Praise for the first edition:"An impressive collection of more than 50 pieces -- essays, poems, folktales, short stories, memoirs, film scripts, lectures/speeches -- by Arab women challenging the widely accepted view of Middle Eastern women as submissive non-thinkers to whom feminism is a foreign concept." -- Booklist"Anyone interested in good writing should read [Opening the Gates]. Here are first-class stories with the energy and freshness we expect from a beginning." -- Doris Lessing, The Independent"This collection of stories, speeches, essays, poems and memoirs bears fierce testimony to a tradition of brave Arab feminist writing in the face of subjugation by a Muslim patriarchy." -- Publishers Weekly"This impressive collection of writings by Arab women... represent[s] a powerful series of vignettes by women who were both insightful and gifted, into the lives of women who have lived 'behind the veil' over the last 100 years." -- Arab Book World"An expression of indigenous, intrepid feminism in the Arab world." -- Ms."Opening the Gates succeeds not because of its methodology, but because of the stories the women tell." -- Voice Literary Supplement

Margot Badran is Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion and Preceptor at the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa at Northwestern University. Her books include Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt, as well as Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist: Huda Shaarawi, which she translated, edited, and introduced. Her permanent residence is in Cairo, Egypt.

miriam cooke is Professor of Arabic Literature and Culture and Chair of the Department of Asian and African Languages and Literature at Duke University. Among her publications are War's Other Voices: Women Writers on the Lebanese Civil War; Women and the War Story; Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature; and a novel, Hayati, My Life. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Acknowledgments

xii

Introduction to the Second Edition

xv

Preface

xxii

Introduction

xxv

AWARENESS

Etel Adnan

Lebanon

Growing Up to Be a Woman Writer in Lebanon (1986)

3

(18)

Warda al-Yaziji

Lebanon

Epistolary Poem to Warda al-Turk (1867)

21

(2)

Nadia Tueni

Lebanon

Who are you, Claire Gebeyli? (1968)

23

(3)

Fadwa Tuqan

Palestine

Difficult Journey-Mountainous Journey (1984)

26

(15)

Huda Shaarawi

Egypt

Farewell, Betrothal and Wedding (c. 1945)

41

(8)

Shirley Saad

Egypt

Amina (1985)

49

(5)

Samira Azzam

Palestine

The Protected One (1967)

54

(3)

Ulfa Idelbi

Syria

Seventy Years Later (1970)

57

(6)

Zainaba

Mauritania

Lecture on Clitoridectomy to the Midwives of Touil, Mauritania (1987)

63

(9)

Alifa Rifaat

Egypt

Who Will Be the Man? (1981)

72

(12)

Honour (1981)

Khairiya Saqqaf

Saudi Arabia

I Saw Her and That's Enough (1981)

84

(8)

In a Contemporary House (1981)

Wadida Wassef

Egypt

Hasan's Wives (1970)

92

(10)

Nadia Guendouz

Algeria

People (1963)

102

(2)

Marie-Aimée/Helie-Lucas

Algeria

Women, Nationalism and Religion in the Algerian Liberation Struggle (1987)

104

(11)

Daisy al-Amir

Iraq

The Eyes in the Mirror (1981)

115

(4)

Noha Radwan

Egypt

The Silk Bands (1988)

119

(6)

REJECTION

Aisha Ismat al-Taimuriya

Egypt

The Results of Circumstances in Words and Deeds (1887/8)

125

(9)

Family Reform (1894/5)

Bahithat al-Badiya

Egypt

Bad Deeds of Men: Injustice (1909)

134

(3)

Ghada Samman

Syria

Our Constitution-We the Liberated Women (1961)

137

(7)

Emily Nasrallah

Lebanon

September Birds (1962)

144

(11)

Hanan al-Shaikh

Lebanon

A Girl Called Apple (1981)

155

(5)

Ihsan Assal

Egypt

The House of Obedience (1962)

160

(8)

Evelyne Accad

Lebanon

The Excised (1982)

168

(6)

Andrée Chedid

Egypt

House of Arrest (1965)

174

(6)

May Muzaffar

Iraq

Personal Papers (1973)

180

(6)

Fadhma Amrouche

Algeria

My Mother (1946)

186

(5)

Samar Attar

Syria

Rima (1988)

191

(12)

Nawal al-Saadawi

Egypt

Eyes (1988)

203

(12)

ACTIVISM

Hind Nawfal

Syria

The Dawn of the Arabic Women's Press (1892)

215

(5)

Zainab Fawwaz

Lebanon

Fair And Equal Treatment (1891)

220

(7)

Bahithat al-Badiya

Egypt

A Lecture in the Club of the Umma Party (1909)

227

(12)

May Ziyada

Palestine

Warda al-Yaziji (1924)

239

(5)

Qut al-Qulub

Egypt

The Elopement and the Impossible Joy (1958)

244

(13)

Nabawiya Musa

Egypt

The Effect of Books and Novels on Morals (1920)

257

(13)

The Difference between Men and Women (1920)

Nazira Zain al-Din

Lebanon

Unveiling and Veiling (1928)

270

(9)

The Young Woman and the Shaikhs (1928)

Saiza Nabarawi

Egypt

Double Standard (1925)

279

(3)

Zoubeida Bittari

Algeria

The Voice of Happiness (1964)

282

(14)

Farida Benlyazid

Morocco

The Gate of Heaven is Open (1987)

296

(8)

Nuha Samara

Palestine

Two Faces, One Woman (1980)

304

(10)

Huda Naamani

Syria

From Tumbling on the Snow (1982)

314

(3)

Fatima Mernissi

Morocco

Who's Cleverer: Man or Woman?

317

(11)

Chaibia

Morocco

My Life (1985)

328

(4)

Sufi Abdallah

Egypt

Eight Eyes (1975)

332

(5)

Huda Shaarawi

Egypt

Pan-Arab Feminism (1944)

337

(4)

Zahiya Dughan

Lebanon

Arab Women's Intellectual Heritage (1944)

341

(2)

Inji Aflatun

Egypt

We Egyptian Women (1949)

343

(9)

Duriya Shafiq

Egypt

Islam and the Constitutional Rights of Woman (1952)

352

(5)

Amina Said

Egypt

Feast of Unveiling (1973)

357

(9)

Why, Reverend Shaikh? (1976)

Nahid Toubia

Sudan

Challenges Facing the Arab Woman at the End of the 20th Century (1987)

366

(6)

A Group of Egyptian Women

Legal Rights of the Egyptian Woman (1988)

372

(3)

Amatalrauf al-Sharki

Yemen

An Unveiled Voice (1988)

375

(11)

Assia Djebar

Algeria

Introduction to Nawal al-Saadawi's Ferdaous (1983)

386

(11)

TRANSITIONS

Amat al-Aleem

Yemen

Women's Rights Are Human Rights Are Alsoswa Islamic Rights (2003)

397

(8)

Tahani al-Jibali

Egypt

Egyptian Women Finally Get Their Due (2003)

405

(6)

Latifa al-Zayyat

Egypt

Testimonial of a Creative Woman (1996)

411

(5)

Huda Ablan

Yemen

Road (1999)

416

(3)

Belongings (1999)

Confession (1999)

Spillage (1999)

Setting Sail (1999)

Ibtisam al-Mutawwakal

Yemen

How to Become a Man (1998)

419

(3)

The First Letters (1998)

Nabila Zubair

Yemen

Documenting (1997)

422

(2)

Still (1997)

Kuwaiti Activists

From National Resistance to Feminist Activism (1991-92)

424

(5)

Layla al-Uthman

Kuwait

Another Role for the Abaya (1994)

429

(7)

Tayba Hassan/Al Khalifa Sharif

Sudan

Sacred Narratives Linking Iraqi Shiite Women (2004)

436

(10)

Sahar Khalifa

Palestine

Bab al-Saha (1990)

446

(5)

Glossary

451

(4)

Index

455

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.