Women and Words in Saudi Arabia

Rating:
Summary: Literature defines reality
Review: Before moving to Saudi Arabia, I found Women and Words in Saudi Arabia: The Politics of Literary Discourse by Saddeka Arebi. I eagerly devoured the substantial text, believing the book would give me a context where I could situate myself as I settled into my new environment. I also hoped the book would help me understand a part of the world that is surrounded in mystery and intrigue--at least, to most Westerners. I was not disappointed. Saddeka uses literature to explore Saudi Arabia's "preoccupation...with the subject of women--their education, their work, their mobility." Why the use of literature for such a daunting task? Because "literature...has historically and continues today to define reality." How do women themselves "read" their own culture? How do they perceive their own religious heritage, their cultural traditions, and history? How do they respond to conventional interpretations of their religion, tradition, and history? What do they see as they look at the world from their particular social space?

Saddeka has produced an ambitious, scholarly text. The bulk of the text focuses on the work of nine Saudi Arabian women authors. Constraints are placed on writers--whether they be male or female--"writers are always disseminators of a culture if not its creators, in the Saudi society they are expected to be gatekeepers, advocates, protectors of the canons, and interpreters all at the same time. The purpose of writing, as defined by the centers of power, is to produce a perception of reality congruent with and guided by the ideas of these power centers." Then, after all is written, edited and published, Saddeka says, "writing in Saudi Arabia is economically unrewarding."

Chapter 2 focuses on three writers. Fowziyha Abu-Khalid, known as a poet, is interested in the relationship of literature to religion. She believes "that the right of discussion and of participation in discourse should be accorded to everybody." Change, she believes, depends on the masses, not the intellectuals. Ruqayya Ash-Shabib, best known as a short story writer, bases her work on ordinary women who hold no positions of formal power, but changed history in a profound way. Two examples are Sheherazade and Balqees, the queen of Sheba. She believes "that the problem is not male dominance, but rather female submission." Rajaa 'Alim, a pioneer in playwriting, thinks the primary function of literature is "liberation of the individual." With her use of well-known symbols such as the camel, she attempts to create a new way of looking at those symbols.

Chapter 3, under the broad heading of victimization literature, gives the spotlight to three more writers of short stories. Sharifa As-Shamlan "draws most of her stories from the real lives of women with whom she comes in contact as a social worker, especially those in prison." She "writes to and for the ordinary person." Khayriyya As-Saggaf explains that she doesn't "write for someone who is in a hurry, who reads in a car, or who reads while busy doing something else." The reader travels with the writer, known for her sensitivity to cultural values, exploring new meaning for existence. Najwa Hashim began like all women writers, working for newspapers and magazines. Najwa's stories generally deal with women "who struggle with the discrepancy between the real and the ideal."

Chapter 4 gives us a look at three of "the most widely read female Saudi Arabian essayists. Juhayer Al-Musa'ed's skill revolves around her ability to ask the right questions without necessarily providing the answers. Not especially popular with women readers, Juhayer is seen as "declaring her alliance with men, hence emphasizing the premises of the dominant discourse." Fatna Shaker believes the problem of how societies arrange themselves "can only be solved if understood in broader terms and explored in terms of structural causes." Sohaila Zain Al-Abedin is correctly perceived "by other literary men and women as being in line with the dominant discourse." Two themes dominate her writing: women--veiled, immobile, segregated from men and battling the encroachment of the West.

Above all, Saudi Arabian women writers would like their work to be perceived as having to do with humanity--not just a reflection of a feminine experience. So often, their writing is demeaned further by those critcs who render their work as reflective only of the writer's own experience.

Excellent, thorough treatment of selected women authors in a country that has experienced a lot of change over a short period of time.

Rating:
Summary: Literature defines reality
Review: Before moving to Saudi Arabia, I found Women and Words in Saudi Arabia: The Politics of Literary Discourse by Saddeka Arebi. I eagerly devoured the substantial text, believing the book would give me a context where I could situate myself as I settled into my new environment. I also hoped the book would help me understand a part of the world that is surrounded in mystery and intrigue--at least, to most Westerners. I was not disappointed. Saddeka uses literature to explore Saudi Arabia's "preoccupation...with the subject of women--their education, their work, their mobility." Why the use of literature for such a daunting task? Because "literature...has historically and continues today to define reality." How do women themselves "read" their own culture? How do they perceive their own religious heritage, their cultural traditions, and history? How do they respond to conventional interpretations of their religion, tradition, and history? What do they see as they look at the world from their particular social space?

Saddeka has produced an ambitious, scholarly text. The bulk of the text focuses on the work of nine Saudi Arabian women authors. Constraints are placed on writers--whether they be male or female--"writers are always disseminators of a culture if not its creators, in the Saudi society they are expected to be gatekeepers, advocates, protectors of the canons, and interpreters all at the same time. The purpose of writing, as defined by the centers of power, is to produce a perception of reality congruent with and guided by the ideas of these power centers." Then, after all is written, edited and published, Saddeka says, "writing in Saudi Arabia is economically unrewarding."

Chapter 2 focuses on three writers. Fowziyha Abu-Khalid, known as a poet, is interested in the relationship of literature to religion. She believes "that the right of discussion and of participation in discourse should be accorded to everybody." Change, she believes, depends on the masses, not the intellectuals. Ruqayya Ash-Shabib, best known as a short story writer, bases her work on ordinary women who hold no positions of formal power, but changed history in a profound way. Two examples are Sheherazade and Balqees, the queen of Sheba. She believes "that the problem is not male dominance, but rather female submission." Rajaa 'Alim, a pioneer in playwriting, thinks the primary function of literature is "liberation of the individual." With her use of well-known symbols such as the camel, she attempts to create a new way of looking at those symbols.

Chapter 3, under the broad heading of victimization literature, gives the spotlight to three more writers of short stories. Sharifa As-Shamlan "draws most of her stories from the real lives of women with whom she comes in contact as a social worker, especially those in prison." She "writes to and for the ordinary person." Khayriyya As-Saggaf explains that she doesn't "write for someone who is in a hurry, who reads in a car, or who reads while busy doing something else." The reader travels with the writer, known for her sensitivity to cultural values, exploring new meaning for existence. Najwa Hashim began like all women writers, working for newspapers and magazines. Najwa's stories generally deal with women "who struggle with the discrepancy between the real and the ideal."

Chapter 4 gives us a look at three of "the most widely read female Saudi Arabian essayists. Juhayer Al-Musa'ed's skill revolves around her ability to ask the right questions without necessarily providing the answers. Not especially popular with women readers, Juhayer is seen as "declaring her alliance with men, hence emphasizing the premises of the dominant discourse." Fatna Shaker believes the problem of how societies arrange themselves "can only be solved if understood in broader terms and explored in terms of structural causes." Sohaila Zain Al-Abedin is correctly perceived "by other literary men and women as being in line with the dominant discourse." Two themes dominate her writing: women--veiled, immobile, segregated from men and battling the encroachment of the West.

Above all, Saudi Arabian women writers would like their work to be perceived as having to do with humanity--not just a reflection of a feminine experience. So often, their writing is demeaned further by those critcs who render their work as reflective only of the writer's own experience.

Excellent, thorough treatment of selected women authors in a country that has experienced a lot of change over a short period of time.