06.05.2022

New publication: "Arab Feminism and Islamic History. The Transnational Life and Work of Lebanese-Syrian Writer Widad Sakakini (1913–1991)" by Manfred Sing

IEG staff member Manfred Sing's volume " Arab Feminism and Islamic History. The Transnational Life and Work of Lebanese-Syrian Writer Widad Sakakini (1913-1991)" has been published in the series "Publications of the Institute for European History Mainz" by Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. The title is accessible via open access publication in the V&R eLibrary.


The volume focuses on the work of the writer Widad Sakakinis and how it reflects the changes in Arab societies since the beginning of the 20th century, especially the transformation of gender roles. The study of her shows how she took feminist concerns that were prevalent worldwide, transposed them into her local context and anchored them in Arab-Islamic history in her essays, short stories and biographies. As an "Arab feminist", she could be both feminist and Muslim. Moving between liberal, socialist, nationalist and Islamist groups, she simultaneously negotiated her own multiple forms of belonging. Taking her life as an example of a transnational biography, this study also argues that it is unsatisfactory to reduce her complex affiliations and trajectory, spanning Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, to a purely Islamic, secular or Syrian identity. Rather, she is concerned with balancing and reconciling supposed opposites such as East and West, reason and spirituality, men and women.