{"id":5670,"date":"2010-02-16T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muslimahmediawatch.org\/?p=5670"},"modified":"2013-08-31T09:16:26","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T13:16:26","slug":"abeer-esber-for-wrong-reasons-easier-for-arab-women-to-publish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2010\/02\/abeer-esber-for-wrong-reasons-easier-for-arab-women-to-publish\/","title":{"rendered":"Abeer Esber: For Wrong Reasons, Easier for Arab Women to Publish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This was written by M. Lynx Qualey and originally appeared at <\/em>Arabic Literature (In English)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

After all the kerfuffle about how many Arabic Booker nominees use the girls\u2019 room<\/a> instead of the boys\u2019 (and how this is proof of literary discrimination), I appreciate Syrian author Abeer Esber, writing on Qantara<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, this gender discussion has nothing to do with good literature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, perhaps not nothing, <\/em>but the links are certainly more complicated than \u201cfewer women on your prize list\u201d = \u201csexism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d she continues, \u201cwomen in Arab countries are currently finding it easier, for all the wrong reasons, to find a publisher for their books.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, why are publishers drawn to Arab female writers? Sex appeal, of course: the idea that \u201ctaboos are being broken<\/a>,\u201d along with the notion\u2014among Western publishers, lit-fair organizers, others\u2014that one is subverting the \u201cdominant Arab paradigm\u201d by celebrating female authors. Youssef Bazzi details the same phenomenon in his essay<\/a> in Banipal 36<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Says Esber: \u201cAbdul Rahman Alawi, [her German publisher]\u2026is only interested in working with female Arab writers.\u201d Yes, one way or another\u2014through stripping them of their hijab, or by publishing their books\u2014\u201dwe\u201d will save Arab\/Muslim women!<\/p>\n

Esber argues that she is not a \u201cfemale writer,\u201d but\u2014for God\u2019s sake\u2014a \u201cwriter,\u201d interested in the same subjects as men: lack(s) of democracy, lack of individuality, and the loss of dreams.<\/p>\n

No one is saying women have reached a state of happy equality, or that sexism doesn\u2019t exist. Not me, at any rate, and I doubt Esber. But is stuffing the Arabic Booker list with women writers going to help?<\/p>\n

I believe that, when it comes to sports, it\u2019s good to have separate leagues for women, who are clearly built on a different scale. But women writers\u2014Abeer Esber, Mansoura ezz-Eldin, Hanan al-Shaykh, whoever\u2014can be placed in the same league as any other writer, and judged on their merits.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was written by M. Lynx Qualey and originally appeared at Arabic Literature (In English). After all the kerfuffle about how many Arabic Booker nominees use the girls\u2019 room instead of the boys\u2019 (and how this is proof of literary discrimination), I appreciate Syrian author Abeer Esber, writing on Qantara: \u201cIn my view, this gender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[39,129,2078,140,452],"class_list":["post-5670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-booksmagazines","tag-abeer-esber","tag-arab-authors","tag-arab-literature","tag-arabic-booker-prize","tag-female-authors"],"yoast_head":"\nAbeer Esber: For Wrong Reasons, Easier for Arab Women to Publish<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This was written by M. 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