Issue 4 of Jahanamiya explores the concept of movement – a particularly salient topic at present – through the insight of Saudi women. The writing in the issue touches upon a diverse array of topics: from cross cultural experiences and emotional evolutions to identity formation and physical movement. Some pieces explore questions of the body and its true ownership. Others touch upon issues of driving and transportation. Jahanamiya is excited to be releasing this issue at such a significant moment in Saudi Arabia’s history – a movement that represents noteworthy movement in our society as a whole. More than this though, Jahanamiya is proud to continue elevating the voices of individual Saudi women, propelling ourselves, our daughters, and our sons forward with each story we share.
في عددها الرابع، جهنمية في صدد تناول موضوع الساعة: التحرك. تفاوتت الموضوعات التي كتبت في هذا العدد باختلاف تجارب النساء السعوديات. فمنهم من قصّت عن التنقل بين بلاد ومجتمعات مختلفة، ومن حكت عن تحّرك داخلي يخص التنقل بين الحالات النفسية المختلفة عند مواجهة صعوبات الحياة، ومن روت عن الحركة البدنية وملكية جسدها، وبعض الكتابات تعرضت لمسألة قيادة المرأة والتنقل في السعودية.
جهنمية في أوج سعادتها لإطلاق هذا العدد تزامناً مع حدث تاريخي للمرأة السعودية وهو السماح لها بإستخراج رخصة قيادة أسوة بالرجل وهذا القرار يمثل نقلة نوعية في المجتمع السعودي. جهنمية تفتخر بدورها الإيجابي في إيجاد منبر لأصوات النساء السعوديات، بحيث كل قصة تروى وكل عمل أدبي ينشر يدفعنا، ويدفع بناتنا و أبناءنا إلى الامام.
Editor-in-Chief: Ahd Niazy | Contributing Art Editor: Zahra Bundakji | Cover Art: Iman AlDabbagh & Majed Munshi
Waves break and scatter the birds tracking hash marks in Arabian Gulf sand. Water washes the shore, all is as before patient and clean. Car doors jar the reverie, a party moves in stages onto the beach: a dancing boy produces a rug; a singing girl, a thermos of tea. Across my horizon a veiled […]
I’ve never been one to rely on my nationality to find answers, or direction, in life. I wholly identify with the ideas of Amin Maalouf, a Lebanese-born French author who asserts that “ties in people’s lives are not always the allegedly major allegiances arising out of language, complexion, nationality, class or religion.” I feel fortunate […]
I pick the last row in the back of the bus and manage to stick myself in the corner. The blue seats are splashed with streaks of yellow. My seat seems to have more streaks than the rest. As soon as I’m settled in it, I put my earphones in and the slow beat of […]
I shift my position for about the seventh time in the last hour while the tiny screen before me alerts me of the time remaining on the trip: five more hours. I cannot help but feel suffocated while staring at the neat array of uncomfortable navy blue seats to my right. Being seated in one […]
When I was 16, my Saudi father and I spoke for the first time. In his heavily-accented English, he told me that Saudi Arabia was my second home, despite the fact that I had never been there. Thus began the opening up of my second world…