AN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT STORIES EDITED, TRANSLATED, AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Dalya Cohen-Mor Arab Women Writers SUNY series, Women Writers in Translation Marilyn Gaddis Rose, editor Arab Women Writers An Anthology of Short Stories ¸¹º Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by Dalya Cohen-Mor State University of New York Press Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2005 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2365 Production by Judith Block Marketing by Fran Keneston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Arab women writers : an anthology of short stories / collected, translated, and introduced by Dalya Cohen-Mor. p. cm. — (SUNY series, women writers in translation) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7914-6419-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6420-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Short stories, Arabic—Translations into English. 2. Arabic fiction—Women authors—Translations into English. I. Cohen-Mor, Dalya II. Series. PJ7694. E8A719 2005 892.7′301089287—dc22 2004015114 10987654321 To Michael, my life’s companion Contents ¸¹º Acknowledgmentsxi Introduction 1 Arab Women Writers: A Brief Sketch 3 Thematic Aspects 7 Modes of Writing 18 Arab Women: Old Images, New Profiles 23 Part One Growing Up Female 29 That Summer Holiday Samiya At'ut (Palestine) 30 The Parting Gift Umayma al-Khamis (Saudi Arabia) 32 Let’s Play Doctor Nura Amin (Egypt) 38 In the Moonlight Radwa Ashour (Egypt) 41 At the Beach Buthayna al-Nasiri (Iraq) 44 A Helping Hand Mona Ragab (Egypt) 48 In the Recesses of Memory Fawziya Rashid (Bahrain) 49 Fragments from a Life Sharifa al-Shamlan (Saudi Arabia) 52 The Slave Najiya Thamir (Syria) 55 Part Two Love and Sexuality 59 The Picture Nawal al-Saadawi (Egypt) 60 The Picture Latifa al-Zayyat (Egypt) 65 The Picture Layla al-Uthman (Kuwait) 73 The Smile Nafila Dhahab (Tunisia) 79 My Mother’s Friend Nura Amin (Egypt) 81 A Worthless Woman Hayat Bin al-Shaykh (Tunisia) 83 Part Three Male-Female Relations 87 Where To? Colette Suhayl al-Khuri (Syria) 88 The Cat Layla Ba'labakki (Lebanon) 92 vii viii Contents The Woman of My Dreams Fadila al-Faruq (Algeria) 97 Mozart’s Fez Samiya At'ut (Palestine) 100 A Virgin Continent Samira Azzam (Palestine) 101 An Old Couple Nadiya Khust (Syria) 106 Part Four Marriage 111 A Mistake in the Knitting Ihsan Kamal (Egypt) 112 My Wedding Night Alifa Rifaat (Egypt) 120 The Dummy Sahar al-Muji (Egypt) 127 The Cat, the Maid, and the Wife Daisy al-Amir (Iraq) 129 Sun, I Am the Moon Hanan al-Shaykh (Lebanon) 133 The Dreadful Sea Zuhur Wanisi (Algeria) 141 Woman with a Story Mayy Ziyada (Palestine) 147 The Persian Rug Hanan al-Shaykh (Lebanon) 154 The Dream Aliya Mamdouh (Iraq) 159 Pharaoh Is Drowning Again Sakina Fuad (Egypt) 163 Part Five Childbearing 171 The Spider’s Web Ihsan Kamal (Egypt) 172 Man and Woman Rafiqat al-Tabi'a (Morocco) 178 Half a Woman Sufi Abdallah (Egypt) 181 Heir Apparent Ramziya Abbas al-Iryani (Yemen) 186 The Newcomer Daisy al-Amir (Iraq) 189 Part Six Self-Fulfillment 193 International Women’s Day Salwa Bakr (Egypt) 194 The Filly Became a Mouse Layla Ba'labakki (Lebanon) 199 Restoration Umayma al-Khamis (Saudi Arabia) 205 Waiting for Hayla Umayma al-Khamis (Saudi Arabia) 206 The Closely Guarded Secret Sahar al-Muji (Egypt) 209 I Will Never Forfeit My Right Mona Ragab (Egypt) 210 Homecoming Fadila al-Faruq (Algeria) 214 Bittersweet Memories Zabya Khamis (United Arab Emirates) 217 Part Seven Customs and Values 221 Tears for Sale Samira Azzam (Palestine) 222 Misfortune in the Alley Ramziya Abbas al-Iryani (Yemen) 227 Questioning Fawziya Rashid (Bahrain) 232 Contents ix The Dinosaur Emily Nasrallah (Lebanon) 235 Moonstruck Hadiya Sa'id (Lebanon) 241 A Moment of Truth Khayriya al-Saqqaf (Saudi Arabia) 245 The Future Daisy al-Amir (Iraq) 248 The Gallows Suhayr al-Tall (Jordan) 254 Part Eight The Winds of Change 257 The Breeze of Youth Ulfat al-Idilbi (Syria) 258 A Successful Woman Suhayr al-Qalamawi (Egypt) 265 In Need of Reassurance Radwa Ashour (Egypt) 270 Short and Sassy Nafila Dhahab (Tunisia) 275 The Collapse of Barriers Samiya At'ut (Palestine) 277 The Beginning Salwa Bakr (Egypt) 280 A Moment of Contemplation Nuzha Bin Sulayman (Morocco) 285 I Will Try Tomorrow Mona Ragab (Egypt) 288 Notes 291 About the Authors 297 Acknowledgments ¸¹º his anthology owes its existence to the assistance and cooper- ation of many people and institutions. First and foremost, I T want to thank the authors for permission to translate and print selections from their writings. The scope of this anthology made it at times difficult, despite all efforts, to locate some of the authors, their agents, or both. The editor and publisher regret any omissions or errors, which will be gladly corrected in subsequent printings. I want to express my gratitude to all the authors whose in- dividual stories appear in this volume: Sufi Abdallah for “Half a Woman”; Nura Amin for “My Mother’s Friend” and “Let’s Play Doctor”; Daisy al-Amir for “The Newcomer,” “The Future,” and “The Cat, the Maid, and the Wife”; Radwa Ashour for “In the Moonlight” and “In Need of Reassurance”; Samiya At'ut for “The Collapse of Barriers,” Mozart’s Fez,” and “That Summer Holiday”; Samira Azzam for “Tears for Sale” and “A Virgin Continent”; Salwa Bakr for “International Women’s Day” and “The Beginning”; Layla Ba'labakki for “The Cat” and “The Filly Became a Mouse”; Hayat Bin al-Shaykh for “A Worthless Woman”; Nuzha Bin Sulayman for “A Moment of Contemplation”; Nafila Dhahab for “Short and Sassy” and “The Smile”; Fadila al-Faruq for “The Woman of my Dreams” and “Homecoming”; Sakina Fuad for “Pharaoh Is Drowning Again”; Ulfat al-Idilbi for “The Breeze of Youth”; Ramziya Abbas al-Iryani for “Misfortune in the Alley” and “Heir Apparent”; Ihsan Kamal for “A Mistake in the Knitting” and “The Spider’s Web”; Umayma al-Khamis for “The Parting Gift,” “Restoration,” and “Waiting for Hayla”; Zabya Khamis for “Bittersweet Memories”; Colette Suhayl al-Khuri for “Where To?”; Nadiya Khust for “An Old Couple”; Aliya Mamdouh for “The Dream”; Sahar al-Muji for “The Dummy” and “The Closely Guarded Secret”; Buthayna al- Nasiri for “At the Beach”; Emily Nasrallah for “The Dinosaur”; Suhayr al-Qalamawi for “A Successful Woman”; Mona Ragab for xi xii Acknowledgments “I Will Try Tomorrow,” “A Helping Hand,” and “I Will Never For- feit My Right”; Fawziya Rashid for “In the Recesses of Memory” and “Questioning”; Alifa Rifaat for “My Wedding Night”; Nawal al-Saadawi for “The Picture”; Hadiya Sa'id for “Moonstruck”; Khayriya al-Saqqaf for “A Moment of Truth”; Sharifa al-Shamlan for “Fragments from a Life”; Hanan al-Shaykh for “The Persian Rug” and “Sun, I Am the Moon”; Rafiqat al-Tabi'a for “Man and Woman”; Suhayr al-Tall for “The Gallows”; Najiya Thamir for “The Slave”; Layla al-Uthman for “The Picture”; Zuhur Wanisi for “The Dreadful Sea”; Latifa al-Zayyat for “The Picture”; Mayy Ziyada for “Woman with a Story.” I also thank Sheba Press for permission to print revised trans- lations from An Arabian Mosaic, which appeared in a limited edition in 1993. In transliterating Arabic words and names, I have used a sim- plified system based on that of the Library of Congress. For greater ease in reading, all the diacritical marks have been omitted. The sign ' stands for both 'ayn and hamza, which are denoted only when they occur in the middle of a word (with the exception of bibliographi- cal references, where they are denoted in full). Anglicized forms of Arabic words and names have been retained in the translated text. This anthology has evolved over a decade of teaching modern Ara- bic literature in various settings and institutions. My contact with students, and my recurrent observation that the life of women in the Arab world is poorly understood and inadequately described in the West, provided the main impetus to study and collect stories by and about women from different parts of the Arab world. Collecting the stories for this work was a formidable task that was facilitated by the Library of Congress, Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library, and the Arabic Language Institute at the Ameri- can University in Cairo. My warm thanks to all those members of staff and faculty who have gone out of their way to help me com- plete this project. While the main part of this research was conducted at these prominent institutions, additional—and most fascinating—texts were obtained through travels to Arab countries, where my favorite pas- times were going to book fairs, visiting publishing houses, and brows- ing in bookshops and bookstalls. By looking at what was placed on the shelves or displayed on the sidewalks, and by talking to bookshop Acknowledgments xiii clerks and street vendors, I could familiarize myself with new authors and new works that have not yet made their way to public libraries in the East or the West. I could also assess which authors were the most popular, respected, neglected, and obscure... Hunting for texts became an especially adventurous activity in Cairo, where books printed in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world are sold at very low prices.