Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing

by Margot Badran, Miriam Cooke (Editor)

Opening the Gates includes more than sixty selections, drawn from almost the entire Arab world. Arranged around the themes of awareness, rejection, and activism, the selections give strong voice universally held yearnings often in conflict with deep-seated traditions.

Genres: Feminism, Middle East, Nonfiction, Poetry, Gender, Anthologies, Literature

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Margot Badran is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, US. She is currently Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Religion, Northwestern University, US.

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

These editors present a powerful collection of writings by Arab women over the 20th century, and it certainly smashes stereotypes. For one example, they give a speech given by the Egyptian feminist Bahithat al-Badiyapeaking in 1909, objecting to the prevailing context that females are dependents on men, even when they are obviously doing backbreaking work:

"Men say to us categorically, 'You women have been created for the house and we have been created to be breadwinners.' Is this a God given dictate? How are we to know since no holy book has spelled it out? ... The division of labor is a merely human creation ... Women of the villages of Upper and Lower Egypt help their men till the land and plant crops. Some women do the fertilizing, haul crops, lead animals, draw water for irrigation ... Do you have any doubt that a woman from Minufiya [a farming area in the Nile Delta] would be able to beat the strongest man from al-Ghuriya [a section of Cairo] in a wrestling match?" (p. 230)

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Arab feminist writing, from the 1920s through the 1980s. I rarely enjoy translated works (the language so often feels stilted and unnatural), and sadly, these were no exception. There were a couple pieces I liked:
--Wadida Wassef's "Hasan's Wives," a short story about a rowdy neighborhood family in Alexandria. A great deal of humor packed into a story that is also about what it was like to live back then--where aristocrats lived side-by-side with the people who raised their cattle.
--Marie-Aimee Helie-Lucas's examination of women's roles in the Algerian revolution against French rule. Some quotes I loved from her piece: "Nor was she considered a fighter when she collected fuel or food for the fighters, or carried their guns, or guided them through the mountains. She was merely helping the men. Only the French army acknowledged her action by imprisoning and torturing her in concentration camps and killing her."
"We are caught between two legitimacies: belonging to our people or identifying with other oppressed women...We are not even aware of the differences between one Muslim country and another. Let Muslim women step out of their national ghettos. Let them see that the clitoridectomy practiced in Africa is unthinkable in Asia, that the veil worn in Arab countries is absent in sub-Saharan Africa, that none of these practices are based on religious precepts, but that religion everywhere backs such practices whenever they allow for greater control over women.
Let us dream of secular states. Let us dream of the separation of religion and state. Let us dream of the end of using nationalism to further oppress the already oppressed."

I didn't learn much from these works, but they were clearly very important when they were written. It's just that the arguments are so sad and basic: maybe women aren't less moral than men, perhaps we could teach women to read, perhaps women should not be legally beaten to death by their relatives. I don't know history very well, certainly not Middle Eastern or African history, but this book didn't teach me anything about that, either. Really, I think this book was a good reminder, but not something people should seek out.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology - billed as the first that brings together explicitly feminist writing from Arab women - was beautiful. It counters the U.S. narrative that Arab women are naive, oppressed, uneducated, and in need of saving. While, indeed, many of the writers featured in this anthology talk about the necessity of women being more involved in political life and having more civil rights in their various countries - Lebanon and Egypt are the most frequently featured - to me, that's exactly the point. Arab women have agency, they know what they want and what they need, and they've been fighting for their rights for well over a century, as this book attests (the writings range from those published in the late 1800s to the 1980s).

I didn't love or agree with every essay in the book, but that just made me appreciate the scope of the writings and authors that much more. I think in a collection of feminist work spanning a century, it would be unlikely for all of the authors to agree on every detail of what is needed for feminist freedom. Some of my favorite pieces include Marie-Aimee Helie Lucas' "Women, Nationalism and Religion in the Algerian Liberation Struggle," Ghada Samman's "Our Constitution - We the Liberated Women," Nawal al-Saadawi's "Eyes," and Inji Aflatun's "We Egyptian Women."

A second edition was published in 2004, which I am definitely adding to my reading list. I would love if they featured more writers from a greater diversity of countries.

[Lamya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep on coming back to this book in the course of my research . Especially to the entry by Yemeni feminist ( who died recently during Yemen's Revolution of hepatitis c) Amatalrauf al-Shirki whom i met amd talked to in Aden/ Yemen when she conducted a workshop that i was invited to attend.

[Victoria Sandbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really an excellent collection of perspectives, with framework that contextualizes the many feminisms present and developing in the Arab world across the periods covered. Be prepared for selections lighthearted and tragic, horrifying and humorous, and everything between.

[Noha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I respect the effort it took to put together a book like that

[tala · Rating 4 out of 5]

obvs didn't read the whole thing bc it's an anthology but it's gr9 and we need more anthologies like this (since this is the only one of its kind in existence i presume)