed her interest in social justice, in national My hands will move the earth freedom, in loyalty, but not enslavement to the Arab But If I heritage. If I could find a seed Her keen sense of right and wrong made of her a born A seed of peace feminist, a strong advocate of sexual equality, and she I wonder if I succeeded in inculcating this attitude in her women My heart will weave students at B.U.C. and at the Lebanese University. When Garments of delight president Muammar GadhafI of Libya delivered his But if I speech in which he announced the «Era of Liberation» of the Arab woman», in 1982 she was so entusiastic that she If I could plant a seed published an article in the paper in which she hailed him A seed of love as the awaited hero of woman's freedom. Hatred will be abolished From eyes Her sympathy with suffering Lebanon has inspired her But if I with a number of elegies in which she deplored in highly A sting I felt emotional tones the tragic fate of this country. One From tiny tiny souls example is «The Seagull and the Pen», Published in My strong strong palm A1·Adib magazine, (nos. 8-12, 1983). Stretched like mountains She has written literary research, «Spiritual values in I could not see the tiny » and «Nu'aimy the Mystic Writer»; she Tiny souls also produced numerous collections of lyrical and satirical A chorus sang poems in free verse. In some of those works we can But if I. detect a strain of romantic or mystic longing for ~nion Thorayya Malhas with the Absolute, with nature or with man. Her literary From «Prisoners of Time», p. 149.

3 Article

Arab Feminine Literature Between 1850 and 1950 May ~~~~===::::::~~~~~~ Ziadeh

The period between 1850 and 1950 covers the era of appeared a few women writers who were more or less Arab Awakening; it can be broken down into two phases: influenced by the new ideas. Zainab Fawwaz emigrated the earlier one, 1850-1900, and the later one, 1900-1950. from South Lebanon to Egypt where she made herself The signs of awakening were more evident in the later known by corresponding with papers and magazines, than in the earlier phase. Those signs were: publishing poems and compiling a biographical work on famous historical women. 1. A pioneering literary activity which includes the study and revival of ancient Arabic literature and the Marianna Marrash, from Aleppo, Syria, contributed promotion and reinstatement of classical Arabic. to magazines, opened a salon for the literary figures of 2. A rising influence of Western culture, particularly as her city and published a collection of traditional . represented by French and English literatures and The women writers of this group, in spite of their other modem subjects taught in the foreign schools relative emancipation, deviated little from traditional which blossomed in Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. lines. 3. The impact of foreign literatures on the Arabic language, leading to the evolution of its prose and the Between 1886 and 1950, a second group of women appearance of journalistic writing, modem fiction and writers flourished in the three countries of early Arab drama. Awakening: Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. May Ziadeh, 4. The use of literature in its various forms to spread Malak Hafni Nassef, Marie Ajami and Salma Sayegh modernism in life and thought, such ideas as freedom fell under the direct influence of Western culture. They of expression, liberal attitudes towards love, marriage, expressed themselves mainly in prose, which was earlier women, government and religion. to evolve than poetry. They contributed to papers and magazines and practiced public speaking, which was at The general revival attracted women and aroused the time a popular art and an efficient tool for the spread interest in their emancipation. The few women poets of of cultural change. They were the spokeswomen of their the early period participated in the revival of old classical emancipated sisters who founded women's schools, poetry. Aisha Timur (1840 - 1902), an Egyptian poet of magazines and associations through which they preached Kurdish origin declared that in her poetic vocation she awakening and rellovation in thought and in the way of was following the steps of distinguished ancient Arab life. women poets. Her father brought her teachers who taught her at home; he encouraged her to write poetry in three May Ziadeh (1886 - 1941), was a Lebanese who languages: Arabic, Kurdish and Persian, which she did. received, at the French Sisters of Visitation School, In spite of her traditionalism, she complained that her veil Aintoura, Lebanon, a solid and broad cultural prevented her from coming in contact with highly learned background, which enabled her to gain a thorough men, and at one point she blamed men for preventing knowledge of five languages and to master writing in women from expanding their talents. three of them. At the age of 22 she emigrated to Egypt where she started her literary career by publishing prose Other «revivalists» of the same period were Warda in French. She attended courses in philosophy and history aI-Yazigi (1838 - 1924) and Warda el·Turk, two poets at the Egyptian University, deepened her knowledge of from Lebanon, who prided themselves on their use of Arabic and became a distinguished speaker in this traditional forms and themes, like el-ghazal (love poetry), language. The influence of and of modem al-ritha' (elegy), el-mahed and tahmi'ah (praise and thought on her writing is clear in her published literary eulogy). studies and in the essays and articles which she In the same period, between 1840 and 1900, there contributed to the leading magazines of her time, essays

4 ------~)

dealing with social and linguistic refonn, woman's of national industry ,the emancipation of women and the emancipation and other topics of a metaphysical nature. rehabilitation of the laborers, the farmers and the military, the trio whom she called «the pillars of the May Ziadeh's life and thought have been discussed in nati<;>n.» several books published about her in Egypt and Lebanon. There is little room, in this article, to give her the Salma Sayegh, a Lebanese from Beirut, was, like emphasis that she deserves. In an attempt to make a Malak Hafni Nassef, a contemporary and friend of May general evaluation of her literary work, we may note that Ziadeh's. She had an exceptional literary talent, and her 14 books, written in a personal, quasi-romantic, developed in her essays, published in magazines and later attractive style, make her one of the distinguished stylists collected into books, a poetic style. Like the romantic· of our time and are now considered among the classics of authors who sought refuge in nature and in spiritual . yearning, she says in one of her articles: «To the mountain or the Lord, 0 ye that Malak Harni Nasser, an Egyptian writer and a close are tired and heavy laden! friend of May Ziadeh, who later wrote her biography, To the woods which echoed the kisses or Salomon. devoted her writings to the question of women's To the white summits where Jessus' holiness was emancipation. She belong~d to a prominent Moslem revealed. family, received her early education at a French school after which she moved to a government training college, Away rrom the city and its turbulence, I fled to the where she obtained a «nonnal diploma». She spent her hilltops or Harissa where stands the mother or the short life (1886 - 1918) in teaching, writing, speaking in Nazarene with open arms, as ir repeating the caD or public meetings, drawing plans of refonn in family laws her son: come to me, all ye that are tired and I shall and girls' education. Before she died, she published a give you rest.» book on women, called «An-Nissaiyyat,» containing all Her writings reflect a highly emotional nature, deeply her ideas on woman's emancipation and social refonn. In conscious of human suffering, strongly moved by the this book she condemns the prevailing custom of sight of misery, ready to denounce all fonns of social discriminating between boys and girls, and calls for the injustice, such as the abuse of women and children, the following: free education for girls, partial removal of the ill-treatment of prisoners, handicapped people, refugees veil, abolition of polygamy and forced marriage, and foundlings. pennission for women to attend prayers in mosques. She recommends training of women physicians, capable to The four writers we have been discussing are good treat female patients whose families object to their being representatives of the women's literary movement during treated by male doctors. She also recommends training the early 20th century, but, with the exception of Marie women in economics and other subjects which would Ajami they do not include the founders of women's help them administer their properties successfully. magazines who flourished in this period, nor the pioneers in fiction writing. Those two topics require special Although Malak Hafni Nasser wrote in a purely articles. classical Arabic, her content reveals a broad knowledge obtained from her modern education and her extensive The period of Awakening in its second phase, readings. 1900-1950,- produced not only eminent women writers but also leading men thinkers and authors who left a Marie Ajami, a Syrian who received her education in lasting impact on modern Arab thought. Qassem Amin, Russian and Irish schools, started her activity as a teacher author of the famous book on the emancipation of in private schools, but found the time to contribute to women, (1904); Mohammad Abdo, a rationalist religious Arabic papers and magazines. In 1910, she fOUlided her refonner; Ali Abdul Razek who, in this book on Islam own magazine, «AI-Aroos» (The Bride), which lasted, in and the principles of government, favored the separation spite of temporary suspension during the first World War, of religious law from state law; Taha Hussain who until 1925. Besides her journalistic activity, Marie Ajami adopted Descartes' method in his study of ancient Arab practiced public speaking and wrote poetry which showed literature; the Lebanese Emigrant writers; Rmani, Gibran, the influence of Western romanticism. She participated in Nu'aimy, Abu Madi and others, who were the champions the foundation of women's clubs and schools and joined of evolution and creativity in all fields of culture. literary societies. In her writings and speeches, she tried to arouse the spirit of nationalism, called for. the revival Rose Ghurayib

5 ( Poetry

LIBAN EN MAL D'ENFANCE

Amal Saleeby is a Lebanese Poet who lives in the Well known poet, writer and playwriter Andree United States. Her first book of. poems is called Chedid was born in and lives in . She has «I'Heure Bleue~, published in Paris by editions been following with keen interest the work of the Saint-Germain-des-Pres, 1981. IWSA W. Here is an unpublished poem she sent to AI-Raida inspired by the sutTering children of Lebanon. Je l' ai reve Liban avec des yeux de lutte du sable plein la bouche Les armes eventrent la terre de la terre sous les dents Les fleaux l' ont assaillie je t' ai reve de rocs Incendiant les pas de l'enfant et de sables mouvants Ensanglantant ses jeux on dirait une epave Pourrissant ses soleils aux quatre coins du vent QueUe refonte de nos ames un pays de lumiere QueUes aUuvions de paix ou la mort crie vengeance QueUes brassees d' amour si je ne 1'avais reve Ecarteront les machoires d'epouvante je l' aurai cm maudit RappeUeront 1'espoir qui s'ecarte il fut un paradis Retabliront les corps blesses on l' a dit trop sou vent Apaiseront les yeux vengeurs? un pays de lumiere QueUes paroles ou Ie soleil est blanc. Quels regards Quel mouvement Redonneront enfance A nos enfants en mal d'enfance?

Amal SALEEBY (Published in the Odyssee Beirut January 1982) Andree CHEDID

6 )

Where Is Thy Sting, 0 Death?

Lami'a Abbas Amara, an eminent Iraqi poet residing in Lebanon, has recently been honored with the Medal of the Cedars, conferred on her by President Amin Gemayel, in appreciation of her poems of love and sympathy to Lebanon. She wrote the following poem on the above occasion:

Where shall I pin my Medal of the Cedars? Shelters thousands of them, On a chest bleeding with grief? While the rest keep their eyes fixed Over a wounded heart? On the battlefield. While my eyes, dimmed with tears, seek a road in the dark? Where are my beloved, my friends, Their warm gathering, Where is the Lebanon I knew, Their soft chattering, The Lebanon of love and peace, Torn up every night A wide breast it was, By bombs and shells, Where blew the breeze, Bombs and shells, 0ver a mantle of feathery clouds? Are their daily bread, The Lebanon I knew. Yet, day and night, Their men and women A wide open door, a refuge for the ailing and the Keep on building, heavy burdened. Their sons and daughters, Its perfumed bazaars, dad in purple silks, To school keep going ... Now heaps of ruins and crumbling walls. Where are its proud hotels Where is thy sting, a death? Glittering with splendor before the sun, Lebanon, eternal land, Now blackened with soot, Life that has no end. Nestling crawling vipers Instead of snowy doves. Lami'a ABBAS AMARA Its sons gone abroad (Trans. from the Arabic) Seeking kinder horizons (Published in the Odyssee Mother Earth, in her tender bosom, Magazine No. 18-19, 1983)

7 ( Profile

AUfa Rifaat . Egypt

Alifa Rifaat, author of «Distant View of a Minaret being forced to repress the urge to be read brought her and other stories~, began to write early. When she was close to a nervous breakdown, a state vividly evoked in nine she wrote her first story, about the village where her some of her stories. family lived in the summet. Finally, in the early 1970's, her husband relented and While much of her later writing is deeply rooted in her she began to write again. The result was her collection of experience, the most important theme in her stories short stories, «Distant View from a Minaret,» which centers on the sexual and emotional problems encountered dwell on the tensions, dilemmas and dreams of women in by women in marriage. marriage. Dealing with such issues distinguishes her among Rifaat, however, is not a feminist in the Western·sense. writers, male and female, in the Arab world, where Women, she says, have a right to be fulfilled in their explicit references to these questions are considered by sexual and emotional lives, though she does not question many to be taboo. marital relationships as such. What she does argue is that men should wield the power they have over women in In 1955 she wrote a story based on the experience of marriage much more responsibly than they usually do. her twin sister, who had a mental breakdown and died She also argues for more sexual education for women, «if after she found her husband with another woman. Though only through books». the story was considered somewhat shocking, it was While her stories reflect primarily her own experience, published. in the years she spent travelling around Egypt with her Her husband was furious, not so much because of the husband (in the course of his work as a policeman) she subject matter, but because writing gave her a kind of met many other women and leamed of their problems. independence and was perceived as undermining his «We used to talk freely and we discussed especially the authority as a husband and. head of the family. question of sexual fulfilment - because our society does She continued to write, using pen-names, but when he not allow us to experience sex as freely as a Western found out, her husband forbade that too. He threw her woman does,» she told Sarah Graham - Brown in an out of the house. She went back to her own family, but interview with the Middle East magazine. received no sympathy from her father, who also said she should stop writing. «We have our traditions and our religion,» she concluded. But against those people who urged her to get a divorce, Alifa Rifaat argued that «it is better to be an unknown wife than a well-known writer». For the next 15 (The Middle East, Feb. 1985, years she wrote a little, and then only in secret. But No. 124, P. 40 - 41)

8 Dr. Mariam Baghdadi

Saudi Arabia

Mariam Baghdadi is ~ Saudi Arabian writer and have anything new to add to it. 1 don't believe there is a poet who received her doctorate in Arabic Literature male/female literature because creativeness and from Paris. Upon her return she joined King Abdul excellency can be found in both men and women. Aziz University in Djeddah where she is currently However, the fact men have been longer in the literary professor of Arab Literature and Dean of the field and women only allowed recently in, gives Literature Department. numerical advantage to men.» Dr. Baghdadi is an active member of several Commenting about the literary scene in Saudi Arabia women's organisations. One of her most popular she declared: collections of poetry, entitled «Awatef Insania» «There are many signs of change in Saudi Arabian (Human Emotions), was published in 1980 by AI literature as well as in our society. There is no doubt that Kitab AI Arabi As-Saaudi. many more doors have been opened to Saudi women nowadays. Newspapers have welcomed women journalists Talking about her literary career Dr. Baghdadi said: and many have excelled, like professor Kbayriyyah as-Sakkaf, luhair al-Musaid, Sharifa ash-Shamlan, «I started writing «prose that rhymed» when 1 was at Thorayya Kabel and Abidiyya Khayyat.» intermediary level in school. With time 1 became surer of myself but 1 believe 1 am still at the beginning of the As for her favorite Saudi Arabian women writers they road and compare myself to a toddler playing with include: rhymes, because the road to poetry is hard and long and «Fakhriyya as-Sakkaf, Hana' Abdel-Malek, Reem one should write for years and years before considering as-Sabra' and Fatima as-Sudayri». *: oneself a poet.,. When asked whether she believed there is a female literature and a male literature she answered: * (Sayidati, Vol. 3, No. 135, 1983). For more information on Women's Literary Output in Arabia and «This question has been debated too much and 1 don't the Arabian Gulf see AI-Raida, Aug. I, 1983, p. 12.

9 ( Profiles

Suad as-Sabbah - Kuwait

Poet and economist, Suad as-Sabbah is one of the In an interview with an AI-Raida coeditor, Suad most promising figures of contemporary feminine as-Sabbah said that the Arab woman - with a few literature in Kuwait. Author of four books of poetry and exceptions - is still exiled from the world of men. She a number of literary, sociological and economic articles, cannot rule, nor decree laws nor participate in decision Suad as-Sabbah still considers herself an amateur poet. making. In order to win this battle, the Arab man himself must become liberated from his feudal and sexist Her collections of poems include ~Lahathatun min mentality, for she considers him primarily responsible for Omri~ (Moments of my Life), ~Wamadatun Bakira~ the present situation of Arab women. (Early Gleams), ~Amina~ (A book named after her daughter) and dlayka ya Waladi~ (To you my child) - What saddens Suad as-Sabbah is to see the Arab written after the death of her son. woman's mind living in exile, and like any exile forbidden from having any choice or liberty of action or On March 7, 1985 she was a distinguished participant speech. in the festival of Young Arab Poets held in Baghdad, to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the General Federation She therefore, calls for utilizing women's education to of Iraqi Women. «break the doors of the prison», so that this acquired knowledge will not be merely an indicat~r of prestige, There she read a poem entitled ~My Body is a Palm but become truly functional. Tree,~ from which we translated the following excerpt: When asked about the state of poetry in general in the My body is a palm tree that drinks from the Arab Arab World and the problems facing women poets 10 Gulf particular, Suad as-Sabbah answers: I am the daughter of Kuwait «The Arab poet writes in a general atmosphere of The daughter of this sleepy coast over the sand, malaise and political instability. No poet in the world like a beautiful gazelle suffers as much as the Arab poet. The French poet sits on In my eyes the stars of the night and the palm trees the banks of the Seine to write, the German on the bank meet of the Rhine, whereas the Arab sits on the edge of his From here all my ancestors sailed wounds.» Then came back carrying the impossible As for the woman poet in the Arab world she is twice bound, first by her society, second by herself. I am the daughter of Kuwait With the pearls of the sea I was raised ... And I gather An Arab woman poet is constantly exposed, every oysters and stars word she writes is subject to scrutiny and criticism. She Oh ... how tender and generous was the sea is not allowed to shout, for shouting is the privilege of Then the petrol came like a devil men. She is not allowed to wander alone on paper unless We sprawled under his feet men and women accompanied by a male member of her falimy. And we worshipped him morning and night An Arab woman poet does not have an easy life, she And we forgot the desert, the haughtiness, the coffee is constantly writing against the law of gravity of her and the classical poetry society and of history.~ And we drowned in details, we destroyed Everything that was shining ... and pure... and great Wara' Stephan lO ------~)

Leila Abou Zeid

Morocco

Leila Abou Zeid is a new name in the feminine literary without a job and after begging for one she ends up being circles of Morocco. a maid in the French Cultural Centre! This irony of fate makes her declare: «there is no escape from the French». Journalist, radio broadcaster and writer, she has already published three books. Leila Abou Zeid says about her novel: «Independence for Moroccans was the door of paradise. They believed it The first ~Bid'u Sunbulatin Khodr~ (Few Green would solve all their problems, that it would bring Wheat Stalks) was a mixture of testimonies, travel reports everything: health, work, education and even money for and stories. It was written during her stay in England everyone. People used to say that the income from the where she studied journalism. phosphate will give every Moroccan 10 dirhams per day Her second book was a biography of the late Moroccan without hel she having even to work! But reality was very king Mohammed the Fifth. different.

~Aam al-Feel~ or the Year of the Elephant is her last After 26 years of independence many unexpected novel. In it, she tells the story of the last years of fight problems appeared: inflation, bribery, theft.... so the against French colonialism in Morocco, through the eyes hopes of the majority of the people vanished.» of a young woman, Zahra. Leila adds, «Zahra was a symbol of these crushed The novel tells the story of a disappointment, that of people, who are sought after only when needed to be Zahra's with her life and with the newly won sacrifIed. » independence of her country. For after 20 years of She states that because she is a woman, she is better at marriage Zahra receives her divorce papers from her depicting a woman's, rather than a man's, internal world husband with whom she had fought side by side during in her stories. the resistance years. After being a committed resistance fighter, he secures himself a high position in the new As for those who claim they can write about men and independent state and forgets the high ideals he fought women's internal worlds alike, she believes them to write for. He moves into a lUXUry home, buys a car and «from the outside» and says: «It is impossible to write decides to find a new wife, one that would suit his about a world one ignores. Therefore only women can present life style. genuinely write about women; thus the validity of talking about women's literature.» However, she points out that As for Zahra, she remains the same woman who learnt in the Arab world, there are not enough women writers to read and write in literacy classes. She goes back to the yet to be able to truly differentiate between feminine and city that she had left as a youngster, and fmds that people masculine literature. have changed. AI - Watan AI - Arabi, In the country she helped build, she finds herself No. 358, 23-29 Dec. 1983, P. 60)

11 C..... _R_e...;p~o_rt_s_f_ro_m_A_r_o_u_n_d_t_h_e_w_o_rl_d ______)

French Minister Feminizes Language is a delicate terrain, we have entrusted the work to a panel of experts». Yvette Roudy, 's Women's Right's Minister, has The commission appointed by Roudy includes feminist started a campaign to reduce sexism in the job market by writers, linguists, journalists and a member of the preparing school children of both sexes for all types of Academie Franc;aise, the guardian of and professions. culture. But although the panel is not expected to She has appointed a government COmmISSlOn to announce its proposals soon, passions are already running «feminize» the jobs which have traditionally been held by high with a series of ironic and outraged reports men, moving to close the gender gap at the top, as a appearing in the French press. growing number of women move up the professional This does not seem to deter Roudy, 55, who has made ladder. women's rights more solid in France than in any other Western European country during her three years in

New Women's Journal in Sudan Claire Gebeyli Awarded Edgar Poe Ahfad Women's College at Omdurman - Sudan is Prize producing a new semi - annual publication called ~The Ahfad Journal». The ~House of Poetry» in Paris has awarded the 1985 The Ahfad Journal focuses on the status of women in Edgar Poe Prize for best foreign poet writing in French developing countries and the role of women in to poet and journalist Claire Gebeyli(l). The prize, given development. It publishes original research reports, for the first time to a lebanese poet is for Gebeyli's latest literature reviews, historical and critical analysis reviews, work ~La Mise a Jour» (1984) which is about her and book reviews as well as contributions to the family experience of the war.

sciences, psychology and the social sciences, preschool Gebeyli's previously published work includes ~Poesies education, and organization management. Latentes» (Beirut 1968), ~Memorial d'ExiI» (Paris, In the June issue of 1985 a section entitled 1975) and ~Billets» which appeared every Thursday in «comments» will be added to give readers an opportunity the French-Language newspaper I' - Le Jour to express their opinion and remarks. (Beirut, 1982)(2). Articles and manuscripts that fall within the scope of the Ahfad Journal may be submitted for publications. For (1) SeeAl-Raida, Feb. I-May 1,1984, p. 4 and Aug. I, 1984,p. further information write to Lee G. Burchinal, Editor, 6-7 . Ahfad Journal, P. O. Box 167, Omdurman - Sudan. (2) See A1-Raida, Nov. 1, 1983, p. 5.

12 ( Lecture

Contemporary Lebanese Women Writers{{

by Dr. Nazik Saba Yared

This lecture, says Dr. Yared, does not deal with Lebanese women poets, nor with Lebanese women who write in French and English, nor with women who write children's books. It discusses women writers most tepresentative of the different genres, subjects and trends in contemporary Lebanese feminine literature and two outstanding female critics: Rose Ghorayyeb and KhaIida Said.

*" This article is an abridged and edited version of a lecture given by Dr. Nazek Saba Yared at the Goethe In~titute in Beirut on 24/1/85. Dr. Yared is a lecturer in Arabic at Beirut University College. (see A1·Raida, No. 30, p. 10).

13 Rose Ghrayyeb, older of the two, known through such novels: «I live» and «The Deformed Gods» and her works as «Aesthetic Criticism and its Role in Arabic collection of short stories «A Spaceship of Tenderness Criticism~ (1952) «Introduction to Modern Criticism~ to the Moon~ Emily Nasrallah's; «Oleander Tree,~ (1971), has introduced Arab readers and students to «The Hostage,» «Those Memories,» «Women in 17 subjects little covered by others. Stories~ Hanan Ash-Sheikh's «The Devil's Steed» and The Story of Zahra.» Rose Ghorayyeb has also written some very valuable studies on Gibran Khalil Gibran and May Ziadeh - whose These stories, says Yared, are the means through works had not been previously analysed - with scrupulous which these women writers delved into their own depths, objectivity and intelligence. to find out and to show us the truth of woman's deepest self. However, they only dealt with the various implications of love and marriage, which are only two In addition to these studies is her «Breezes and among the many phenomena in a society that binds Storms in Contemporary Arab Women's Poetry~ woman, that gives her little respect and that does not (1980), which is the first book that analyzes the poetry of consider her as having equal capacities as man. female Arab poets, pointing out its flaws, beauty and innovation. Leyla Baalbaki's books, for instance, are a fierce revolt against people's hypocrisy and lies. They rage Another outstanding literary cntlc is Khalida Said against a society which refuses to grant women equal whose articles are published in literary journals such as rights to men and deprives them of their freedom and «Shi'r~ (Poetry), «Mawaqif» (Standpoints), «Fusul» independence, considering them mere instruments created (Seasons) and others. to satisfy men's pleasures and desires. The reader is taken aback by her courage and outspokenness in describing What is new in Khalida Said's work is that she these sexual desires; after all, she wrote these works back introduces Arab readers to «difficult>} literature, i.e. in the fifties. literature that differs from the classical or romantic style they are accustomed to. She points out the depths and Moreover, her revolt against man and society leads her hidden meanings behind the words, symbols and to utter disrespect, refusal and defiance. Facing her imagery in the «new, strange and ambiguous» poetry of father, Lina Fayad, the heroine of «I live,» says: «I felt a contemporary poets like Unsi al-Hajj, Badr Shaker growing desire in my shoe to rub his nose in the mud and as-Sayab and Said's husband, Adonis. Her latest articles to obliterate him}}. The violence of these words reflects are very much influenced by modem semantics and her hatred and revolt, says Dr. Yared. Traditional structuralism. marriage in the young heroine's opinion is a form of slavery and a humiliation to women. This is why she Yared points out that women writers of Lebanon have hates her mother as well: «My poor mother! All she not written many autobiographies. One of the rare ones is knows about life is to share a man's bed, cook for him that of Anbara Salam el Khalidi's «A Trip in Memory and bring up his childreM. Lina has no respect for any from Lebanon to » (1978), (see AI-Raida, No. woman who offers her body, liberty and life in return for 26, p. 2-3). financial security. When describing the relationship However, autobiography plays a key part in many of between Lina and her communist boyfriend Baba', Leyla their novels. For example, Emily Nasrallah, who wrote Baalbaki shows us how the young men who claim to be her first novel «Birds of September in 1962, relied a lot «progressive}} are as conservative and reactionary as their on her childhood in the village to depict the theme of elders with regard to women. migration. Twenty years later she took up the same theme Baalbaki's revolt goes even further, for she rejects such in «Going Against Time» (1981), picking up the threads moral and intellectual values as love, friendship, respect she had left in her first novel. for knowledge, culture and professors. Unfortunately, The main theme of Lebanese women novelists is because of this desire to provoke, we find in Baalbaki's themselves, and the problems women face in general, novels unconvicing exaggerations, tedious repetitions, states the lecturer. She cites Leyla Baalbaki's two long exposes and simplistic declarations.

14 Emily Nasrallah's novel, «The Hostage», (1974) and Hanan Ash-Sheikh's, «The Story of Zahra» (1980) are both artistically superior and more mature than Baalbaki's novel's. Nasrallah's novel tells the story of Rania who was a hostage and victim of backward marriage customs, and who married a rich old man against her will. The theme of the story is not new, but the author uses a symbolic style in telling it. To start with, the name chosen for the main characters are symbolic. The hero's name, «Namrood», suggests power and strength in Arabic. That of the heroine derives its origin from the Arabic verb «rana,» which means to contemplate quietly. Her name thus symbolizes two things: her contemplative emancipation which is a dream (Le. cannot be realized) and her incapacity to realize this dream. The author also shows us that education pushes a woman to rebel against her drab reality; Rania's university degree «became a path to revolt.» Moreover, the university graduate, Marwan, is in Rania's eyes, the ideal husband for a conscious and educated woman because marriage with him would be based on equality, mutual love, respect and understanding. But although the reader might expect that love ·and liberty will triumph after Rania becomes aware of the backward traditions enslaving her, she in fact leaves Marwan to go back to Namrood.

Emily Nasrallah

The «Story of Zahra,» by Hanan Ash-Sheikh, is To dramatize this reality, Hanan ash-Sheikh has also about woman as victim, although it differs divided her novel into two parts. The first part is the completely from Emily Nasrallah's «The Hostage.» Here story of Zahra who was loved by a married man who lies too we find that the heroine's name is symbolic.

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older these memories become clearer to her and to the reader and we realize that her mother used to meet a secret lover and take her little daughter with her in order to allay her husband's suspicion. Zahra is the frightened witness and victim, first of her mother's treason, then of her father's wrath, when he discovers the truth and beats up Zahra for having withheld it. In fact the story of Zahra can be summarized as the intermingling of sex and fear with the resultant feelings of solitude and loneliness. Furthermore, the greatest part of the narrative is in the form of a monologue, which accentuates Zahra's solitude and incapacity for communicating with society. If woman loses her identity, personality and happiness whether she yields to the customs, traditions and norms of society or revolts against them, where is she to fmd happiness and fulfillment, asks Dr. Yared. She might, Dr. Yared suggests, find the answer in Hanan ash-Sheikh's novel, «The Devil's Steed» (1975) and in Emily NasraUah's, «Those Memories» (1980), despite the difference in their style. Moreover, she adds, I don't think I'm mistaken in saying that both novels are camouflaged autobiography and in both the heroine is in fact the narrator». innocent lives are taken and how all moral, religious and human values ,are disappearing. We hear her say: «The In sum, what the three novelists, Leyla Baalbaki, war has swept away beauty, riches, fear and traditions, Hanan ash-Sheikh and Emily NasraIlah, have in exactly as it has done with the corpses»! common, despite a great difference in style, are two major points: They all deplore the miserable and empty So this time Zahra yields to her sexual desires out of life of the woman who is considered only as a sex object her own free will, and not as a prey man. But when she tells her lover, a sniper, that she is pregnant and cannot and a mother and they all show that a conscious woman abort the child, he kills her, although he is the father of has to struggle to change her life. However, we feel that the child. Lebanese women novelists consider women's deliverance to lie in a marriage based on true love, equality and The novelist's technique is a mature one, states Dr. mutual respect for if the continuity of life depends on the Yared. In the first chapter the heroine, who is also the physical relations between both sexes then the happiness narrator of the story, recalls some vivid, but vague and of this life depends on the moral, mental and spiritual disconnected memories of her childhood. As she grows relations between them.

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