I. Rida Mahmood's Blog
November 2, 2025
Burnt Offerings: How Imperial Violence Reshapes Culture
Why war breeds religious extremism and patriarchal retrenchment
During wartime, nationalism rises. War is a time when governments can foster a stronger sense of national identity against the enemy – real or imaginary – and call for unity, for making a collective sacrifice. For many, religious group membership and ritual attendance become a lifeline.
Women have always been scapegoated for the ills of society, particularly in times of crisis. The Original Sin. The witch trials. The ugly posters and graffiti of the 1990s that read “لن يُرفع البلاء حتى تتحجب النساء” (calamities will not be lifted until women cover up in hijab) and its other variation “ينتهي الغلاء حين تتحجب النساء” (prices will go down when women put on hijab). Always Cherchez la femme.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/b...
During wartime, nationalism rises. War is a time when governments can foster a stronger sense of national identity against the enemy – real or imaginary – and call for unity, for making a collective sacrifice. For many, religious group membership and ritual attendance become a lifeline.
Women have always been scapegoated for the ills of society, particularly in times of crisis. The Original Sin. The witch trials. The ugly posters and graffiti of the 1990s that read “لن يُرفع البلاء حتى تتحجب النساء” (calamities will not be lifted until women cover up in hijab) and its other variation “ينتهي الغلاء حين تتحجب النساء” (prices will go down when women put on hijab). Always Cherchez la femme.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/b...
October 30, 2025
A Syrian Masterclass in the Art of Being Human
Critical Conditions: My Diary of the Syrian Revolution
Having read Hadi Abdullah’s Critical Conditions, you probably will not emerge well-equipped to enter a debate on the scope of the US involvement in the toppling of al-Assad; you will not formulate a stronger argument about Moscow’s and Tehran’s real motives behind supporting the fallen tyrant in Damascus. What you will gain is the eternal memory of the sixteen children of the Arba’in School in Daraa, who dared to breathe life into a suffocating city by simply writing anti-Assad slogans on the walls of their school. You will learn the names and the stories of Emad Nasab, Tarad al-Zuhouri, Khaled Essa, Ra’ed Fares, Abd al-Baset al-Sarout, and Hammoud—Hadi Abdullah’s friends who he met along the way, who taught him the meaning of friendship, brotherhood even, and the depth of the pain of loss which no first aid can relieve. You will realize that it is indeed possible for one man to be an enemy of both the Assad’s regime and of ISIS and al-Nusra Front. You will see the creativity and full human capacity for survival of those under impossible circumstances, driven by their love for life. And you will understand that a human voice and a camera, used correctly, can be the most dangerous of weapons.
“And rise we will.
………Every time.”
Read the full review here:
https://arablit.org/2025/10/30/a-syri...
Having read Hadi Abdullah’s Critical Conditions, you probably will not emerge well-equipped to enter a debate on the scope of the US involvement in the toppling of al-Assad; you will not formulate a stronger argument about Moscow’s and Tehran’s real motives behind supporting the fallen tyrant in Damascus. What you will gain is the eternal memory of the sixteen children of the Arba’in School in Daraa, who dared to breathe life into a suffocating city by simply writing anti-Assad slogans on the walls of their school. You will learn the names and the stories of Emad Nasab, Tarad al-Zuhouri, Khaled Essa, Ra’ed Fares, Abd al-Baset al-Sarout, and Hammoud—Hadi Abdullah’s friends who he met along the way, who taught him the meaning of friendship, brotherhood even, and the depth of the pain of loss which no first aid can relieve. You will realize that it is indeed possible for one man to be an enemy of both the Assad’s regime and of ISIS and al-Nusra Front. You will see the creativity and full human capacity for survival of those under impossible circumstances, driven by their love for life. And you will understand that a human voice and a camera, used correctly, can be the most dangerous of weapons.
“And rise we will.
………Every time.”
Read the full review here:
https://arablit.org/2025/10/30/a-syri...
October 5, 2025
Against the Broad Paint Brush: An Ode to ‘Middle Eastern’ Diversity
I. Rida Mahmood
To the living mural they call the ‘Middle East’:
To name you one color is to mute the palette.
You bled the cry
that birthed the first breath
split the silence
foretold the rapture to come.
Your countless voices rise like heat from stone
now pressed down
by strokes in dust
drawn by cold hands
hands unmoved by your dead
hands You will outlast.
1988: Snips and Snaps
My five-year-old self leaves the Shabra (produce market) with my parents, my dad pushing the cart, my two-year-old brother riding along, his golden-brown hair catching the searing Kuwaiti sun. We load the day’s bounty into the trunk of our 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and head toward Sultan Center in Fahaheel.
At a stall, an Indian worker clicks a pair of scissors open and shut, waving them at me like a playful toy. He grins; I giggle. The sound of metal becomes our conversation:
not my Levantine Arabic,
not the local Khaleeji,
not my teacher’s Masri,
not his likely Hindi, his perhaps Punjabi, his maybe Tamil, or his possible Malayalam,
just the snip-snip between us, sharp enough to slice through the silence.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/a...
To the living mural they call the ‘Middle East’:
To name you one color is to mute the palette.
You bled the cry
that birthed the first breath
split the silence
foretold the rapture to come.
Your countless voices rise like heat from stone
now pressed down
by strokes in dust
drawn by cold hands
hands unmoved by your dead
hands You will outlast.
1988: Snips and Snaps
My five-year-old self leaves the Shabra (produce market) with my parents, my dad pushing the cart, my two-year-old brother riding along, his golden-brown hair catching the searing Kuwaiti sun. We load the day’s bounty into the trunk of our 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and head toward Sultan Center in Fahaheel.
At a stall, an Indian worker clicks a pair of scissors open and shut, waving them at me like a playful toy. He grins; I giggle. The sound of metal becomes our conversation:
not my Levantine Arabic,
not the local Khaleeji,
not my teacher’s Masri,
not his likely Hindi, his perhaps Punjabi, his maybe Tamil, or his possible Malayalam,
just the snip-snip between us, sharp enough to slice through the silence.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/a...
September 5, 2025
If Islam Vanished Tomorrow…
I. Rida Mahmood
Most ‘Western’ critiques of Islam fixate on the visuals, with a peculiar obsession over Muslim women’s dress codes as the glaring proof of Muslim backwardness.
So, let’s look back at Ivanka and Melania Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017, when we witnessed a media fanfare celebrating their courage and feminist defiance for refusing to comply with Islamic dress codes, in a land regarded as the heart of Islam. But then, only a few days later, the two women visited the heart of Catholicism, i.e., the Vatican, and were photographed next to the Pope wearing black maxi dresses, black veils, and big, bright smiles.
For those with bipartisan sensibilities, don’t fret: Michelle Obama did the same in 2009, and her choice to unveil on her 2015 visit to Saudi Arabia was paraded as a “strong message to women.” Two more First Ladies from both sides of the political aisle, wives of presidents among the most hawkish on the ‘Middle East,’ also donned the Good Catholic Girl look on their visits to the Vatican in 1994 and 2007. In fact, every modern First Lady has covered up for the Pope, along with many European female heads of state – who touted their privilege to wear white veils instead of black.
The demands for female modesty are identical, whether coming from Riyadh or Rome. But only when the command issues from a non-white authority that it suddenly sounds the alarm on women’s oppression. When the order comes from a white man in Europe, it is welcomed, treated with respect as tradition, dignity, or even reverence.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/i...
Most ‘Western’ critiques of Islam fixate on the visuals, with a peculiar obsession over Muslim women’s dress codes as the glaring proof of Muslim backwardness.
So, let’s look back at Ivanka and Melania Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017, when we witnessed a media fanfare celebrating their courage and feminist defiance for refusing to comply with Islamic dress codes, in a land regarded as the heart of Islam. But then, only a few days later, the two women visited the heart of Catholicism, i.e., the Vatican, and were photographed next to the Pope wearing black maxi dresses, black veils, and big, bright smiles.
For those with bipartisan sensibilities, don’t fret: Michelle Obama did the same in 2009, and her choice to unveil on her 2015 visit to Saudi Arabia was paraded as a “strong message to women.” Two more First Ladies from both sides of the political aisle, wives of presidents among the most hawkish on the ‘Middle East,’ also donned the Good Catholic Girl look on their visits to the Vatican in 1994 and 2007. In fact, every modern First Lady has covered up for the Pope, along with many European female heads of state – who touted their privilege to wear white veils instead of black.
The demands for female modesty are identical, whether coming from Riyadh or Rome. But only when the command issues from a non-white authority that it suddenly sounds the alarm on women’s oppression. When the order comes from a white man in Europe, it is welcomed, treated with respect as tradition, dignity, or even reverence.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/i...
August 29, 2025
Why Are Feminists Against Motherhood?
I. Rida Mahmood
I came across this question as I read Jessica Valenti’s latest post, explaining why she declined an invitation to appear on a popular podcast along with two other guests – two conservative, anti-feminist women. The question “Why are feminists against motherhood?” is a sample of the ideas one of the guests is known to propagate, and I have nothing but admiration for Ms. Valenti’s decision not to engage in platforming these ideas.
So, when the question popped up in front of me, I couldn’t simply let it go – not while the fascist ideology of Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church) is being resurrected by the Right at a terrifying speed. Questions of this kind grease the path, they create a false dilemma and hinge on the fallacious premise that feminists, as a monolith, oppose motherhood.
FALSE!
Not only are feminist views on motherhood too diverse to sum up in such a dull, sluggish caricature, but one would struggle to recall a time when a group of feminists gathered around a fertility clinic, holding up pro-abortion signs and blocking the entrance to hopeful women seeking treatment to be able to gestate; to mother.
Until the day feminists start picketing maternity wards, shouting at pregnant women to abort their babies, and blocking entrances to delivery rooms – a day that will never come – the question “Why are feminists against motherhood?” remains not just false, but ridiculous.
The ones obsessed with controlling women’s bodily choices have never been feminists. Unlike patriarchal pro-natalist men and women, no feminist, to my knowledge, has taken part in policing and criminalizing other women’s bodies.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/w...
I came across this question as I read Jessica Valenti’s latest post, explaining why she declined an invitation to appear on a popular podcast along with two other guests – two conservative, anti-feminist women. The question “Why are feminists against motherhood?” is a sample of the ideas one of the guests is known to propagate, and I have nothing but admiration for Ms. Valenti’s decision not to engage in platforming these ideas.
So, when the question popped up in front of me, I couldn’t simply let it go – not while the fascist ideology of Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church) is being resurrected by the Right at a terrifying speed. Questions of this kind grease the path, they create a false dilemma and hinge on the fallacious premise that feminists, as a monolith, oppose motherhood.
FALSE!
Not only are feminist views on motherhood too diverse to sum up in such a dull, sluggish caricature, but one would struggle to recall a time when a group of feminists gathered around a fertility clinic, holding up pro-abortion signs and blocking the entrance to hopeful women seeking treatment to be able to gestate; to mother.
Until the day feminists start picketing maternity wards, shouting at pregnant women to abort their babies, and blocking entrances to delivery rooms – a day that will never come – the question “Why are feminists against motherhood?” remains not just false, but ridiculous.
The ones obsessed with controlling women’s bodily choices have never been feminists. Unlike patriarchal pro-natalist men and women, no feminist, to my knowledge, has taken part in policing and criminalizing other women’s bodies.
Read the full essay here:
https://iridamahmood.substack.com/p/w...
August 15, 2025
August 2025: Books About Motherhood
Continuing our celebration of Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), we’re dedicating ArabLit‘s August newsletter to books on motherhood. This couldn’t be more timely, given the ongoing heated conversation about gender roles, body politics, and the changing narratives of motherhood and the self. Many thanks to novelist Badar Salem, Al Majalla’s Ibrahim Adel, and all the beautiful people who helped put this list together, particularly Marcia Lynx Qualey, our legendary founding editor.
Below are my recommendations:
And Between Us a Garden (وبيننا حديقة), by Sara Abdeen and Marwa Abu Deif. This book is a collection of letters exchanged between the two poets about their mothering experiences.
The Motherhood Collection (ديوان الأمومة), ed. Rana Tonsi. This is a collection of essays by 17 women writers on their experiences with motherhood.
The Motherhood Dilemma (معضلة الأمومة), introduced by Hind Salem and edited by Amir Zaki. Essays by ten women examining and critiquing the mainstream cultural conception of what it means to be a mother.
Check out the full list here:
https://arablit.substack.com/p/august...
Below are my recommendations:
And Between Us a Garden (وبيننا حديقة), by Sara Abdeen and Marwa Abu Deif. This book is a collection of letters exchanged between the two poets about their mothering experiences.
The Motherhood Collection (ديوان الأمومة), ed. Rana Tonsi. This is a collection of essays by 17 women writers on their experiences with motherhood.
The Motherhood Dilemma (معضلة الأمومة), introduced by Hind Salem and edited by Amir Zaki. Essays by ten women examining and critiquing the mainstream cultural conception of what it means to be a mother.
Check out the full list here:
https://arablit.substack.com/p/august...
August 6, 2025
New Short Fiction: Saga Hamdan’s ‘Fragility’
Fragility
By Saga Hamdan
Translated by Ibtihal Rida Mahmood
I arrived at the memorial hall, my legs trembling, my body cold and withdrawn. My heart still clung to the feelings I had the first time we met, at a crossroads in life, when you told me you liked my presentations. A girl at reception greeted me with a smile. I smiled back as if this were routine. She handed me a rose, and for some reason it reminded me of the first rose you gave me. I walked down the corridor leading to the hall, which was lined with your photos and those of your comrades, one after another. I began searching for yours among them; yours was the first, although it took me a moment to notice, just like all the times when I looked for you everywhere while you were right beside me, living in my heart.
Read the full story on ArabLit here:
https://arablit.org/2025/08/06/new-sh...
By Saga Hamdan
Translated by Ibtihal Rida Mahmood
I arrived at the memorial hall, my legs trembling, my body cold and withdrawn. My heart still clung to the feelings I had the first time we met, at a crossroads in life, when you told me you liked my presentations. A girl at reception greeted me with a smile. I smiled back as if this were routine. She handed me a rose, and for some reason it reminded me of the first rose you gave me. I walked down the corridor leading to the hall, which was lined with your photos and those of your comrades, one after another. I began searching for yours among them; yours was the first, although it took me a moment to notice, just like all the times when I looked for you everywhere while you were right beside me, living in my heart.
Read the full story on ArabLit here:
https://arablit.org/2025/08/06/new-sh...
August 1, 2025
Women in Translation Month 2025: That ‘Odd, Uneven Time’
Women in Translation Month 2025:
That ‘Odd, Uneven Time’
“August rain: The best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” – Sylvia Plath
By Ibtihal Rida Mahmood
Since 2014, the month of August has been celebrated as Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth). And like the month itself, translation sits in that “odd uneven time,” a liminal space where language and meaning can be negotiated, reclaimed, or even appropriated. When it comes to the women who inhabit this space, as authors and as translators, the liminality of that space feels like a fertile ground for reclaiming language, narrative, and the power of truth-telling.
Read the full article on ArabLit:
https://arablit.org/2025/08/01/women-...
That ‘Odd, Uneven Time’
“August rain: The best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” – Sylvia Plath
By Ibtihal Rida Mahmood
Since 2014, the month of August has been celebrated as Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth). And like the month itself, translation sits in that “odd uneven time,” a liminal space where language and meaning can be negotiated, reclaimed, or even appropriated. When it comes to the women who inhabit this space, as authors and as translators, the liminality of that space feels like a fertile ground for reclaiming language, narrative, and the power of truth-telling.
Read the full article on ArabLit:
https://arablit.org/2025/08/01/women-...
July 23, 2025
Poets from Versus Versus
Click here to watch the video on Vimeo
23 of the poets included in Versus Versus share their poems from the anthology in this compilation of readings from around the world.
Poets featured in the video (in order of appearance): Jen Campbell, Ekiwah Adler-Belendez, Karthika Nair, Marilyn Hacker, Kathryn Gray, David Wheatley, Levent Beskardes, Andy Jackson, Lateef McLeod, Cat Chong, Khairani Barokka, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein, Chisom Okafor, Jack Mapanje, Karl Knights, Jane Burn, Naomi Ortiz, Han Mac Tu, Iyanuoluwa Adenle, Kate Davis, Daniel Sluman, Jamie Hale & Nuala Watt.
Closed captions are available for this video by clicking the subtitles button at the bottom of the video player.
VERSUS VERSUS: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/pro...
A Poetry Book Society Recommendation
The word versus means one thing pitched against another. To be versus versus, therefore, is a paradox, but paradox can be helpful – it can open a space for deeper thought. This anthology aims to be such a space. It brings together one hundred deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets from across the international arena, from emerging voices to world-renowned authors, and offers an urgent redress, unpicking many misapprehensions and misrepresentations.
The reader will encounter poems of love and pain, self-care and companionship; poems which challenge cultural, medical and political agendas and policies. There are war poems, poems as acts of witness and solidarity, poems which address the impact of the climate emergency. There are humorous poems, nature poems, and much more.
The selection also draws together poetry in a wide variety of styles and forms, and from different traditions, such as haiku, renga, sonnet, villanelle, prose poem, performance poem, and sign language.
Building on the work of decades of disability justice advocacy, Versus Versus offers a poetry of assertiveness and immense vitality.
Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein
Rachael Boast
23 of the poets included in Versus Versus share their poems from the anthology in this compilation of readings from around the world.
Poets featured in the video (in order of appearance): Jen Campbell, Ekiwah Adler-Belendez, Karthika Nair, Marilyn Hacker, Kathryn Gray, David Wheatley, Levent Beskardes, Andy Jackson, Lateef McLeod, Cat Chong, Khairani Barokka, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein, Chisom Okafor, Jack Mapanje, Karl Knights, Jane Burn, Naomi Ortiz, Han Mac Tu, Iyanuoluwa Adenle, Kate Davis, Daniel Sluman, Jamie Hale & Nuala Watt.
Closed captions are available for this video by clicking the subtitles button at the bottom of the video player.
VERSUS VERSUS: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/pro...
A Poetry Book Society Recommendation
The word versus means one thing pitched against another. To be versus versus, therefore, is a paradox, but paradox can be helpful – it can open a space for deeper thought. This anthology aims to be such a space. It brings together one hundred deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets from across the international arena, from emerging voices to world-renowned authors, and offers an urgent redress, unpicking many misapprehensions and misrepresentations.
The reader will encounter poems of love and pain, self-care and companionship; poems which challenge cultural, medical and political agendas and policies. There are war poems, poems as acts of witness and solidarity, poems which address the impact of the climate emergency. There are humorous poems, nature poems, and much more.
The selection also draws together poetry in a wide variety of styles and forms, and from different traditions, such as haiku, renga, sonnet, villanelle, prose poem, performance poem, and sign language.
Building on the work of decades of disability justice advocacy, Versus Versus offers a poetry of assertiveness and immense vitality.
Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein
Rachael Boast
May 22, 2025
Today's the day! Launch event for Versus Versus anthology
Join us for this launch event for Rachael Boast's international anthology Versus Versus: 100 poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, published on Thursday 22 May. Rachael will be joined by the three poets who helped on the book as its Advocacy and Advisory Panel, Karthika Naïr (India/France), Chisom Okafor (Nigeria) and Daniel Sluman (UK), who also have poems included in the anthology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07usV...
The event will also include clips of twelve other poets reading their poems from Versus Versus: Han Mac Tu (Vietnam), Kathryn Gray (Wales), Andy Jackson (Australia), Kate Davis (England), Riyad al-Saleh al Hussein (Syria), Khairani Barokka (Indonesia/UK), Naomi Ortiz (Mexico), Levent Beskardes (Turkey/LSF), Jack Mapanje (Malawi/UK), Jamie Hale (UK), Lateef McLeod (USA) and Nuala Watt (Scotland).
Order your copies:
Ireland & EU: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin
USA: Click here to order from Bookshop.org
Click here to order from Amazon
