R e m e m b e r  M e  t o  L e b a n o n:
Stories of Lebanese Women in America

thursday | may 10 | 7pm | mit | e51-376 | 70 memorial drive (map )

free & open to the general public
 
About the Book
The tales in Evelyn Shakir’s Remember Me to Lebanon: Stories of Lebanese Women in America are set in various eras, from the 1960s to the present and occasionally hark back even to the turn of the twentieth century.  Protagonists range in age from a teenager who resists her father’s understanding of honor, to an elderly woman who returns from the grave for one last try at whipping her family into shape.  Most of the stories dramatize personal issues involving negotiation between generations and cultures.  But others have a political dimension—one is set against the backdrop of the Lebanese civil war; another is a response to 9/11, narrated by a woman who keeps watch all day on the Arab family next door.  (Remember Me is published by Syracuse University Press.)

About the Author
Evelyn Shakir, daughter of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, and a pioneer in the study of Arab American literature is author of Bint Arab:  Arab and Arab American Women in the United States (Praeger 1997), which will soon appear in an Arabic-language edition.  As a Senior Fulbright scholar, she has taught American literature to university students in both Lebanon and Syria; under the auspices of Bentley College (where she is professor emerita), she has taught similar courses in the kingdom of Bahrain. She holds degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard University, and Boston University.

Reviews of Shakir’s Bint Arab
“Weaving together the personal narratives of a number of women of different generations and experiences (including those in her own family), Shakir compares their lives and experiences as they negotiated their way between the demands of their own cultural traditions and the opportunities provided by their new adopted country. A rich and complex portrait of Arab women and their culture emerges, one that should serve as a corrective to the negative and simplistic stereotype about Arab women in the West.”
  – Choice

“A sweeping mosaic, rich and colorful in human experience, brought to life in a collection of observations of life in their lands of origin and, primarily, in the U.S., where events in the Middle East continued to shape their identity.”
  – Al Jadid

“A gem of a book....[and a] valuable insight into the changing generational perspectives of what it means for an Arab-American woman to be a good daughter, sister, wife, and mother.”
  – Journal of Palestine Studies

“Shakir presents the material in a coherent, logical manner, adding comments or background where necessary, but never judging. Bint Arab is a worthwhile book for Arab Americans and all others interested in knowing more about the women of this little-known ethnic group.”
  – International Migration Review

“A major and enjoyable contribution to the understanding of Arab and Arab American women....[Shakir] gives voice to women's struggles when they navigate between their Arab family values and those of their new country.”
  – MESA (Middle Eastern Studies Association) Bulletin

“American libraries and bookstores have long been waiting for a book like Evelyn Shakir's Bint Arab....Shakir has written a thoughtful and moving text that brings to light, through a skillful blend of scholarship and oral storytelling, the largely untold history of a century of Arab immigration to the United States....Never before has the Arab-American experience been chronicled in just this fashion....Shakir should be thanked for having had the courage to write it.”
  – Wellesley

“[T]he women's voices which Shakir enlists to flesh out the big picture bring fresh insights to an otherwise stale story. Compelling as they are diverse, the stories stand on their own as worthy of interest. They touch on every conceivable subject--marriage and divorce, religious fundamentalism and modern feminism, cultural racism and social embarrassment, domestic violence and interdenominational marriages. The Lebanese and Palestine women assembled by Shakir, immigrants and native born, engage the reader's interest as they wrestle with various pressures and demands placed on them to conform to mainstream culture....[A]dds a new dimension to the understanding of what, for the lack of a better term, has been called the Arab-American experience.”
  – Journal of American Ethnic History

“Shakir manages to provide an interdisciplinary approach in her work, giving the reader an insight into Arab customs and traditions, and into the women's intimate consciousness... The book is a valuable reference on the America society seen through Arab women immigrants' eyes... It is with great joy and interest that I read this book!”
  – Journal of Third World Studies
 
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