Ameera al hakawati biography samples

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Yet, as myself and others have argued (Burge 2016; Jarmakani 2015; Teo 2012) in these novels Middle Eastern women are often depicted as helpless, veiled, and silent. Later on, her anonymity developed into more than a tactic to avoid censorship, and became what she calls a “liberating tool,” allowing her to write at leisure about taboo subjects concerning Muslim women, such as sexuality and extra-marital relationships.

By globalising their own local forms of romance through international publication, Al Hakawati and Alsanea are developing a unique form of popular romance that offers a new perspective on the romance genre and the Middle East.

Presentation:

While chick lit is in decline in the Western world, it remains buoyant in Asia and the Middle East.

Desperate in Dubai is Ameera's first novel. The fourth character is a Lebanese Christian.

Al-Hakawati chose to write about Emirati women because a book about Dubai would be incomplete without them.

This paper approaches romance, gender and the Middle East from a different perspective, analysing two novels written by Middle Eastern women that respond to and challenge the way western popular romance has represented women and the Middle East.

Desperate in Dubai by Ameera Al Hakawati (2011) and Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea (2005 in Arabic, 2007 in English), both ‘Arabic best-sellers’, describe the romantic lives of four women in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, respectively.

Lady Luxe, despite not having any spiritual connection to hijab, has great business acumen and is an up-coming abaya designer. She initially chose to write anonymously due to the salacious nature of the book, particularly as she would be writing about Arab and Muslim women in an Arab country. Lady Luxe, the rebellious Emirati heiress, scoffs at everything her culture holds sacred.

Fashion, hijab, relationships, sex, and marriage are intertwined and feature throughout the book, and are written in as a normal part of the women’s lives. A natural storyteller, her career began at age three, when she told her very first story to her mother that explained the 'truth' behind the missing chocolate biscuits.

She was able to explore the lives of Muslim women, without worrying about what people thought about her as a Muslimah. She has faced some hiccups along the way, with her blog being banned and her books being temporarily taken off the shelves in Dubai.

Al-Hakawati felt it important to delve into aspects of women’s lives that are normally brushed under the carpet – issues like falling in love, dating, secret marriages, getting pregnant, experimenting with drugs, alcohol and men; things which do happen in reality but which Muslims like to believe do not.

Inspired by the fascinating lives of the women who dominated the glamorous city, she put pen to paper and created Desperate in Dubai, a blog that soon became an internet sensation among the expatriate community in Dubai. Sugar escapes the UK in an attempt to escape her past. For Nadia (the Moroccan), it is part and parcel of her religious identity and she manages to have a great fashion sensibility about it.

Al-Hakawati admitted to having serious doubts about her work, often asking herself if this kind of writing is compatible with her religious convictions – coming to the realization that she was writing to highlight the everyday challenges facing Muslim women, not to titillate. Leila has been in search of a wealthy husband for over a decade.

Set against a backdrop of luxury hotels and manmade islands, Desperate in Dubai tells the tale of four desperate women as they struggle to find truth, love, and themselves.