Women, Writing and the Iraqi Ba'thist State: Contending Discourses of Resistance and Collaboration, 1968-2003

by Hawraa Al-Hassan

Overview

In an effort to expand its readership and increase support for its pan-Arab project, the Iraqi Ba‘th almost completely eradicated illiteracy among women. As Iraq was metaphorically transformed into a ‘female’, through its nationalist trope, women writers simultaneously found opportunities and faced obstacles from the state, as the ‘woman question’ became a site of contention between those who would advocate the progressiveness of the Ba‘th and those who would stress its repressiveness and immorality. By exploring discourses on gender in both propaganda and high art fictional writings by Iraqis, this book offers an alternative narrative of the literary and cultural history of Iraq.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474441766
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/30/2022
Series:	Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Hawraa Al-Hassan is visiting researcher at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. She gained her PhD from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Yasir Suleiman.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Women, Wars and Weapons: Mapping the Cultural Battlefield of Ba‘thist Iraq

Part I

1. History Writing and Canon-making: The Place of Women in Narratives of the Iran Iraq War

2. The Infamous Iraqi Majidat: Chastity, Chivalry and Collective Identity in the Novels of Saddam Hussein

Part II

3. Fighting Fire with Fire: The Islamic Novel in Iraq and the Battle for Hearts and Minds

4. The National Gets Personal: Autobiographical Writings by Iraqi Women

Conclusion: Binaries, Bonds and Moving beyond the Ba‘th

References