WMF Projects “Spotlights on Forgotten Memory” Competition

"Spotlights on Forgotten Memory" Competition

Spotlights on Forgotten Memory

In 2022, the Women and Memory Forum (WMF) organized a research essay competition focusing on a forgotten woman, or a female figure who has received little attention in established narratives of Arab history. The competition aimed to encourage research in women’s and gender studies, revive the memory of women, and disseminate knowledge that supports feminist movements across the Arab world.

The competition was open to postgraduate students in Egypt. A specialized jury selected by WMF reviewed the submitted essays, and a prize of EGP 2,000 was awarded to the author of the best essay, which was also published on the WMF website.

How the Competition Began

The idea for the competition emerged through a collaboration between the Women and Memory Forum and Dr Dina Heshmat, Professor of Arabic Literature in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo. More specifically, it developed in the context of a course titled “Forgotten Arab Women Writers,” which raised a number of questions: Why does the Arabic literary canon recognize only a handful of women writers, poets, and novelists? What subjects have Arab women writers addressed in their work? And how can we recover the voices of the hundreds of creative women who have been forgotten?

As part of the course, students were asked to undertake a research project that would revive the voice of a forgotten Arab woman writer. They were required to write a paper examining the writer’s most significant works and the reasons behind her marginalization, and subsequently create a Wikipedia entry about her.

The Winning Essay

Researcher Osama Amer won the prize for Best Essay with his English-language research paper on the Romantic poet Fluri ‘Abd al-Malik, titled:

“Fluri ‘Abd al-Malik: The Marginalization of a Woman Romantic Poet in the Sixties”

To read the paper, please click here.