A renowned poet, a women’s rights activist, a cultural ambassador for her country and one of only 16 people from the Middle East to earn a place as one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, Nimah Ismail Nawwab’s achievements would be impressive by any measure. Given that she has managed all this as a Saudi woman is little short of remarkable. Although her poetry has earned her a modicum of fame, it is perhaps her status as a Young Global Leader that has given her the attention of such luminaries as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, and Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury. Saudi women do have a voice, and one that can reach the international stage. “Meeting and working with fellow Young Global Leaders … has been stimulating and our group is very active on a wide range of vital issues that touch our present and affect our younger generation’s heritage and future,” Nawwab says. Nawwab, who came to prominence with the publication of her collection The Unfurling two years ago, is comfortable with the mantle she has assumed as a social activist in women’s affairs. “Lately my poetry and work have been referred to as activism due to the themes covered and the way I present them to readers and audiences through articles or at lectures, and it is not surprising as poets are often active in addressing issues of concern to a nation. To be called an activist in this sense is an honor and a responsibility that is not taken lightly,” Nawwab says. Descended from a long line of Mecca scholars, she is a woman of many talents - writer, poet and photographer. She is the first Saudi woman poet to be published in the United States. The Unfurling weaves together her poems about freedom, women, family, culture, faith, tradition, tolerance and change into a rich tapestry that has entranced readers and generated favorable reviews at home and abroad. In January 2005 she became the first writer and poet, male or female, to hold a public book signing at a major bookstore in Saudi Arabia. Elusive figure. Nawwab has become a prominent figure in Saudi letters, yet she remains an elusive and somewhat contradictory figure. Sometimes she raises pointed and troubling questions about personal freedom, the changing role of women in Saudi society, child slavery and forced divorce, among other contentious themes. At other times, however, she takes refuge in tradition, in which she has an abiding interest. Her essays and articles on Saudi society, customs, arts and crafts, calligraphy, and cuisine have received considerable interest abroad, and have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and other languages. She has been dubbed a cultural ambassador and a “voice for Arab women.” The epithet “voice among the voiceless” is often applied to her. The Streets of Makkah, one of the poems in The Unfurling, is one poem she says she was prompted to write to give expression not only to it significance to all Muslims but also her own connection to the city as a youngster. “I was continually struck by the uniqueness of the buildings, their wooden facades, their architecture. Another reason is, of course, nostalgia,” she adds. “But the main inspiration for this poem and another piece for the new volume is the destruction of such homes as the city expands. Such homes have to be preserved and maintained. There are many people who are very concerned about this issue,” Nawwab says. Nawwab was born in Malaysia, where her father was a professor at the University of Malaya. “It was my place of birth but not origin,” she says. “When I turned five he became worried that I would lose my Arabian identity, so he came back [to Mecca] and has been here ever since. I learnt a love for literature, writing and photography from him.” Encyclopedic scope. Nawwab became interested in English literature because her father used to read Shakespeare’s plays as bedtime stories to her. Later on, Nawwab read Dutch traveler and scholar C. Snouck Hurgronje’s account of his stay in Mecca and felt moved to make her own record of the customs, social life and arts of her people. In this, she is much like her father, who is compiling an encyclopedia on Islam for UNESCO. “As for poetry, through the years, I read a lot of classical poets, but an encounter with an Arab-American, the award-winning poet and author Naomi Shihab Nye, whom I call ‘My Inspiration,’ motivated me to attempt poetry. Her reading of modern poetry, of various poets and talk of the nature of poetry moved me to the extent that that very night I wrote my first four poems,” Nawwab says. So began what she calls the “thrilling adventure” of immersing oneself in language and its intimacies, where the challenge, she says, is to go beyond the limits of language and perception to find the new. Nawwab finds that she values the works of modern poets more and more, though she still loves the classics. “The list of poets I read continuously expands and is an international one. My sense of what can be done with language, what is possible in writing and especially poetry, grows daily and mostly through wide reading. I also love to experiment with new styles, which is why The Unfurling ends with, as I have heard various reviewers mention, a surprising culmination,” she says. She says she chose the title “The Unfurling” because of its many connotations: “It is multilayered, … an effect I like to achieve with the very poems themselves.” One of her poems, The Awakening, which is about the intifada, was included in the curriculum of the College of Arts in Dammam. “Several poems are now being taught at schools in Singapore, Bahrain, the United States and Venezuela,” Nawwab says. New anthology. Nawwab is compiling a new anthology of her work, which she wants to illustrate with oils and watercolors of Saudi artists. “There are illustrations in The Unfurling; I would like to expand these. It was a joy to work with a talented Saudi artist, Karim Ramis, on the cover design. I think his work - with the section breaks interspersing the book - adds a charming touch,” she says. New poems to date include pieces on the December 2004 tsunami, homeless women and youths. Her interest in the very young and the very old dovetails with her longstanding interest in photography: “I enjoy portraits, nature and wedding shots … and love to take photos of the elderly and the young.” Asked about poetry presentations and readings, she says, “Presentations have now been expanded, with a combination of reading, discussion and presentation on a wide range of subjects based on the audience’s interest. Each presentation is unique,” she says. The events have been held in Saudi Arabia at colleges and diplomatic functions, in Bahrain, where Nawwab was the main speaker at the Arabian Reading Association educator’s conference, in Singapore at the Southeast Asian Studies Institute at the launch of the think tank’s gender studies program, at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and at several literary foundations, schools and bookstores across the US. A desert reading was held in the vast reaches of the Empty Quarter for a group of visiting US educators. “I don’t want to neglect the kingdom and Gulf countries, as I really enjoy meeting our youth and reaching out to them,” Nawwab says. Asked what she thinks of the reforms in Saudi Arabia and how she envisages women’s role in Saudi society and the changing workforce, she says women “need to work very hard together to effect change … and work toward common needs of our own, our family and society.” According to her, legal issues, especially those mandated by Islam, as opposed to culture, need to be enforced more fully. “Travel papers for women [and] guardianship issues are matters that need to be resolved. Guardianship, even when applying to college … is something that in this day and age is not practical or reasonable,” she says. She believes women will soon be allowed to drive, noting that the Shoura (Consultative) Council has debated it and favors its gradual introduction. Young poets send her their work and she hopes to work even more with the promising ones. “My interest in the younger generation has always been part of my work, reflected in articles, photographs and also poems. I am working on a writing project on youth, their dreams, concerns and stresses,” she says. “Youth issues are one of the core concerns. They hold our future in their hands. I am very much involved in mentoring young writers and poets as well as offering advice to writers with questions on publishing,” she says. “We lack writers; many writers, especially new ones, face challenges when it comes to publishing, marketing, book tours and the various aspects of a published writer’s life,” she adds. “I hope that young writers and poets can work together more, and I do enjoy being an inspiration, just as Naomi Shihab has been to me,” she says. Young people, she says, “need to be understood. That they not be ignored. That their concerns and needs be taken into consideration. We need to understand that this new generation holds the key to the future and what we are building now is for them in the end.” n

   Email This Post      Print This Post