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.
Existe uma Ordem Regional Israelense no Oriente Médio?
Copyright (c) 2026 Nizar Messari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Cila Lima https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
" A negação do genocídio armênio está no cerne do mito fundacional da República da Turquia, cujos alicerces econômicos e territoriais estão fincados em propriedades e territórios armênios”
Copyright (c) 2026 Heitor de Andrade Carvalho Loureiro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
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
When History bleeds: The ongoing Palestinian Nakba in Joe Sacco’s comics journalism
This paper explores Joe Sacco’s comics journalism works Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, arguing that the testimonies presented by Palestinians interviewed by the author reveal traumatic experiences rooted in the multiple and persistent forms of violence perpetrated by the Israeli colonial occupation. It adopts the idea of ongoing Nakba as an interpretative framework, acknowledging that the 1948 mass expulsion of Palestinians during Israel's foundation inscribed in their collective memory as the Catastrophe was not merely a historical event, but rather the beginning of an unfinished process of displacement and ethnic cleansing that persists.
Copyright (c) 2026 Vandercleo Costa Corrêa Junior https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Identity, Gender And Work: Experiences Of Syrian Women Refugees In Brazil
The dissertation chapter aims to understand the experiences of Syrian women in Brazil based on three axes: identity, gender, and labor market insertion. Using qualitative methodology and the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) of Fernando Lefèvre and Ana Maria Lefèvre, with an ethnographic approach, which, according to American anthropologist and professor Lila Abu-Lughod, in her book “Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories” (2020, p. 13-47), requires, above all, a break with the generalizations characteristic of classical ethnographies. That is, “describing the other” implies avoiding simplistic attributions to the groups studied, recognizing the complexity and internal diversity in their narratives. Thus, the study highlights the difficulties faced by these women, especially with regard to balancing family care, the need to generate income, as well as challenges in recognizing their labor rights and diplomas. The analysis highlights the double displacement—geographical and subjective—experienced by refugees, contributing to a process of identity reconstruction marked by intergenerational experiences, as they transition between traditional roles and new forms of leadership, in many cases becoming heads of households. In this context, identity, as a cultural construct, is formed in a non-linear manner and is deeply related to social interactions and symbolic consumption present in culture. Thus, by giving visibility to the silenced voices of women in refugee situations, the article contributes to the debate on reception policies, social inclusion, and gender equality.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jaqueline Bianca Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Missing Link: The Importance Of The Late Ottoman Years For The Understanding Of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict In “Jews And Palestinians In The Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914: Claiming The Homeland”
This work discusses the book “Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914: Claiming the Homeland” (2020) by Louis Fishman. Through the reflections proposed in the book, it seeks to highlight the importance of studying the final years of Ottoman History in order to understand the origins of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Copyright (c) 2026 André Viola https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Searching For The Unmediated Allah's Word:Islamic Activism In The Arabian Gulf And The Conceptualization Of “Islamic Tradition”
The Islamic movement in Saudi Arabia, al-Sahwa, questioned the internal and external policies of the Saudi monarchy and sought to define a politically engaged Islamic identity, grounded in the example of the People of the Sunna. The fatwas issued by its members articulated the concepts of renewal, reform, and puritanism, in conjunction with the quietist tradition of Muhammad Ibn al-Wahhab. This work aims to observe how translocality studies aid in understanding Islamic activism in the Gulf, and their conceptualization of “Islamic tradition”. Thus, it seeks to comprehend the Sahwa discourse as a product that extends beyond local issues, pursuing a translocal rhetoric of true Muslim conduct at the end of the 20th century.
Copyright (c) 2026 Luisa Pastorini de Castro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Reconquering ConstantinoplePolitics Of Memory And Byzantine Heritage In Erdogan’s Turkey
The reconversion of the Hagia Sophia was one of the high points of the instrumentalization of the politics of memorialization to achieve political ends in Turkey. In light of this event, this article aims to analyze the relationship between Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Neo-Ottoman populism and Byzantine heritage in the present Turkish society. The subjugation of Byzantine memory is a basic trait of Turkish right-wing populism, founded on the glorification of its imperial past and on Islamism. Combating the fictitious Byzantine enemy, in discourse, becomes associated with combating the West, externally, and the Kemalist opposition, internally. Erdogan seeks to legitimize himself through the implementation of this populist agenda.
Copyright (c) 2026 Hermano do Amaral Pinto Neto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Palestinian Queer: Resisting Occupation And The Attempt To Silence
This study investigates Palestinian queer subjectivity and its resistance to Israeli pinkwashing, utilizing articles from the organization AlQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society. The analysis condemns Israel's instrumentalization of LGBT+ issues to conceal human rights violations in Palestine, drawing upon discourse analysis (Maingueneau, 2005) and in the thought of Chandra Mohanty (2008) adapted to queer discourse. The chapter explores the intersection between the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Palestinian queer resistance. It also examines how AlQaws's discourses challenge homonationalism and pinkwashing, reinforcing the anticolonial struggle against the Israeli occupation.
Copyright (c) 2026 George Daniel Rodrigues Fonseca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Challenges Of The Secular/Religious Dichotomy In Tunisia’s Political Trajectory
The recent rediscovery of religion by International Relations (IR) points to a deeply negligent field in recognizing faith as a political factor, grounded in a vaguely defined secularism. Founded upon such the religion/secularism dichotomy, IR has historically produced analyses that perceive religiosity as having a pernicious character in political environments. This essay challenges the naturalization of the concepts of religion and secularism while proposing the study of Tunisia as a productive counterpoint to these constructions. In this sense, it is argued that, in the case of the Tunisian democratic transition, such conceptual frameworks present more obstacles than advantages for IR analysts.
Copyright (c) 2026 Leonardo Pagano Landucci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Annexing the west bank: the foreign policy of the fourth netanyahu government (2015-2020)
Between 2015 and 2020, Benjamin Netanyahu led his fourth government in Israel. During that term, for the first time he formed a government without the presence of parties that defended the two-state solution, the basis of the Oslo Accords and which provided for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The objective of this article is to investigate the effects on the Palestinian issue, particularly on the West Bank, of that period. The study will be carried out through Foreign Policy Analysis, more specifically by studying the dominant societal narratives. The article demonstrates how the period 2015-2020 was decisive in building a one-state reality that, to a large extent, drastically reduces the possibility of creating a Palestinian state.
Copyright (c) 2026 José Antonio Lima https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Journeys And Belongings In “Entwined Homelands, Empowered Diasporas: Hispanic Moroccan Jews And Their Globalizing Community”
Aviad Moreno's book, Entwined Homelands, Empowered Diasporas: Hispanic Moroccan Jews and their Globalizing Community (2024), awarded by the Jewish Book Council and the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA), explores the historical, spatial, and identity formation process of a Sephardic Jewish subgroup across their various homelands. The work delves into the complex and peculiar interconnections that permeate the Iberian Peninsula-Northern Morocco-Latin America and Israel journey, highlighting specific belongings, while also prioritizing aspects inherent to all migratory processes. This review aims to present, disseminate, and highlight the important contribution of the mentioned text to studies on Jewish, migratory, and Middle Eastern topics, among others.
Copyright (c) 2026 Adriana Abuhab Bialski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Dynamics of the formation of the Turkish working class, according to Görkem Akgöz
Görkem Akgöz’s book, In the Shadow of War and Empire: Industrialisation, Nation-building and Working-Class Politics in Turkey (Brill, 2023) offers a history of Turkey's entry into capitalism from the final decades of the Ottoman Empire, beginning with the construction of the Bakırköy Textile Factory industrial complex in Istanbul in the 1840s. Her book also shows how this factory was appropriated and symbolically reinterpreted by the statist policies of the republican regime, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party. This analysis interweaves a macrostructural perspective (global and Turkish capitalism) and a microstructural one (the work dynamics on the factory floor), revealing the political, economic, and social complexity involved in the tortuous process of state-building since the pioneering economic drive during the days of Bakırköy, once called the "Turkish Manchester."
Copyright (c) 2026 Daniel Cunha 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