In the past year, US- and UK-based translators have plunged into a discussion of gender inequality in literary translation. According to the Three Percent project, which tracks translations in the United States, approximately 70 per cent of books recently brought into English were by men. Last week in London, the Free Word Centre hosted an event called Few Women in the History: Tackling Imbalances in International Literature.
But when it comes to works translated from Arabic, there is a feeling among many male writers that the situation is the opposite: that women’s works are over-represented in English. In 2009, Lebanese poet Youssef Al Bazzi wrote cuttingly in the journal Banipal: “We can state here that there is not a single Arab woman writer, regardless of the quality of her literary writing, who has not met with European deference, translation or presence.”
Al Bazzi’s sweeping statement aside, there are strong criticisms to be made of the western project to rescue Arab women. As Lila Abu-Lughod writes in Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, there is an antifeminist literary subgenre that depicts Arab and Muslim women as objects needing western salvation.
This complicates matters, but bibliodiversity still matters. Yes, many readers would like to concentrate on the “best” that’s out there, even if it’s all written by heterosexual men in one block of Beirut’s Hamra Street. Yet those writers need the rest of us. Literary ecosystems, like other ecosystems, thrive on crossing borders, genres and perspectives.
Jordanian short-story writer Hisham Bustani suggested last month that, compared to what’s published in Arabic, Arab women’s writing may be more present in translation. He added that, since no statistics are kept on book production by gender, it’s impossible to say.
Indeed, reliable numbers are few. This year, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) released stats on how many women’s books were submitted for the prize: 26 per cent of the total. The Katara Prize, meanwhile, said 28 per cent of their submissions were by women. This is not so different from the proportion of Arab women’s works in English translation. Last year, Three Percent logged five of 20 Arabic translations by women. In 2014, the ArabLit count was seven of 40.
Oddly, IPAF-listed authors are not well-represented here. In its short history, about 20 per cent of IPAF-longlisted authors have been women. Of the 24 books by women, just two have appeared in English. IPAF co-winner Raja Alem’s The Dove’s Necklace will soon make a third.
But do IPAF, the Katara and other big Arabic-novel prizes do a good job of reading and celebrating women’s writing?
Since its emergence in 2008, the IPAF has been criticised both for suppressing and for supporting books by women. Egyptian academic Samia Mehrez, who for many years headed up the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, said in 2010 that the prize was underrepresenting women. The next year, IPAF touted near-gender-parity on its longlist and was criticised for unfairly boosting women’s books.
In 2014, just two women’s works found their way onto the 16-book longlist. Judges that year said they had evaluated novels on pure literary qualities, adding that gender should never be a factor. Jordanian poet Siwar Manassat was not convinced.
But what if all the women’s books were dreadful? As with the English Man Booker, IPAF doesn’t release a full list of contenders. So the judges’ failure to list Hanan Al Shaykh’s Virgins of Londonistan, Duna Ghali’s Orbits of Loneliness, Mansoura Ezz Eldin’s On Emerald Mountain, Lina Hoyan El Hassan’s Nazek Khanum or Radwa Ashour’s The Woman from Tantoura might mean those books simply were not submitted. It’s also worth noting that male judges have been in the majority every year.
Certainly, gender imbalance isn’t an issue affecting only Arabic literary prizes.
France’s top literary honour, the Prix Goncourt, has gone to a woman just 11 of the 102 times it’s been awarded. And several graphic novelists, including Riad Sattouf, boycotted this year’s Angoulême Festival Grand Prix because no women appeared on the longlist. The 2015 CairoComix awards, by contrast, had more female winners than men.
Alex Zucker, co-chair of the PEN America Translation Committee, has observed that anthologies tend to be more gender-balanced. This is certainly true of recent anthologies of Arab and Arabic literature in translation: Beirut Noir, edited by Lebanese novelist Iman Humaydan, slightly favours female authors. Equality was the publisher’s requirement, Humaydan said, but including work by authors like Najwa Bakarat, Bana Baydoun, and Hyam Yared could not have been a hardship.
The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction, edited by Palestinian novelist Atef Abu Saif, is also nearly balanced between male and female authors. The collection lays emphasis on younger Palestinian writers like Mona Abu Sharekh, Najlaa Ataallah, Yusra al Khatib and Asmaa Al Ghul, giving us a broad view of recent literary innovations.
At the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, which wraps up today, director Isobel Abulhuol says that gender balance has been achieved without any conscious focus.
Balance is important “inasmuch as we want to represent as wide a range of authors and illustrators as we are able to”. But, she added, an author’s gender plays no role in the selection process.
Since its director is a woman, the festival may suffer from an unconscious egalitarianism. Also, a growing proportion of Emirati authors and publishers are women. Abulhol said: “In terms of Arabic literature in particular, of the 34 Emirati authors attending in 2016, 19 are women and 15 are men, while of the 23 authors from the rest of the Arabic-speaking world, 15 are women and eight are men. Of the total 159 authors signed up at the time of writing, 86 are male and 73 female.”
Among US and UK translators, there’s talk of funding a prize for women’s books in translation, much like the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. However, there is also disagreement about whether a women-only prize helps support women’s writing or, as British novelist A S Byatt has suggested, ghettoises and trivialises it.
In any case, we can surely agree that a wide variety of women’s voices benefits all of literature, bringing with it new approaches to content and form. Just as translation feeds us new ideas, so does a broader spectrum of women’s writing: from a range of countries, backgrounds and social classes.
And what about the “too many” or “too few” Arab women in translation? Western publishers should certainly run, not walk, away from the toxic “saving Muslim women” narrative. And it’s always a good time to be leery of cultural interventionism. Furthermore, anyone who does what Al Bazzi suggests – promoting books that aren’t interesting or well-written – serves no one.
However, the success of Beirut Noir and The Book of Gaza shows that gender parity isn’t impossible and that there’s no reason to shrink from a broadly egalitarian approach.
M Lynx Qualey is an editor and book critic with a focus on Arabic literature and translation issues. She edits the website arablit.org
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Opening day UAE Premiership fixtures, Friday, September 22:
- Dubai Sports City Eagles v Dubai Exiles
- Dubai Hurricanes v Abu Dhabi Saracens
- Jebel Ali Dragons v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
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'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window'
Director:Michael Lehmann
Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
How to become a Boglehead
Bogleheads follow simple investing philosophies to build their wealth and live better lives. Just follow these steps.
• Spend less than you earn and save the rest. You can do this by earning more, or being frugal. Better still, do both.
• Invest early, invest often. It takes time to grow your wealth on the stock market. The sooner you begin, the better.
• Choose the right level of risk. Don't gamble by investing in get-rich-quick schemes or high-risk plays. Don't play it too safe, either, by leaving long-term savings in cash.
• Diversify. Do not keep all your eggs in one basket. Spread your money between different companies, sectors, markets and asset classes such as bonds and property.
• Keep charges low. The biggest drag on investment performance is all the charges you pay to advisers and active fund managers.
• Keep it simple. Complexity is your enemy. You can build a balanced, diversified portfolio with just a handful of ETFs.
• Forget timing the market. Nobody knows where share prices will go next, so don't try to second-guess them.
• Stick with it. Do not sell up in a market crash. Use the opportunity to invest more at the lower price.
Disability on screen
Empire — neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis; bipolar disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Rosewood and Transparent — heart issues
24: Legacy — PTSD;
Superstore and NCIS: New Orleans — wheelchair-bound
Taken and This Is Us — cancer
Trial & Error — cognitive disorder prosopagnosia (facial blindness and dyslexia)
Grey’s Anatomy — prosthetic leg
Scorpion — obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety
Switched at Birth — deafness
One Mississippi, Wentworth and Transparent — double mastectomy
Dragons — double amputee
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
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Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
Dirham Stretcher tips for having a baby in the UAE
Selma Abdelhamid, the group's moderator, offers her guide to guide the cost of having a young family:
• Buy second hand stuff
They grow so fast. Don't get a second hand car seat though, unless you 100 per cent know it's not expired and hasn't been in an accident.
• Get a health card and vaccinate your child for free at government health centres
Ms Ma says she discovered this after spending thousands on vaccinations at private clinics.
• Join mum and baby coffee mornings provided by clinics, babysitting companies or nurseries.
Before joining baby classes ask for a free trial session. This way you will know if it's for you or not. You'll be surprised how great some classes are and how bad others are.
• Once baby is ready for solids, cook at home
Take the food with you in reusable pouches or jars. You'll save a fortune and you'll know exactly what you're feeding your child.
