Biography:Haifa Bitar

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Haifa Bitar

M.D.
Born
Haifa Basil Bitar

1960 (age 63–64)
Latakia, Syria
NationalitySyria
Notable work
The Fallen (2000)
The Whore (2003)
A Woman of this Modern Age (2004)
AwardsAbi Al Qassem Al Shabbi prize (2000, 2003)
Short description: Syrian writer and doctor


Haifa Basil Bitar (born 1960) is a Syrian author and ophthalmologist. She has won the Abi Al Qassem Al Shabbi prize for her collections The Fallen (2000) and The Whore (2003).

Early life

Bitar was born in 1960 in Latakia, Syria.[1]

Career

Bitar is an ophthalmologist and surgeon who works at both Latakia Governmental Hospital and her private clinic.[2] She is a member of the Syrian Society of Story and Novel. She has been described as an "outspoken" novelist in The New Yorker[3] and has participated in public discussion forums about a variety of topics.[4]

According to Abir Hamdar, writing in The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature (2014), her work "repeatedly seeks to offer an insight into the gritty reality of women's lives in the Arab world", and her novels and short stories "focus on tragic female characters who suffer social and psychological injury either at the hands of men or because of their own misplaced ideals and aspirations."[5]:113 Her 2004 novel Imraʾa min Hadtha al-ʿAsr features the protagonist Maryam and her experience with breast cancer, with her unsuccessful relationships with men in the background, and became the subject of wide criticism for its inclusion of taboo subjects, including female sexuality.[5]:114

Her novel A Woman of Fifty has a middle-aged protagonist who engages a lover, whom according to Samira Aghacy, writing in Ageing in the Modern Arabic Novel, "despises older women" and has an attitude that "reveals the 'double standard of ageing' since society is permissive of sexual activity in older men, but more severe and fanatical when it comes to the older women's sexuality."[6]:75 Her 2002 short story The Din of the Body (Dhajeej al-Jasad) focuses on Indou, a Sri Lankan maid subject to a variety of abuses by her female employer.[7]

According to Lovisa Berg, writing in Masculinity and Syrian Fiction: Gender, Society and the Female Gaze, Bitar is one of several writers of her era who "create male characters who perform masculinities perceived by the other characters as one, or a mixture of, the following: weak, oppressive, traditionalist (meant in a negative way), aggressive, feminized, misogynistic or idealistic."[8]:78 Her novel One-Winged Eagle has a male protagonist, a doctor named Karim with financial difficulties despite his profession, which according to Berg, "contrasts the pressure Karim puts on himself with the demands his sister places on men in general to provide for her."[8]:96 In her novel The Abbaseen Basement (1995), the protagonist is the daughter Khulud, who "decides to take revenge on all men because of what her father has done to her mother."[8]:79, 81, 85 Her novel Small Joys - Final Joys (1998) follows the protagonist Hiyam as she lives with a Syrian man in Paris while they both attend graduate school, and after they are married, with a focus on the changing moral views of her husband over time.[8]:79, 87

Literary works

  • Imraʾa min Hadtha al-ʿAsr (English: A Woman of this Modern Age), Saqi Books 2004, ISBN:1855166259[9][10][11]
  • The Whore, 2003[12]
  • Dajeej El Jassad, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2006, ISBN:9789953291406
  • Women with locks, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2008, ISBN:978-9953874852
  • Bleeding dreams, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2009, ISBN:978-9953878881
  • Love Struck (short story)[13]
  • A Woman of Fifty, دار الساقي للطباعة والنشر, ISBN:9786144257098
  • Journal of a Divorce[14][15]
  • One Winged Eagle, Arab Scientific Publishers, 2010, ISBN:978-9953879291

Honors and awards

  • Abi Al Qassem Al Shabbi prize in Tunisia for her collection The Fallen (2000)[16]
  • Abi Al Qassem Al Shabbi prize in Tunisia for her collection The Whore (2003)[17][13]

References

  1. ↑ "Haifa` Bitar". https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/haifa-bitar. 
  2. ↑ "Haifa BITAR | The International Writing Program". https://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/haifa-bitar. 
  3. ↑ Habib, Shahnaz (February 17, 2009). "The Gulf". The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-gulf. 
  4. ↑ Al Lawati, Abbas (February 27, 2009). "Internet globalises Arabic literature". Gulf News. https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/arts-culture/internet-globalises-arabic-literature-1.53696. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hamdar, Abir (2014). The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature. Syracuse University Press. pp. 113-120. ISBN 9780815652908. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Female_Suffering_Body/gefqBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. Retrieved 29 April 2022. 
  6. ↑ Aghacy, Samira (2020). Ageing in the Modern Arabic Novel. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474466783. https://books.google.com/books?id=C6UxEAAAQBAJ. Retrieved 29 April 2022. 
  7. ↑ Ray Jureidini (2014). "Sexuality and the Servant: An Exploration of Arab Images of the Sexuality of Domestic Maids Living In the Household". in Gagnon, John; Khalaf, Samir. Sexuality in the Arab World. Saqi. ISBN 9780863564871. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sexuality_in_the_Arab_World/MUYhBQAAQBAJ. Retrieved 29 April 2022. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Berg, Lovisa (2021). Masculinity and Syrian Fiction Gender, Society and the Female Gaze. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780755637638. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Masculinity_and_Syrian_Fiction/AMZKEAAAQBAJ. Retrieved 29 April 2022. 
  9. ↑ "Banipal (UK) Magazine of Modern Arab Literature - Book Reviews - A Woman of This Modern Age". Banipal. https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/review.cfm?review_id=3. 
  10. ↑ Aghacy, Samira (May 2016). "Reviews: The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature". International Journal of Middle East Studies 48 (2): 390-392. doi:10.1017/S0020743816000167. 
  11. ↑ Hamdar, Abir (Feb 2019). "Between Representation and Reality: Disabled Bodies in Arabic Literature". International Journal of Middle East Studies 51 (1): 127-130. doi:10.1017/S0020743818001186. 
  12. ↑ "Haifa BITAR | The International Writing Program". https://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/haifa-bitar. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Bitar, Haifa (April 1, 2014). "Love Struck". Guernica. https://www.guernicamag.com/love-struck/. "translated from the Arabic by Hannah Benninger" 
  14. ↑ The Arabic Classroom: Context, Text and Learners. (2019). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. p117
  15. ↑ مصرية (Adel), إيمان عادل-صحافية (Eman) (2020-07-05). "When I Booked a Seat in the Divorced Women’s Club | Daraj" (in en-US). https://daraj.com/en/50457/. 
  16. ↑ "9 Short Stories by Syrian Women, in Translation.". ArabLit. 2021. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673082419/AONE?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=14ea71fa. 
  17. ↑ "Haifa BITAR | The International Writing Program". https://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/haifa-bitar. 

External links




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