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Feminism

Time-Travelers, Fisherwomen, and Sleuths: Arabic Young Adult Literature
By Elisabeth Jaquette
While Arabic publishing has historically focused on literature for adults and young children, recent years have seen an increasing number of titles aimed at a young adult readership.
Mossy rocks at the edge of the coastline in Gaza
Photo by Emad El Byed on Unsplash
Against the Tide
By Taghreed Najjar
A young woman defies societal expectations to become Gaza’s first fisherwoman in this excerpt from Taghreed Najjar’s YA novel Against the Tide.
Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
Beyond Representation: Life Writing by Women in Arabic
By Sawad Hussain & Nariman Youssef
One cannot write about real-life experiences from the place of the “I” without laying claim to a place in the world.
University Student
By Sahar Khalifeh
I was a woman: young, alone, divorced, left without a guardian or virtue, meaning that in society’s eyes I was an easy target.
Translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain
Urdu Feminist Writing: New Approaches
By Asad Alvi, Amna Chaudhry, Mehak Faisal Khan, Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb, Geeta Patel & Haider Shahbaz
A dispiriting narrowness has defined canons of Urdu feminist writing from previous decades.
Enemy
By Khalida Hussain
It’s an act of virtue to kill her!
Translated from Urdu by Haider Shahbaz
I Spat Out This Poem
By Yasmeen Hameed
I swallowed fire / And forgot you were an ocean.
Translated from Urdu by Mehr Afshan Farooqi
A yellow rose lying on a stone surface
Photo by Sindy Strife on Unsplash
A New Year for Everyone
By Hijab Imtiaz
So this is what the new year of those who worship this life looks like!
Translated from Urdu by Sascha Akhtar
No, My Veil Is Stained
By Parveen Shakir
Flowers will slip from a torn veil.
Translated from Urdu by Adeeba Shahid Talukder
Sappho’s Ephemera
By Miraji
Her sagacity immortalized even her scattered, sporadic axioms.
Translated from Urdu by Geeta Patel
Red earth has broken apart leaving a cliff-like overhand with exposed tree roots against a forest...
Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash
Color Thief
By Sara Shagufta
When a man cries / he floods himself in salt tears / and colorfast he drowns
Translated from Urdu by Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb
We Take the Present in Our Own Hands: Writing by Tunisian Women
By Cécile Oumhani
What do Tunisian women write today?
Game of Ribbons
By Emna Belhaj Yahia
“I don’t like to be lumped in with every woman who wears a scarf on her head.”
Translated from French by Emma Ramadan
from “Clairvoyant in the City of the Blind”
By Amina Saïd
I hope and despair at the same moment
Translated from French by Marilyn Hacker
The Killer
By Emna Rmili
My finger is pressing the trigger.
Translated from Arabic by Alice Guthrie
The Restless
By Azza Filali
Skin has a memory.
Translated from French by Ros Schwartz
Two Poems
By Ines Abassi
I / am stolen splendor on a darkened street
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
The Stranger and the Old Lady
By Noura Bensaad
In her eyes there smiles the child she once was.
Translated from French by Roland Glasser
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