Rawan's Middle Eastern Fiction Reading Group

Welcome back lovers of Middle Eastern Fiction! This Reading Group will explore powerful and complex voices from the Middle East, a region that has an ancient, rich literary tradition. We will delve into novels that illuminate issues of identity, exile, resistance and belonging, told by authors whose work challenges and enriches our understanding of the Middle East and its people.

In October, Rawan has chosen the unsung classic work of Latifa Al-Zayyat, The Open Door. Written and set on the eve of Egypt's anticolonial revolution from the British in 1952, Al-Zayyat captures the essence of a period of great revolutionary upheaval. At its core, the novel explores the coming of age of a young Egyptian woman, grappling with questions of resistance to colonialism and patriarchy under the constraints of British-occupied Egyptian society.

Her work is widely regarded as a landmark anticolonial feminist text in the Arab literary canon, winning the inaugural Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 1996. Join us in rediscovering a largely forgotten classic of Egyptian literature, we will be discussing all things from colonial legacies on Middle Eastern literature to the intersections of gender and race during the postcolonial moment.

Whether you have roots in the region or are just beginning to discover its literature, this group is open to all. Our discussions are welcoming, insightful, and always grounded in curiosity and respect.

February 1946: Cairo is engulfed by demonstrations against the British. Layla’s older brother Mahmud returns, wounded in the clashes, and the events of that fateful day mark a turning point in her life, an awakening to the world around her. Latifa al-Zayyat’s acclaimed modern classic follows Layla through her sexual and political coming of age. Her rebellious spirit seeks to free itself from the stifling social codes that dictate a young woman’s life, just as Egypt struggles to shake off the yoke of imperialist rule.