‘We Wrote in Symbols’ is a groundbreaking collection of Arab women writing about love, lust
The anthology “We Wrote in Symbols: Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers,” which appears to be the first of its kind in English, could not be more refreshing.
Given stubborn Western stereotypes about repressed Middle Eastern attitudes toward sexuality, many English-speaking readers may be unaware of the strong tradition of Arabic writing on love and the erotic stretching back several millennia. Perhaps even less known are the significant contributions of women to this genre, from enslaved girls in Islamic courts, who composed poetry both ribald and refined, to contemporary writers penning provocative fiction in the Arab world and its diaspora.
Edited by Palestinian British writer Selma Dabbagh, this groundbreaking compilation brings together 101 works — including poems, short stories and excerpts of novels — from more than 70 female writers of Arab heritage, slightly more than half of them living. The contemporary contributors range from an established older generation, including Hanan al-Shaykh and Ahdaf Soueif, to talented younger names, such as Leïla Slimani and Isabella Hammad, to those more up-andcoming. Many write in English; some are widely read in Arabic but have never previously been published in translation; others have been translated from French. Three living writers contributed under pseudonyms, while two classical writers are anonymous.
Some of the most compelling selections explore sexuality in unlikely settings or from rarely seen perspectives. Particularly sensual is an excerpt from Beirut-based Samia Issa’s novel “Fig Milk,” in which a 40-something widowed grandmother in a Palestinian refugee camp in the mid-20th century experiences a journey of sexual self-exploration during repeated visits to a squalid public latrine.
The memorable “A Wedding Night for Zen,” by the pseudonymous Salomé, recounts the weekend a sexually and emotionally mismatched young couple spend at a campground wedding in the English countryside, culminating in the wife’s searing carnal encounter in a yurt with another guest.
Egyptian British writer Yousra Samir Imran’s story “Catch No Feelings” is of-the-moment: An unmarried 30-something woman in Qatar meets a man on Twitter and starts seeing him for casual sex, but then he ghosts her, deleting his profile. What makes it distinct is its cultural specificity, from the details of the characters’ Gulf attire to the woman’s need to hide any traces of the relationship from her family, and the chosen locale for their liaisons: “a five-star hotel - they’re the only hotels that will turn a blind eye to an unmarried couple.”
LGBTQ voices and narratives are also well represented, such as in Palestinian Farah Barqawi’s story “Four Days to Fall In and Out of Love,” which tenderly portrays a first lesbian romance, in which the protagonist is unsure how to proceed with her female lover: “Men, she knows them well, she knows the sensation of their big lips on hers . ... But how to kiss these two smooth riverbanks?”