Skip to main content

Iraqi Women, Jewish Men, and Global Noises in Two Texts by Ya’qub Balbul

  • Chapter
Transnational Borderlands in Women’s Global Networks

Part of the book series: Comparative Feminist Studies Series ((CFS))

  • 93 Accesses

Abstract

This essay examines the representations of minority women in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Although in national discourses women were often represented as both symbols of national authenticity and as objects of modernization reform efforts, the representations of their bodies and daily practices were also constructed within narratives relating to ethnic and religious differences (Bhabha 1994, 157; Bhabha 1997, 431–59; Spivak 1988, 271–313). To investigate what happens when the category of nation intersects with the categories of religion and gender, I look at two short stories written by Iraqi Jewish intellectual Ya’qub Balbul (1919–2003).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Works Cited

  • ‘Alwaji, ‘Abd al-Hamid al-. 1975. Al-Intaj al-nisawi fi al-’iraq [Female production in Iraq]. Baghdad: Wizara al-I’lam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amin, Qasim. Tahrir al-mar’a. 1899. Cairo: al-Majlis al-a’la li’l thaqafa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balbul, Ya’qub. 2006. Selections from “The First Ember” and “A Mind’s Flight”/Ya’cov [Balboul] Lev, Mukhtarat min “al-Jamra al-ula” wa “Minhatal- ‘aql,” (Shemuel Moreh, ed.), Jerusalem: Agudatha-akadema ‘im yoze’y ‘iraq.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashkin, Orit. 2008. “Representations of Women in the Writings of the Iraqi Intelligentsia in Hashemite Iraq, 1921–1958,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 4(1): 52–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashkin, Orit. 2009. The Other Iraq — Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraqi. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bassun, Miriam al-Mulla. 1981. Ma’satuhu mathal [His tragedy is a lesson] in Shmuel Moreh, al-Qissa al-qasira ‘inda yahud al-’iraq, 1921–1978 [The short story amongst Iraqi Jews]. Jerusalem: Dar al-Nashr/Magens, al-Jami’a al-’Ibraiyya. 540–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, Homi K. 1997. “Minority Maneuvers and Unsettled Negotiations,” Critical Inquiry 23(3):431–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleveland, William L. 1971. The Making of an Arab Nationalist; Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati’ al-Husri. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawn, Ernest C. 1988. “The Formation of Pan-Arab Ideology in the Inter-War Years. International Journal of Middle East Studies 20(1) (Winter):67–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Efrati, Noga. 2001. “Women in Elite’s Discourses: Iraq 1932–1958” (in Hebrew). PhD dissertation, Haifa University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Efrati, Noga. 2004. “The Other ‘Awakening’ in Iraq: The Women’s Movement in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 31(2) (November):153–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ende, Werner. 1980. Ehe auf Zeit in der innerislamischen Diskussion der Gegenwart. Die Welt des Islams 20(1–2):1–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabbai, Nilli. 2006. Ha-isha ha-yehudit be-bagdad [The Jewish women in Baghdad’]. Jerusalem: Agudat ha-akadema’im yoze’y ‘ iraq.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gharib, Rose. 1938. “The Home Economic Movement—The Factors of Its Rise and Spread in the USA.” Al-Mu’allim al-jadid 3(3, June): 206–213 (Arabic).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingrams, Doreen, ed. 1983. The Awakened: Women in Iraq. London: Third World Centre. “Editorial” Istiqlal 31/May/1940 no. 3669, 4

    Google Scholar 

  • Jawahiri, ‘Imad Ahmad al-. 1984. Nadi al-Muthana wa-wajihat al-tajammu ‘al-qawmi fi al-’iraq, 1934–1942 [The Muthana Club and displays of national unity in Iraq, 1934–1942]. Baghdad: Matba’at dar al-jahiz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazzaz, Nissim. 1991. He-yehudim be-’iraq ba-ma’a he-’esrim [Jews in Iraq during the 20th century]. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lutfi, ‘Abd al-Majid. 1944. Qalb umm [The heart of a mother]. Baghdad: Matba’at al-sabah.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mala’ika, Nazik al-. 1979. Diwan Nazik al-Mala’ika, vol. 2. Beirut: Dar al-’Awda.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masliyah, Sadok. 1996. “Zahawi: A Muslim Pioneer of Women’s Liberation.” Middle Eastern Studies 32(3) (July):161–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marr, Phebe. 1985. “The Development of Nationalist Ideology in Iraq, 1921–1941.” Muslim World 75(3) (Spring ):85–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Me’ir, Josef. 1989. Hitpathut bevratit tarbutit shel yehudey ‘iraq me’az 1830 ve ‘ad yemeynu [Cultural and Social Development of Iraqi Jews: From 1830 to our days], Tel-Aviv: Naharayim.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rejwan, Nissim. 1985. The Jews of Iraq: 3000 Years of History and Culture. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sha’ul, Anuwar. 1984. Qissa hayati fi wadi al-rafidayn [My life story in the land of two rivers]. Jerusalem: Rabita al-Jami’iyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-’Iraq.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shawkat, Sami. 1939. Hadhihi ahadafuna, Baghdad: Majjalat al-mu’allim al-jadid.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sehayek, Shaul. 2003. “Changes in the Social Status of Urban Jewish Women in Iraq as the Nineteenth Century Turned,” Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 3(2) at: http://jps.library.utoronto.ca.proxy.uchicago.edu/index.php/wjudaism/issue/view/37. Last accessed Feb. 13, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shenhav Yehouda. 2006. The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion and Ethnicity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiblak, Abbas. 1986. The Lure of Zion: The Case of Iraqi Jews, London: al-Saqi Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaykh-Da’ud, Sabiha. 1958. Awal al-tariq ila al-nahda al-nisawiyya fi al-’iraq [The beginning of the road to the female revival in Iraq]. Baghdad: Al-Rabita.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Reeva S. 1986. Iraq between Two World Wars: The Creation and Implementation of a Nationalist Ideology. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snir, Reuven. 2005. ‘Arviyut, yahdut, zionut: Ma’vak zehuyot bi-yeziratam shel yehudei ‘iraq [Arabism, Judaism and Zionism: An identity conflict in the works of the Jews of Iraq]. Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spivak, Gayatry. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Cornel West, Cary Nelson, Lawrence Grossberg, eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 271–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wien, Peter. 2006. Iraqi Arab Nationalism: Authoritarian, Totalitarian, and Pro-Fascist Inclinations, 1932–1941. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodsmall, Ruth F. 1956. Study of the Role of Women: Their Activities and Organizations in Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, October 1954–August 1955. New York: International Federation of Business and Professional Women.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Clara Román-Odio Marta Sierra

Copyright information

© 2011 Clara Román-Odio and Marta Sierra

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bashkin, O. (2011). Iraqi Women, Jewish Men, and Global Noises in Two Texts by Ya’qub Balbul. In: Román-Odio, C., Sierra, M. (eds) Transnational Borderlands in Women’s Global Networks. Comparative Feminist Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230119475_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics