A Forgotten Woman Writer: Representations of Women in Faridah Ahmad’s Creative Writings

Authors

Sylvia Azmy, The American University in CairoFollow

Abstract

In her creative writings Farida Ahmad (1939-2018), an Egyptian woman writer and journalist excluded from the Arabic literary canon, subtly presents a different narrative about the leftist movement in the seventies and eighties. This research argues that Ahmad’s works, which present that women’s liberation and nation’s liberation are different, faced structural marginalization. She presents that in her novella, Akhāfu ʻalayka Minnī, using the relationship dynamics between two intellectual leftist activists, Mustafa and Nadia. Mustafa marginalizes Nadia from the political sphere through his patronizing attitude. Moreover, he utilizes the sexual (nation) liberation rhetoric and conservative rhetoric to convince Nadia to be his concubine. This research examines Nadia’s work in an attempt to create an inclusive vision of her work and life. This research speaks in dialogue with the feminist approach to the structural formation of the literary canon, especially in Arabic literature. It does not attempt to generalize how the Arabic canon is formed, but rather investigates the reasons why a leftist woman’s fictional narrative exists in the periphery even in the leftist production of literature.

Document Type

Essay

Department

Arab & Islamic Civilizations Department

Recommended Citation

Azmy, Sylvia (2023) "A Forgotten Woman Writer: Representations of Women in Faridah Ahmad’s Creative Writings," The Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 9, Article 7.
Available at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/urje/vol9/iss1/7

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Not necessary for this item