Afifah Karam: An esteemed writer in the Lebanese diaspora

Born in Amchit, Mount Lebanon, Afifah Karam received her education in missionary schools in Lebanon until she immigrated to the US with her husband in 1887. She was a major contributor to the New York-based journal, al-Huda, and went on to become its editor at a later stage (1)Emily Ibrahim Fares, الحركة النسائية اللبنانية, Beirut, Dar al-Thakafah, p. 110.. She published her first novel, Badi’ah wa Fu’ad (Badi’ah and Fu’ad), in 1906, in which “for the first time in the history of Arabic fiction, we meet a woman advocating, in strong terms, the necessity of a general solidarity among women.”(2)Jūzīf Zaydān, Arab Women Novelists: The Formative Years and Beyond, Albany, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1995, p.72. The sense of solidarity she called for further manifested in her subsequent novels, as well, including Fatimah al-Badawiyyah (Fatimah the Bedouin, 1908). Major themes in her other writings included the criticism of the clergy and the government, and early marriage in Lebanon.