Anbara Salam Khalidi and Fatima Mernissi: A Comparative Analysis of Their Lived Experiences and Childhoods Through Their Memoirs

Abstract

Women’s memoir writing is an important art form that adds to the narrative of historical events through personal experiences and intimate details that are largely unseen in mainstream historical narratives written mostly by men. Two memoirs, Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist: The Life and Activism of Anbara Salam Khalidi by Anbara Salam Khalidi and Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi, are explored in this thesis and were written by Arab women. They aim to challenge preconceived notions regarding women in the Arab world. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the ways in which both women contributed to the Arab historical narrative and how they had developed their feminist values and practices through their life stories. This is explored through the use of two different literary approaches, poststructuralist feminist theory and comparative literature. The main findings of this paper indicate how both memoirs added intimate and personal accounts to the Arab historical narrative by revealing details of both Khalidi’s and Mernissi’s lives that were otherwise unseen in mainstream historical accounts. Additionally, both women’s upbringings influenced their future feminist values and practices, whether in a progressive familial environment, such as in Khalidi’s case or with restrictions imposed on the women in their family, such as in Mernissi’s case. Khalidi and Mernissi’s memoirs reveal a previously untold history which adds to the Arab feminist historical narratives and more broadly, Arab history, by addressing the core experiences that shaped both women’s feminist practices including their family, education and religion. Additionally, more Arab women’s memoirs needs to be explored in order to add and challenge current Arab historical narratives, particularly regarding the history of women in the Arab world.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Humanities and Social Science