Malala, International Journal of Studies on the Middle East and the Muslim World
Malala - International Journal of Studies on the Middle East and the Muslim World is an on-line journal, a plural publication open to all of those who have original works, directly on or in dialogue with Islam and the Muslim World. The journal was an initiative from the Working Group on the Middle East and the Muslim World (GTOMMM) under the Laboratory for Asian Studies (LEA) at the Faculty of History in the University of São Paulo (DH / FFLCH-USP). The publication project was born and remains structured around a few ideas: the search for interdisciplinarity in the field of studies on the Middle East and the Muslim World; the search for the definition and affirmation of a field of studies in Brazilian academia (without giving up the international insertion of the debate on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim World), and an innovative, plural format, accessible to the widest public, thus contributing to scientific dissemination and broadening the debate, seeking greater dialogue with sectors of civil society, the 3rd sector and actors who are often involved with the subject, but outside academia. In this space, we welcome contributions and debates related to developments in the Middle East in the widest concept (which may also include Northen Africa). As for the Muslim world, we also welcome a broader compression of the meaning - including not only Muslim majority societies in Asia and Africa, but also their non-Muslim minorities - in addition to Muslim minorities in Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere - and their interaction with the West. We also welcome contributions about religion, language, cultural expressions, and/or theoretical issues that fit our orbit. Malala International Journal of Studies on the Middle East and the Muslim World is a publication which welcomes contributions on a continuous basis in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Calls for papers are issued twice a year, with the possiility of thematic and dossier proposals. Original manuscripts should be submitted in Word format via the journal's website:
Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
This journal offers free access to its content, following the principle that making free of charge-scientific knowledge available to the public provides greater worldwide democratization of knowledge. No fees will be charged for submitting work and/or publishing in the journal, as well as for reading, downloading, copying, distributing, printing, searching or referencing after publication. Readers and interested parties are free to share (copy or distribute the material in any media and format) and to transform or adapt parts of the material as long as it is for non-commercial use and the appropriate credit is given to the author and the journal, indicating how the data has been used and/or manipulated.
Tiny, simple and ordinary things in the short story “What’s your name?” by the egyptian writer Bahaa Taher
This text introduces the Egyptian writer Bahaa Taher in his historical, political and literary context, and proposes a translation from Arabic to Brazilian Portuguese of the short story “What’s your name?”, placing it within the collection of texts from which it was taken and exposing translation decisions for the use of Egyptian Arabic dialect and narrative tone.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ester Macedo dos Santos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The hidden faces in Laila and the Wolf, by Emily Nasrallah
Emily Nasrallah was a prominent Lebanese writer, known for her ability to depict social and cultural issues in Lebanon. Her writing style is characterized by simple language, yet rich in metaphors and symbolism, exploring deep emotions and themes such as the struggles of women, village life, war, and the search for identity. In her short story Laila and the Wolf”, from the anthology Gypsy Nights (1998), Nasrallah reimagines the famous "Little Red Riding Hood" tale by Perrault, using the wolf as a metaphor for the challenges and dangers faced by the protagonist in a patriarchal society. Through this allegory, the author addresses themes such as lost innocence, resistance against oppressive norms, and the fight for female autonomy. The story reveals Nasrallah's talent for transforming traditional tales into reflections on social tensions, the complexities of human experience, and the sociopolitical context.
Copyright (c) 2025 Thariq Mohamede Osman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Poetic prose in “The stranger”, by Salma Sayegh
Salma Sayegh (1889-1953) was a Lebanese writer and activist whose literary and intellectual contributions remain largely unrecognized outside of academic circles. As an active participant in the Nahda, the modern revival of Arabic literature, she stood out for her advocacy of women's rights and her creation of chronicles, essays, and short stories that addressed important themes such as women's education and Arab cultural identity. Her writings reflect the social and philosophical concerns of her time. This article includes a translation of her short story "The Stranger," which questions the notion of marriage as a moral obligation and employs a poetic and innovative narrative style for its time, having been published in 1923.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matheus Menezes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Roots, cultivation and memories in “I saw the palm trees”, by Radwa Ashour
This article presents a translation of the short story “I Saw the Palm Trees”, from the collection of the same name, written by Radwa Ashour (1946-2014), a distinguished Egyptian writer and literary critic. The writing style and techniques employed by the author in this collection, first published in 1989, highlight a moment of maturity in the short story genre, established in Arabic literature in the 20th century. From everyday situations, the stories in this book delve into deeper social issues and themes, such as personal relationships in contemporary society. In the story “I Saw the Palm Trees" the protagonist’s roots and memories are intricately linked to plants and cultivation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Carolina Gonçalves https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
He unsettling and the rupture of the self: “Iguana... The lizard”, by Asia Ali Musa
The contemporary Arab short story takes on various and diverse forms – the short and intense writing of Asia Ali Musa seems to explore formats previously unfamiliar to the traditional literary universe of Arabic-language productions in recent decades. In this article, we present the translation, along with reflections on the translation process itself, of a short story named "Iguana... the Lizard" (al’iguana... alhardhun). Making an explicit reference to Tennessee Williams, the story presents an enigmatic and poetic language, flooded with unusual metaphors, which cover a subjective perspective of the female experience in existence.
Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Faria Porto Borges https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Tradizing, tradition, translation, and becoming other: the micro-story in the context of arabic literature
This article explores the microfiction genre within the context of contemporary Arabic literature, focusing on its sociological, formal, and performative dimensions. It argues that the rise of microfiction is closely tied to recent technological and social shifts, particularly the influence of the internet and the resulting demand for concise yet aesthetically rich writing. Though microfiction has Western origins, it resonates with traditional Arabic narrative forms, granting it a hybrid and transnational identity. Through the analysis of micro-stories by Saudi author Abdullah Nasser — especially those that employ self-referential and metafictional strategies — the article reflects on identity, subjectivity, and the performance inherent in writing and translation. Drawing parallels with Brazilian author Dalton Trevisan, it highlights aesthetic and thematic similarities across literary traditions, underlining the political potential of subject-focused narratives. In this context, translation is conceived as performance and bodily transformation, creating a new corpus from the interplay between languages, authors, and readers.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jemima Alves https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Reaking the stereotype of arab women in “Little Things” by Samira Azzam
This article aims to propose a Portuguese translation of the short story "Small Things", and to present its author, the Palestinian writer Samira Azzam. Samira, known as the "Princess of the Arabic Short Story," was a pioneer in writing short stories in Palestine and the so-called "exile literature." The narrative of her works revolves around the subjective experience of the characters, mostly women, in the trivial contexts of everyday life. This is precisely the approach found in the short story "Small Things," in which the young protagonist faces the dilemma of wanting to experience her first love, yet not adopting the typical behaviors of girls her age. The article is divided into three parts: 1) the life and work of the author; 2) about the short story "Small Things"; and 3) the translation of the story, followed by the original Arabic text.
Copyright (c) 2025 Isabela Alves Pereira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Bones on the Sand: Social Criticism in Mohamed Zafzaf’s “Skeletons”
his article presents the translation and analysis of the short story “Skeletons” (Hayakil ‘Adhamiyya), by Mohamed Zafzaf, one of the leading figures of 20th-century Moroccan literature in Arabic. Published in the 1978 collection The Strongest, the story is examined in light of the historical context of Zafzaf’s literary production, marked by Morocco’s so-called “Years of Lead” and the emergence of the cultural magazine Souffles-Anfas. The article proposes that this may be one of Zafzaf’s earliest texts to explore the beach setting, anticipating by a year his celebrated novel The Viper and the Sea (1979), with which it shares several elements, including the use of adjectives directed at the female body and the treatment of moral issues. Drawing on statements by the author himself, the article further suggests that the coastal setting described alludes to the city of Essaouira in the 1970s and 1980s — located on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, south of Casablanca and west of Marrakesh — which was then known as a refuge for “marginalized” anti-establishment figures from around the world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Felipe B. Francisco https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The absurdity of the reality of baghdad in the short story “the bare face inside the dream”, by Ahmed Saadawi
Ahmed Saadawi is a contemporary Iraqi writer committed to expressing the insanity of his country’s conflicts through art. In his best-known novel, Frankenstein in Baghdad (2014), supernatural elements are intertwined with the reality of Baghdad ravaged by the post-2003 conflicts. After the US invasion and the end of the Baathist dictatorship, Iraq plunged into violent conflicts, which intensified between 2006 and 2008. This is the setting for Saadawi’s short story “The Bare Face inside the Dream” , published in 2018, — translated in this article from Arabic to Portuguese — but set in 2007. Amongst reality, dreams and imagination, we experience the terrible sectarian conflicts in Baghdad.
Copyright (c) 2025 Beatriz Negreiros Gemignani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
“Desconstruir um texto para reconstruí-lo, adaptando-o a outros contextos culturais e linguísticos e dar-lhe nova vida e compreensão é uma experiência única”.
Copyright (c) 2025 Safa Alferd Abou Chahla Jubran, Natalia Nahas Carneiro Maia Calfat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
O conto como gênero literário árabe e a arte da tradução: um número especial dedicado à versão de contos árabes ao português
Copyright (c) 2025 Natalia Nahas Carneiro Maia Calfat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Aranormal utopia — the legacy of ahmad Khalid Tawfiq
Egyptian writer Ahmad Khalid Tawfiq (1962-2018) was one of the pioneers in Arabic literature to explore the genres of horror stories and science fiction. His most famous works include the series of paperbacks Paranormal, Fantazia and Safari, the novel Utopia and the collection of short stories A Mind Without a Body, of which a translation of one chapter will be presented. When approaching Tawfiq’s work, the characterization of his protagonists and the way in which the author appropriates elements of international literature and scientific culture to win over young audiences with a specific model of literature contextualized in the reality of his country are revealed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alexandre Facuri Chareti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Fragments of the present, the contemporary arabic short story
This article examines the evolution of the modern Arabic short story, from its oral tradition roots to its establishment as an autonomous literary genre in the 20th century. It begins by tracing the etymology and historical use of the term qissa, contextualizing it within Islamic cultural heritage and the literary transformations brought by the Nahda. The study offers a historical-literary overview of the genre’s thematic, formal, and stylistic shifts, emphasizing its critical and social role. It also draws parallels with Brazilian literary production in the 1970s, highlighting the short story’s function as a site of resistance, narrative economy, and the expression of marginalized subjectivities. The article concludes by reflecting on literature as a space for encounters between global peripheries and as a tool to challenge hegemonic canons, based on the translation efforts of young Brazilian readers with no direct connection to the Arab world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Felipe B. Francisco, Jemima de Sousa Alves https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
One year after October 7: genocide, anti-Semitism and other academic contributions on the Middle East
Copyright (c) 2024 Cila Lima, Natalia Calfat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The rise of contemporary antisemitism: an odd confluence of progressives and Islamists
Copyright (c) 2024 Susie Linfield, Ariel Finguerut https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The strengths and weaknesses of integrative solutions for the Israeli Palestinian conflict
In light of the increasing unlikelihood of a two-state solution, several integrative solutions have been proposed as alternative visions for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Offering a nuanced conceptual map of the various proposals for inclusive, egalitarian political visions for all the inhabitants of Israel/Palestine, this article identifies three strands of integrative approaches: liberal, binational, and shared sovereignty. It critically assesses the strengths and weaknesses of these integrative strands and evaluates integrationists’ preference for historical reconciliation as an alternative framework to the peacemaking discourse of the Oslo peace process.
Copyright (c) 2024 Middle East Institute; Bashir Bashir https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Beyond hegemonic western feminism: social movements of Muslim women, the case of Türkiye
This study investigates how the adoption of Western values ​​influenced women's movements in Türkiye. Turkey is a unique case study, due to its intense assimilation of Western and secular values ​​in the Republic's development process and women's struggles. Firstly, the movement of Turkish secular feminists stands out, which were strongly influenced by the political reforms of westernization, secularization and modernization of society. Secondly, Islamic feminism is presented. In the post-60s, in several Muslim-majority countries, there was the rise of a hybrid feminism, self-styled Islamic feminism, in which it seeks to reconcile feminist perspectives with the Islamic paradigm, from a non-orthodox, non-fundamentalist and non-traditional point of view, in favor of gender equality, modernity and seeking to suppress patriarchal readings about sources. Islamic feminism seeks to rescue religious principles that promote gender equality, reinterpreting sacred texts from the perspective of women's equality and rights.
Copyright (c) 2024 Leticia Naomi Tokusato https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The anatomy and psychology of the genocide in Gaza: interrelations
This article presents the main considerations of the report “Anatomy of a genocide”, by Francesca Albanese. We cross it with current and interdisciplinary productions. The emphasis is on the legal concept of apartheid as a necessary interpretative key and on the psychological damage caused to the Palestinian population as a consequence of the colonial and genocidal project. The accuracy of Albanese’s report is noted, but also the need for complementation to ensure a more comprehensive view of the visible damage caused in the Gaza Strip. The unprecedented use of the genocide typification in the document of the special rapporteur appointed by the UN Human Rights Council for the specific case demands and justifies the in-depth analysis proposed here.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jamil Zugheib, Ashjan Sadique Adi, Fábio Bacila Sahd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
"Mist in Tangier" by Cristina López Barrio and the remnants of stereotypes and orientalism
The present work has a dual objective. The first is to demonstrate that, despite the current ease of exchange of people and knowledge between the two shores of the Strait of Gibraltar, even though old stereotypes have been mitigated, the perspective expressed in Cristina López Barrio’s narrative in her work “Niebla en Tánger” (2017) still reveals some prejudices and remnants of Orientalism that characterized Spanish literary productions with Moroccan themes in the previous century. A second purpose is to address the need for utopias, which turns Tangier into the dream of inter-religious and interethnic communion, therefore generating a profusion of works set in this city.
Copyright (c) 2024 Lucilea Ferreira Gandra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Digging among loot and ruins: cinema in exile and the search for Palestinian audiovisual archives against memoricide
This article reflects on attempts to expropriate, plunder and erase signs from the memory and audiovisual archives of the indigenous Arab-Palestinian population. Between the 1960s and 1980s, exiled Palestinian artists and filmmakers, in Jordan and later in Lebanon, engaged in the production of revolutionary cinema and joined forces so that Palestinian memory would not be lost, vast audiovisual archives of immeasurable value were constituted in the period. With the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982, these films remained lost for more than three decades. I seek to map the attempts to recover the remains and fragments of this enormous archive by new generations of Palestinian filmmakers until the final discovery that these and other artifacts and cultural assets were looted and remain under Israeli colonial administration to this day.
Copyright (c) 2024 Isabella Almeida de Abreu Aquino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Middle Ground: challenging the conventional wisdom in the international order
Copyright (c) 2024 Luana Menezes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Cyber warfare from Clausewitz’s perspective: a case study on Stuxnet
In research on the Middle East, there is a tendency and preponderance for studies of interstate wars that have plagued the region for decades. Having said that, in recent times, with the accelerated process of technological development and the impact of the relationship between science and war, confrontations have been acquiring new elements, without moving away from the clausewitzian maxim that war is the continuation of politics with the mixture of other ways. Therefore, nowadays, rapid scientific progress, with emphasis on cybernetic issues, presents crucial components for achieving the military and political objectives underway in a war. In this sense, this research proposes to answer the following question: can the Stuxnet case be characterized as an act of war, according to Clausewitz’s perception? Thus, it is based on the clausewitzian understanding that war is a political act, with the aim of disarming the opponent and imposing their will. Based on this, this article observes and analyzes how the development of this worm is constituted and applied, being able to understand whether it constitutes an occurrence of an act of war. The hypothesis developed, which is intended to be corroborated, presents that Stuxnet can be characterized as an act of war, taking into account that it was a political act with the intention of forcing its purpose on the opponent. The results reveal a contemporary approach, without ignoring the contributions of the past, by highlighting this relationship between war and cyber technology. Based on this panorama, the work consists of a discussion with a single case study, in the area of Military Sciences, aiming to work with the Stuxnet episode that had Iran as its main target, in the early 2010s.
Copyright (c) 2024 Amanda Neves Leal Marini, Lucas Chrystello Pederneiras, Sandro Teixeira Moita https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Gamal Abdel Nasser's decision-making process in Egyptian foreign policy formulation during the Suez Canal conflicts
The present research aimed to analyze how Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s decision-making process actively influenced the country’s foreign policy formulation during the Suez Canal conflicts, after the nationalization of the route through Egypt. The decisions taken by foreign policymakers and the role of decision-makers in these processes, focusing on the figure of the president Nasser, were analyzed from the bibliographic research. With this, it was possible to identify how Nasser's personal approaches, as a decision-maker, contemplated and centralized his foreign policy actions on the international board by his own figure, configuring the course of foreign policy.
Copyright (c) 2024 Bruno Vicente Lippe Pasquarelli, Thatiane Gabrielle Bôscoa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The day I met Malala Yousafzai in person
Copyright (c) 2023 Anelise Gonçalves https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2023 Cila Lima, Natalia Calfat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2023 Peter Demant https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Three faces and a hidden voice: the political cinema of Jafar Panahi
Copyright (c) 2023 Thiago Henrique Gonçalves Alves https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Avant-garde feminism in Egypt, Islam and representation of women in literature
This article addresses feminism and its specificities in the context of the Arab and Islamic world and introduces pioneers in Egypt – such as Aisha Taymur (1840-1902), Zaynab Fawwaz (1850-1914), Nabawiyya Musa (1886-1951), Huda Sha‘rawi (1879-1947), and Malak Hifni Nassef (1886-1918) – up to recent names such as Nawal El-Saadawi (1931-2021). The biographical and autobiographical genres are addressed and authors like Lebanese Anbara Salam al-Khalidi (1898-1986) and Palestinian Fadwa Tuqan (1917-2003) are also mentioned in this regard. The article discusses issues of feminism in Arabic and focuses on Arabic literature written by women and the representations of Muslim women in the West.
Copyright (c) 2024 Maria Carolina Gonçalves, Vitória Perpétuo Bruno, Beatriz Berto Milanez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The “Islamic threat” before September 11: A Critical Security Studies Approach
This essay analyzes how the identification of an ‘Islamic enemy’ as a ‘threat’ to US national security did not start only after September 11, 2001. Bibliographical and documental survey were conducted and the textual corpus underwent critical discourse analysis. The analysis showed that the identification and construction of ‘bad Muslims’ as supposed ‘threats’ linked to the ‘new terrorism’ started in the 1980s, gained traction in the 1990s with the end of the Cold War, and reached its peak after 2001.
Copyright (c) 2023 Karime Ahmad Borraschi Cheaito, Thiago Rodrigues https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Marriage by convergence: state identities and the alliance between Syria and Iran
This article examines how identities influence the creation and maintenance of the Syrian-Iranian alliance. By means of a qualitative and interpretative analysis of the specialized literature, the research analyzed three moments – the war between Iran and Iraq, the Lebanon war and the conflict in Syria – to unveil the constitutive elements of this bond. The rapprochement – and maintenance of the alliance – between Syria and Iran is guided by the complementarity of their state identities, constituting a ‘marriage by convergence.’
Copyright (c) 2023 Camila Hirt Munareto, Gabriela Santos da Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0