Founder
Hala Kamal
Hala Kamal earned her PhD degree in 2003 from the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. Her thesis was entitled "Contemporary Immigrant Women's Autobiography in the USA.". She has also got a Diploma in American Studies, Smith College, USA (1999-2000); Women's Studies, having written a thesis on "Theorizing the Personal: Academic Women's Memoirs." She got her MA degree from the School of English, University of Leeds, England (1993-1995). She works as assistant professor at the Dept. of English, Cairo University. Hala is particularly interested in women's studies, and women's writing, as well as translation theory and practice.
In addition, and due to her awareness of the importance of the production of gender knowledge in Arabic and her belief in specialised translation, she has focused in her translation work exclusively on the translation of gender and women studies material.
She joined the (then) Women and Memory Study Group as research assistant in 1996. She became a founding member of the Women and Memory Forum in 1997. She began her involvement by forming in 1997 the "WMF Storytelling Group" based on the idea of critiquing gender-biased popular culture and re/writing fairytales from a feminist perspective, which includes: writing workshops; public storytelling; gender training through creative writing; publications.
Publications:
In English
- · “Translating Women and Gender”, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quartery, 36: 3&4 (Fall/Winter 2008).
· “Gendered Autobiography: Record and Inquiry,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Comparative Literature – “Power and the Role of the Intellectual,” (Cairo University, 2006).
· Editor of “A Conversation with Elaine Showalter: ‘Gynocriticism’ and Beyond,” Cairo Studies in English, (Cairo University, 2003).
· “Aspects of American College Women’s Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” Cairo Studies in English, (Cairo University, 2000).
· "Feminising Aladdin: the Interplay of Gender and Culture in Re/Writing the Text," Proceedings of the International Conference on "The Arabs and Britain: Changes and Exchanges", (Cairo: The British Council, 1999).
In Arabic
· “Awraq al-Nargis wa Kitabat al-Gunoon” (Leaves of Narcissus and Writing Madness), in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Ibda’ (Women and Creativity), Cairo: New Woman Research Centre, December 2007, pp. 35-48.
· “Ahamiyyat al-Dirasaat al-Nisa’iyya fi al-Game’aat al-Misriyya” (The Importance of Establishing Women’s Studies at Egyptian Universities), in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Ta’leem (Women and Education), Cairo: New Woman Research Centre, June 2007, pp. 37-61.. Received the 2nd Young Researchers Award in Gender Issues, the Egyptian National Council for Women, 2007.
· “Mumarasat al-Horreya al-Fikriya Raghm Hisar al-Gami’a” (Excersising Freedom of Thought Despite Restrictions on Universities), Civil Society in the Arab World and the Challenge of Democracy, ed. Jean Said Makdisi et al, Beirut: Bahithat, 2004, pp. 159-168.
· “Al-Haraka al-Nisa’iya Haraka Siyasiya” (The Women’s Movement as a Political Movement) in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Sulta (Women and Authority), Cairo: New Woman Research Centre, March 2004, pp. 7-21.
· “Al-Fikr al-Niswi fi Misr: min al-Wa’i ila al-‘Amal”, (Feminist Thought in Egypt: from Consciousness to Activism), paper presented to the Conference on “Current Trends in Egyptian Thought”, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, February 2002.
· “Kitabat al-That wa Siyasat al-Muqawama”, (Writing the Self and the Politics of Resistence in Nabawiya Musa’s Memoir), Al-Nisa’ Al-Arabiyat fi Al-‘Ashrinat: Huduran wa Hawiyya (Arab Women in the 1920s: Presence and Identity), eds. Jean Makdisi et al, Proceedings of Al-Bahithat Conference, Beirut 2001, pp. 211-224.
· “Muhadaraat al-Far’ al-Nisa’i fi al-Gami’a al-Misriya: 1909-1912” (The Women’s Section at the Egyptian University: 1909-1912) in Min Ra’idaat al-Qarn al-‘Ashreen, ed. Hoda Elsadda, (Cairo: Women&Memory Forum, 2001), pp. 177-199.
· Qalat al-Rawiya, (Gender-Sensitive Fairy Tales and Feminist Stories), editor, (Cairo: Women and Memory Forum, 1999).
· Tarikhi Bi-Qalami (The Memoir of Nabawiya Musa), co-editor with Rania Abdel-Rahman, (Cairo: Women&Memory Froum, 1999).
· "Nabawiya Musa wa Ta'lim al-Banat fi Misr" (Nabawiya Musa and Girls' Education in Egypt) in Hagar: Kitabul Mar'a (Hagar: On Women's Issues), vol. 5/6 :38-44, (Cairo: Dar Nusous, 1998).
· "Suwar Lil-That al-Europiya fi Adab Ma-Ba’d al-Colonialiya" (Versions of the European Self in Post-Colonial Literature) in Al-Qahira, Nov. 1997, 180: 16-24.
Translations
Into Arabic
· Nisa’ Misr fi al-Qarn al-Tasi’ ‘Ashar (Judith Tucker’s Women in Nineteenth Century Egypt), (Cairo: National Council for Translation, 2008).
· “Al-Nisa’ fil Amthal Hawl al-‘Alam” (Mineke Schipper’s Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World), with Mona Ibrahim, (Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouk, 2008).
· Editor of the English Translation of EWIC: Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures: Vol I (Brill, 2003) – Online translation into Arabic (2006): http://sjoseph.ucdavis.edu/ewic/volume1.htm
· “Asda’ Niswiya” (Joan Scott’s article “Feminist Reverberations”), Ahwaal Misriya, Summer 2003, 21: 162-177 (Cairo: Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies).
· Aswat Badeela: Al-Mar’a, Al-‘Irq, wal-Watan, (Alternate Voices: Women, Race and Nation) ed. Hoda Elsadda, (Cairo: Supreme Council for Culture, 2002).
· Almar’a wal Junusa: al-Juthur al-Tarikhiya li-Qadiya Jadaliya Haditha, co-translator with Mona Ibrahim of Leila Ahmed’s Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, (Cairo: Supreme Council for Culture, 1999).
Into English
· Significant Moments in the History of Egyptian Women, Hoda Elsadda and Emad Abu-Ghazi (Cairo: National Council for Women, 2002).
Book Reviews
In English
· “A Feminist Autobiography: Teta, Mother and Me, An Arab Woman’s Memoir”, in Al-Ra’ida, Arab Diaspora Women, 27:116-117, Winter/Spring 2007, Beirut, pp.82-84.
· “Contemporary Egyptian Feminist Activism: Nadje Al-Ali, Secularism, Gender and the State in the Middle East: The Egyptian Women’s Movement” in Al-Ra’ida, Centenary Issue: Arab Women’s Movements, ed. Rosemary Sayigh, 20:100, Winter 2003, Beirut, pp.139-141.
In Arabic
· “Al-Nisa’a wal-Rigal wal-‘Amal” (Padavic and Reskin’s Women and Men at Work) in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-‘Amal, (Women and Labour), Cairo: New Woman Research Foundation, December 2006, 221-233.
· “Rasm Al-Hudoud: Al-Falsafa wal-Niswiya” (Cressida J. Heyes’s Line Drawings: Defining Women through Feminist Practice, Philosphy and Feminism) in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Fada’ Al-Khass (Women and the Private Space), Cairo, New Woman Research Centre, September 2004, pp 215-223.
· “Al-Wa’d fi al-Lugha wa al-Ma’agim al-Arabiya” (Female-Killing in Arabic Language and Lexicon) in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Khitabaat al-Thaqafiya (Women and Cultural Discourses), Cairo: New Woman Research Centre, May 2003, pp. 152-160.
· “Al-Khurouj minal-Zill” (Joe Fisher’s Out of Shadow, Women, Resistance and Politics in South America in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Muqawama (Women and Resistance), Cairo: New Woman Research Centre, Jan. 2003, pp.75-82.
· “Al-Mar’a wal Junusa fi Al-Islam: Leila Ahmed’s Women and Gender in Islam” in Tiba: Al-Nisa’ wal-Hawiyya (Women and Identity), Cairo: New Woman Research Centre, Jan. 2002, pp. 178-182.
· “Awraq al-Nargis: Muqawamat al-Samt bil-Kitaba” (Leaves of Narcisus: Resisiting Silence through Writing) in Adab wa Naqd, Cairo, July 2001, pp. 65-70.
»
Hoda El-Saadi
She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She received both her BA and MA from the American University in Cairo (1986&1990) and her PhD from Cairo University (1996) in Islamic History. Her specialization or discipline is early and medieval Islamic history. She developed an interest in gender issues in the Islamic tradition. She is specifically interested in the roles and positions of women throughout the Arab/Islamic history from pre-modern to modern, to highlight and analyze women's presence in public life before the pre-modern period, exploring how their roles had expanded or were circumscribed through the ages. Her aim is to use history (and its interpretations) to strengthen the position of Muslim women in the present, as well as formulate a culturally Islamic discourse that incorporates women's perspective and an awareness of gender. The objective of her research is to empower women by making available historical information that demonstrates women's involvement in public life. She believes that the production and dissemination of alternative knowledge is a challenge to the negative representation of women and their traditional roles. She considers her work to be a form of resistance against the process of exclusion and marginalization from which women suffered in different historical periods.
She is working on a project to produce a series of occasional papers on the work of women. Three are already published, one on women and the medical profession and the second is on women in the field of Islamic scholarship and religious life. The third paper is on "Women and the market place." She also published two papers on mad women and the mental institutions in both the pre-modern and modern periods trying to show how the societal views and attitudes towards the mad woman has changed throughout the years. Besides her interest in mental institutions, she also has an interest in educational institutions and learning centers. She has a paper published on the libraries and the cultural centers in Islamic history.
She has a great interest in the question of identity and its exploration and especially woman's identity. She believes that re-reading and rewriting history keeps culture on the move and with it the question of identity. History is a significant factor which influences contemporary social issues.
In re reading the history of women and in looking for new interpretations that would bring social justice and gender awareness, one would definitely need to gain more insight into Islam, Islamic law and Islamic institutions.
She is currently engaged in establishing “The Women and Memory Library and Documentation Centre (WMLDC). The project aims at creating a resource centre for gender studies in the Arab world that would make available resources and programs to enable researchers and students in the field, and hence play a constructive role in promoting this key research area in the region.
Publications:
- "al-Nisa wa mihnat al-tibb fi'l mujtama' 'l islami" Al-Mu’arikh al Masri, Cairo University, 23(July1999): 381-49
- "al-mara' wa'l haya'l-diniya fi'l ‘usur al Islamiya" Dur al Mar’a al-Siaysi wa’l-Hadari ‘Ibr al-‘Usur. Cairo: Cairo University-Markaz’l-Buhuth wa’l-Dirasat’l-Tarikhiya, 2002
- “al-Maktabat fi’l ‘Asr ‘l Buwayhi” Majallat Kulliyat’l-Adab Cairo University/Benisuef branch, 5 (October2003):90-123
- "al-Mar'a wa Khitab al Junun fi al Thaqafa al Arabiya" Majallat Kuliyat al Adab Cairo University 2004
- "Women and the Discourse of madness in the 19th century Egypt." Hawwa, Volume 3, Number 3, 2005, pp293-308 (16) Brill
- "Women in the Market Place: Cairo-Jerusalem and Damascus." Proceedings of the Women and Work: Past and Present conference, Georgetown University, Doha-Qatar 2006
- elSadda, Hoda, et. al. Madkhal ila Qaddayyia’l-Mar’a fi Suwar wa Sutur. Cairo: Women and Memory Forum, 2002
- elSaadi, Hoda & Amina el Bindari. Al_Awqaf fi Suwar wa Sutur. Cairo; Women and Memory, 2006
- elSaadi, Hoda&Munira Soliman Ra'idat al Fann'l-Masri'l-Hadith. Cairo; Women and Memory Forum, 2008
- " Al Mar'a'l-Muslims: Intaj al-Ma'rifa bayn'l Mahali wa'l-'Alami " elSadda, Hoda, et. al. Intaj'l Ma'rifa Fi'l 'Alam 'l-Arabi (The Production of Knowledge in the Arab World). Cairo: al Majlis al-A'la lil Thaqafa, (Higher Council for Culture), (Forthcoming, 2009)
- "Gulf Women and The Economy: Pre-oil Gulf States" Sonbol, Amira et.al. Gulf Women: Past and Present. (Forthcoming,2009) .
Other Activities:
- Founding member of the Woman & Memory Forum
- Member of the Egyptian Historical Society
- Participated in curriculum development of the History department at Benisuef University (1999-2001)
- Participated in a panel discussion in the Qasim Amin conference held by the Higher Council of Culture. (October1999)
- Participated in the summer seminar held by the Fulbright commission- lectures on Islamic civilization (July1997&1999)
- Presented a paper on women theologians in a conference held by Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, on "women throughout history". (May2001)
- Participated in a seminar held by the Cedej & the Egyptian Historical Society on Historiography (May 2002)
- Presented a paper titled "Women and the Medical Profession" in a conference held by Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School on “Women and the Labor Market: The Islamic World Past and Present. (May2002)
- Participated in a Roundtable discussion on Revising Discourses in Arab Cultural History, in the Berkshire conference, University of Connecticut (June2002).
- Presented a paper titled “Re-writing History of Arab Women" in a seminar held by the Cedej & the Egyptian Historical Society (May2003)
- Participated in the workshop organized by the Ford Foundation on “Citizenship and Identity-Special Initiative for Africa” (June2003)
- Participated in the MESA annual conference (San Francisco, 2004), presented a paper titled "Changing Attitudes of Madness in the 19th century Egypt."
- Invited to Yale University by the Women's Studies Department to present research carried out by WMF (November 2004)
- Participated in a conference held at Georgetown University Doha (March 2006) presenting a paper titled "Women and the Urban Economy."
- Participated in the WOCMES annual conference in Amman-Jordan (June 2006) presenting a paper titled "Women in the Public Space."
- Participated in a panel discussion on the book of "Al_Awqaf fi Suwar wa Sutur." September 2006
- Participated in the MEHAT annual conference at Chicago University (May 2007) presenting a paper titled "Women and the Discourse of Madness in Arab-Islamic Culture."
- Participated in a conference held by the Higher Council for Culture held in Cairo (July 2007), in collaboration with the University of Manchester, presenting a paper titled "Changing Paradigms in writing History from Women in Islam to Women of Islam"
- Participated in the Gulf Woman Project organized by Qatari Foundation in Doha-Qatar (June 2008) presenting a paper on Gulf Women and the Economy: Pre-oil Gulf States.
- Participated in the MESA annual conference (Washington 2008) presenting a paper titled "Marriage and Divorce of Early Islamic Egypt: A Study of Arabic Papyri of the 7th to the 11th Centuries" (Read in absentia)
Hoda Elsadda
Hoda Elsadda is Co-founder and current Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Women and Memory Forum. She holds a Chair in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Manchester University, and is Co-Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World in the UK (www.casaw.ac.uk). She has previously held the position of Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts, at Cairo University, Egypt.
In 1992, she co-founded and co-edited Hagar, an interdisciplinary journal in women's studies published in Arabic. She has written articles and edited books dealing with discourses on gender in modern Arab history, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies IJMES (2005- present); member of the Advisory Board of the Durham Modern Languages Series (2009-); member of the Middle East Panel in the British Academy (2008-present); Associate Editor of the Online Edition of the Encyclopedia of Women in Muslim Cultures published by Brill since 2006; Consultant Editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Second Edition,(2006-2009); member of the Advisory board of The Global Fund for Women; member of the Advisory Committee (2005-present), The Anna Lindh Euro- Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures (2004-2007); and member of the Core Team, The Arab Human Development Report, UNDP in 2003.
Publications
Books:
• 2002 (co-authored with others) Madkhal ila Qadaya al-Mar'a fi Sutur wa Suwar (A Beginner's Guide to Women's Issues). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 277 pp.
• 2001 (co-authored with Emad Abu-Ghazi) Masirat Al-Mar'a Al-Misriyya: `Alamat wa Mawaqi,. Cairo: National Council for Women; trans. 2001 into English by Hala Kamal as Significant Moments in Egyptian Women's History, Cairo: The National Council for Women, 151 pp.
Edited Books:
● 2009 (edited with an introduction) al-Niswiyya wal Tarikh (Feminism and History), translated by Abir Abbas. Cairo, the Women and Memory Forum, forthcoming.
● 2009 (edited with an introduction) ‘Intaj al-Ma’rifa ‘an al-‘Alam al-‘Arabi (Mapping the Production of Knowledge on the Arab World). Proceedings of a conference held in Cairo in July 2007. Cairo, the Supreme Council of Culture, forthcoming.
● 2007 (edited with an introduction) Al-Fatah li Sahibatiha Hind Nawfal 1892-1892. Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum.
• 2004 (edited with an introduction) `A'isha Taymur : tahadiyyat al-thabit wal mutaghayir fil qarn al tasi' `ashar (Aisha Taymur: Challenges of Change and Continuity in the Nineteenth Century). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum,197 pp.
• 2002 (compiled with an introduction) Aswat Badila: al-Mar'a wa al-`irq wa al-Watan (Alternate Voices: Gender, Race and Nation) trans. into Arabic by Hala Kamal Cairo, The Supreme Council of Culture, 492 pp.
• 2001 (edited with an introduction) Min Ra'idat al-Qarn al-`ishriyn: Shakhsiyat wa Qadaya (Women Pioneers of the Twentieth Century: Critical Essays). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 339 pp.
• 1998 (edited with an introduction) Al-Nisa'yat(On Women's Issues) by Malak Hifni Nasef. Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 246 pp.
• 1998. (edited with others) Zaman al-Nisa' wa al-Thakira al-Badila (Women's Time and Alternate Memory). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 390 pp.
Journals
• 1992-1998. (co-founder and co-editor) Hagar (Hagar: On Women's Issues). Cairo, Dar Sina 1993-1995; and Dar Nusus, 1996-1998.
Academic Journal Papers
-2007. “Imaging the `New Man': Gender and Nation in Arab Literary Narratives in the Early Twentieth Century” in JMEWS: Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 3.2 (Spring 2007)pp. 31-55.
- 2006. “Gendered Citizenship: Discourses on Domesticity in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century,” in Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 4:1 pp.1-28.
• 2001. “Discourses on Women's Biographies and Cultural Identity: Twentieth Century Representations of the Life of Aisha Bint Abi Bakr,” in Feminist Studies, 27:1 (Spring), pp.37-64.
- 2000. “`Motherhood' as Experience in the Poetry of Lorna Goodison,” in Cairo Studies in English, Cairo, Cairo University Press.
• 1995. “A Gender-Sensitive Reading of Latifa El-Zayyat's Sahib Al-Bayt,” in Cairo Studies in English, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Department of English, Cairo University, pp. 25-48.
- 1994. "Crossing the Boundaries of Self in Grace Nichols' I is a long memoried woman," Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University.
• 1994. “Malak Hifni Nasef: Halaqa Mafquda fi Ta'rikh al-Nahda (Malak Hifni Nasef: A Missing Voice in the History of the Egyptian Enlightenment) inHagar No. 2, Cairo, Dar Sina, pp.109-119.
• 1993."Parodic Stylization as a Safeguard of Human Rights: Cultural Politics in Afro-Caribbean Writing," in Alif. No.13, Special issue on Human Rights, pp.106-127.
• 1993. "Al-Mar'a Mantiqat Muharramat: Qira'a fi `A'mal Qasem Amin” (Woman as The Territory of Taboo: A Reading of the Works of Qasem Amin," in Hagar No. 1, Cairo, Dar Sina, pp.144-160.
Book Chapters
- 2008. “Egypt,” Arab Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide 1873-1999. Edited Radwa Ashour, Ferial Ghazoul and Hasna Mekdashi, trans. By Mandy McClure. Cairo and New York, The American University Press, pp. 98-161.
- 2004. "Al-Kitaba al-`Ibda'iyya lil Nisa' fi Misr” (Women's Creative Writing in Egypt) in Thakira lil Mustaqbal: Mawsu'at al-Mar'a al-`Arabiyya (The Memory of the Future: An Encyclopaedia of Arab Women's Writings). Cairo, Nour and The Supreme Council of Culture, pp.7-59.
• 2004. “Tanaqudat al-Khitab al-Watani fi Mas'alat al-Mar'a: Qira'a fi Migalat al-Ustaz li `Abdallah al-Nadim” (Ambivalence in Egyptian National Discourses on `The Woman Question': A Reading of Abdallah Al-Nadim's Magazine `Al-Ustaz'”, in `A'isha Taymur: Tahadiyyat al-Thabit wa al-Mutaghayir fi al-Qarn al-Tasi' `Ashar (Aisha Taymur: Challenges of Change and Continuity in the Nineteenth Century) edited by Hoda Elsadda, Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, pp.169-195.
• 2004. “The Meaning of a Prayer: Challenges to Cross-Cultural Understanding in a Global Age,” Keynote Address in the Conference on Culture and Power: Phobias, Tarragona University, Spain, October, 2002; published in Culture and Power: Phobias, edited by Cristine Andreu and Pere Gallardo, Tarragona, Silva editorial, pp. 15-34.
• 2003. “ Tashkiyl Tasawurat `an al-That: Qira'a `Adabiyya fi Sirat Kawkab Hifni Nasef,” (Constructing Representations of the Self: A Literary Reading of the Oral Narrative of Kawkab Hifni Nasef) in Al-Nisa' al-`Arabiyyat fi al-`Ishrinat Huduran wa Huwiyya (Arab Women in The Twenties: Presence and Identity), edited by Jean Said Makdisi and others, Beirut, Al-Bahihat, Al- Markaz Al-Thaqafi Al-Arabi, pp. 193-210.
• 2001. “Bidayat Multabisa: Azmat al-Huwiyya fi `Aqsam al-Luqha al-`Ingliziyya fi al-Gami'at al-Misriyya” (Ambivalent Beginnings: The Identity Crisis in Departments of English in Egyptian Universities) in Bahithat (Bahithat: Special Issue on Arab Universities), edited by Fadia Hotait and others, Beirut, pp. 195-222.
• 1996. (co-written with Mona Zulficar) “Mashru' Tatwiyr Namuthag `Aqd al-Zawag”(On Modifying the Marriage Contract”Hagar, No.3-4, Dar Nusus, 1996, pp. 251-263.
• 1996. “Women's Writing in Egypt: Reflections on Salwa Bakr,” in Gendering the Middle East, edited by Deniz Kandiyoti, New York, Syracuse University Press; London, I.B. Tauris, pp. 127-144.
Professional Journal Papers
• 2004. “Women in the Arab World: Reading Against the Grain of Culturalism,” International Politics and Society, 4 ( Friedrich-Ebert -Stiftung) pp. 41-53.
• 2003. `Disciplinary Entry on Oral History,” in Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, Vol. I, edited by Suad Joseph, Brill, pp. 389-393.
- 1996. “Women in Egypt: Education and Modernity,” inThe Self and the Other: Sustainability and Self-Empowerment, ed. Ismail Serageldin and Afaf Mahfouz, ESD series No. 13, Washington, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank.
- 1991. "Towards a Department of English and Comparative Literature," in CDELT, Cairo.
Conference Proceedings:
• 2000. “Ru'yat al-Ragul li Thatihi fi Maraya Tasawuratihi al-Tamthiliyya hawla al-Mar'a: Qira'a fi Khitab Ruwwad al-Nahda,” (Male Perceptions of the “Self”: Representations of Women through the Eyes of Egyptian Pioneers of Enlightenment) in A Hundred Years Since the Liberation of Women, Proceedings of a Conference held in Cairo in 1999, Cairo, The Supreme Council of Culture, 2000, pp. 349-365.
-1998. “From Arabic Into English: The Politics of Translation in a Post-Colonial Context,” in Comparative Literature Studies, ed. Ahmed Itman. Proceedings of a conference organized by the Society of Comparative Literature Studies, Cairo.
• 1998. “Notions of Modernity: Representations of the “Western Woman” by Female Authors in Early Twentieth-Century Egypt,” in The Arabs and Britain: Changes and Exchanges. Proceedings of a Conference organized by the British Council in Cairo, Cairo, The British Council, pp. 352-366.
• 1996. “Tatawur Nathariyyat al-Sira al-Thatiyya: Matha Ta'ni bilnisbati li Kitabat al-Mar'a?” (Theories of Autobiography and Arab Women's Writings) Al Mar'a al-`Arabiyya fi Muwagahat al-`Asr (ArabWomen Confronting The Challenges of the Age), Proceedings of a conference organized by Nour publishers in 1995 in Cairo, Cairo, Nour, pp. 201-210.
• 1995. "Reconsidering the History of Feminism and Anti-Colonialism in Egypt: A Reading of Mounira Thabet's Memoirs,” in History in Literature, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Comparative Literature held in Cairo in 1994, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, pp.449-464.
• 1993. "Cultural Encounters and Feminist Revisionism in H.D.'s Helen in Egypt," in Encounters in Language and Literature, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Comparative Literature held in Cairo in 1992, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Department of English, Cairo University, pp. 485-502.
• 1991. " Egypt as Metaphor: Changing Concepts of Time in Forster, Durrell, and Lively" in Images of Egypt in Twentieth Century Literature,Proceedings of the International Symposium on Comparative Literature held in Cairo in 1989, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Department of English, Cairo University, pp. 199-210
Translations
• 1992. (translated with an introduction) Such a Beautiful Voice: Short Stories by Salwa Bakr, Cairo, GBO; India, Kali for Women, 1994, 85 pp.
- 1992. “Doves on the Wing,” short story by Salwa Bakr, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Middle East, Special issue edited by Anton Shammas, 31:4 (Fall) pp.520-524.
• 1990. (translated with an introduction) Evening Lake: Short Stories by Ibrahim Aslan, Cairo, GBO, 133 pp.
Other Publications:
• 1999. “al-Mar'a wa al-Thakira: Hoda Elsadda Muqabala ” (Women and Memory “An Interview with Hoda Elsadda) in Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, a special issue of Alif, No.19, pp. 210-230.
Iman Bibars
Iman Bibars has a BA and an MA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo (AUC), and a PhD in Development Studies from Sussex University in the UK. Iman is a regional expert with more then 20 years experience in the social sector of the Arab World and the Africa region. She has worked with many international agencies and NGOs, including UNICEF and Catholic Relief Services. Iman is herself a social entrepreneur, and co-founded and chaired the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW), an NGO providing credit and legal aid for poor women who head their households. Currently, she is the Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World.
»
Omaima Abou-Bakr
Omaima Abou-Bakr is Professor of English & Comparative Literature at Cairo University. She received her education at Cairo University, North Carolina State University, and the University of California at Berkeley. She specialized in medieval Sufi poetry and comparative topics in medieval English and Arabic literature. Her scholarly interests also include women’s mysticism and female spirituality in Christianity and Islam, feminist theology, Muslim women’s history, and gender issues in Islamic discourse and cultural history. She has published a number of articles in both English and Arabic on poetry and medieval literary texts, on historical representations of women in Muslim societies, women and gender issues in religious discourses, and Islamic feminism. One published book in Arabic—Al-mar'ah wa-al-jindar: Woman and Gender (2002)—deals with women’s intellectual efforts to create emancipatory and egalitarian discourses within an Islamic conceptual and spiritual framework.
Publications:
In English:
1. "The Symbolic Function of Metaphor in Medieval Sufi Poetry," Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, 12 (1992), 40-57.
2. "The Worshipped Worshipper and the Deified Soul in Shushtari & St. John of the Cross." In Proceedings: The Second International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Cairo University, 1993, pp. 40-57.
3. "Abrogation of the Mind in the Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi," Alif, 14 (1994), 37-63.
4. "Historical Facts or Fallacies? The Character of the Prophet Muhammad." In Proceedings: The Third International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Cairo University, 1995, pp. 347-59.
5. "Mystical Elements in John Keats." In Cairo Studies in English. Cairo: Cairo University, 1995, pp. 147-64.
6. "To Write or Not to Write? That is the Question." In Proceedings: First EFL Skills Conference: New Directions in Writing. Cairo: The American University of Cairo,1996, pp. 111-15.
7. "The Religious Other: Christian Images in Sufi Poetry," Cairo Papers in Social Science, vol. 19, no. 2 (1996), 96-108.
8. "The Representation of Female Spirituality in Alexander Pope's 'Eloisa to Abelard.'" In Proceedings: The Fourth International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 1997, pp. 589-609.
9. "Allegory of the Soul: A Reading of Rumi's Arabic Poetry." In Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Literature. Ed. Issa J. Boullata and Terri Deyoung. Fayatteville: University of ArkansasPress, 1997, pp. 247-71.
10. "Islamic Sources in Petrus Alfonsi's Disciplina Clericalis." In Proceedings of the International Conference: Comparative Literature in the Arab World. Cairo: Cairo University, 1998.
11. "The Image of the Saracen Sultan in Mandeville's Travels." In The Arabs and Britain: Changes and Exchanges. Cairo: The British Council, 1999, pp. 35-45.
12. "Reading History as Text: A Postmodernist Approach to the Medieval Past and the Case of Women Mystics." In Proceedings: The Sixth International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Cairo University, 2001, pp. 647-67.
13. "Islamic Feminism: What's in a Name? Preliminary Reflections," AMEWS Review, vol. xv, xvi Winter/Spring (2001), 1-4.
14. "A Muslim Woman's Reflections on Gender." (1999). http://www.islam21.net
15. "Teaching the Words of the Prophet: Women Instructors of the Hadith (14th & 15th century)." Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, vol. 1, no. 3(2003), 306-328.
16. "Abu Al-hasan Al-Shushtari." In Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia, eds. Michael Gerli & Samuel Armistead. Taylor & Francis publishers, 2003.
17."A Gender-sensitive Reading of Qur'anic Exegesis." In Islamic Feminism and the Law, ed. Qudsia Mirza. London: Routledge/Cavendish, (forthcoming Jan 2010).
18. "Articulating Gender: Muslim Women Intellectuals in the Pre-modern Period." In Arab Women: Past and Present. (under publication 2010).
19. "Inside the Neo-Imperial Harem: Contemporary Women's Memoirs and Islamophobia." (under preparation for submission to publication)
20. "A Sufi Analogue to Chaucer's 'The Merchant's Tale?'" (under preparation for submission).
In Arabic:
1. "Interpreting Interpretation: The Case of Rabi'ah al-'Adawiya," Hagar, 1 (1992).
2. "Metamorphosis in the Arabian Nights," Fusul, 13:1 (1994).
3. " 'This is the Work of a Woman from my People': Rabi'ah al-Adawiya Again," Hagar, 3/4(1996).
4. "Women Hadith-Scholars in Islamic History," Hagar 5/6 (1998).
5. "A Reading in the History of Islam's Women Worshippers/Mystics." In Women's Time and Alternative Memory, eds. Hoda El-Sadda & Omaima Abou-Bakr. (Cairo: The Women Memory Forum, 1998).
6. "Women and the Medical Profession in Islamic History." In Occasional Papers, no.1 (Cairo: The Women & Memory Forum, 1999).
7. "Women and the Religious Life in the Middle Ages between Islam and the West." Occasional Papers, no. 2, Cairo: The Women and Memory Forum, (2001).
8."The Feminist /Historical Discourse in Qadriya Hussein's Shahirat al-Nisa'." InProceedings: Arab Women in the 1920's. Beirut: Tajamu' al-bahithat, 2001.
9. "Arab Women and Liberational Religious Consciousness." In: Proceedings: The Arab Woman and the Transformations of a New Era. Damascus, Syria: Dar al-Fikr, 2002.
10. Woman and Gender: an Islamic point of view. Damascus, Syria: Dar al-Fikr, 2002.
11."The Image of Men in Modern and Pre-modern Islamic Writings." In Proceedings: A'ishaTaymur and the Challenges of Social Transformations. Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 2004.
12. "The Discourse of Modernist Fundamentalism and Women's History," Tibah: Journal inFeminist Theory, 3 (2003).
13. “Introduction”: Qadriya Husayn, Shaheerat al-nisa’ fi-l-‘alam al-islami (Famous Women in the History of the Islamic World). Cairo: The Women & Memory Forum, 2004.
14. “Books Challenging the Dominant: A New Understanding of the Islamic Revival,” WighatNazar. Cairo: Dar Al-Shurouq,(November 2004).
15. “The Muslim Woman as Symbol,” Wighat Nazar. Cairo: Dar Al-Shurouq, (November 2005).
16. “Islamic Feminism: Internal and External Problematics,” Tibah: Journal in Feminist Theory, 7 (March, 2006), 87-103.
18. Women and Uban Economy in Islamic Egypt. Ocasional Paper, (Cairo: the Women and Memory Forum, 2007
Rania Abdel-Rahman
Rania Abdel Rahman is an assistant lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature at