Kirjahaku

In Between Banat Mejdulene Bernard Shomali examines homoeroticism and nonnormative sexualities between Arab women in transnational Arab literature, art, and film. Moving from The Thousand and One Nights and the Golden Era of Egyptian cinema to contemporary novels, autobiographical writing, and prints and graphic novels that imagine queer Arab futures, Shomali uses what she calls queer Arab critique to locate queer desire amid heteronormative imperatives. Showing how systems of heteropatriarchy and Arab nationalisms foreclose queer Arab women’s futures, she draws on the transliterated term “banat”-the Arabic word for girls-to refer to women, femmes, and nonbinary people who disrupt stereotypical and Orientalist representations of the “Arab woman.” By attending to Arab women’s narration of desire and identity, queer Arab critique substantiates queer Arab histories while challenging Orientalist and Arab national paradigms that erase queer subjects. In this way, Shomali frames queerness and Arabness as relational and transnational subject formations and contends that prioritizing transnational collectivity over politics of authenticity, respectability, and inclusion can help lead toward queer freedom.

In Between Banat Mejdulene Bernard Shomali examines homoeroticism and nonnormative sexualities between Arab women in transnational Arab literature, art, and film. Moving from The Thousand and One Nights and the Golden Era of Egyptian cinema to contemporary novels, autobiographical writing, and prints and graphic novels that imagine queer Arab futures, Shomali uses what she calls queer Arab critique to locate queer desire amid heteronormative imperatives. Showing how systems of heteropatriarchy and Arab nationalisms foreclose queer Arab women’s futures, she draws on the transliterated term “banat”-the Arabic word for girls-to refer to women, femmes, and nonbinary people who disrupt stereotypical and Orientalist representations of the “Arab woman.” By attending to Arab women’s narration of desire and identity, queer Arab critique substantiates queer Arab histories while challenging Orientalist and Arab national paradigms that erase queer subjects. In this way, Shomali frames queerness and Arabness as relational and transnational subject formations and contends that prioritizing transnational collectivity over politics of authenticity, respectability, and inclusion can help lead toward queer freedom.

"After turning the music on, my new teacher turned towards us and began to dance. As she danced, she played a rhythm on a pair of finger cymbals, and they rang quickly and effortlessly. Her hips shimmied as she moved around the room smiling at us, her students, performing for us from her heart and showing us what we had to look forward to learning. I was completely transfixed as well as transported. I felt entranced by her music and by her movements and felt a deep sense of recognition even though this was the first time I'd ever seen a belly dancer, ever heard such sounds, seen such a costume, or such movements. I felt a welling of emotion and felt like I had come home, like everything in my life had led to this moment. It was almost a sense of d j vu, but more of an inner knowing that I'd found something I didn't even know I was looking for." --From Dances with Veils And so, Mezdulene's journey begins. Educational, entertaining and inspiring, this book is unique and personal, filled with stories of healing, teaching and adventure. It's about belly dance but more importantly, it's about sacred femininity and empowerment. "Mezdulene shares her journey from abuse to empowerment. While she found her way through dance, this book is not just for dancers but for anyone who has suffered abuse. Her courage and determination is an inspiration for all to remove themselves from an abusive environment and discover their full potential".....Halima

Welcome to the world of Belly Dance. If you are already a dancer, you were drawn to the dance by something, exercise, costuming, a desire to perform or just something you did on a whim. For whatever reason you started dancing, there is something deeper that keeps you dancing. This is 'the soul of belly dance.' It's this deeper aspect of the dance, the history, the culture the feeling inside of us, that seems to get into our blood like a sacred calling that we've answered and continue to honor. It's an unseen force of women dancing throughout the ages and throughout the world, the knowing that we are connected in a time and space continuum to our sister dancers. It's about a dance that has traveled through time from the ancient to the present, changing and morphing, never limited or bound by societal constraints. In this book, some of the top names in the field of belly dance, as it's called in the United States, share their research and their experiences, making this manuscript a rich and unique resource for anyone who wants to know more about this beautiful art form. This version is also on available on Amazon in black and white.