Mohja Kahf
Encyclopedia
Biography
Kahf moved to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1971. Her family has been involved in Syrian opposition politics, a theme reflected in the life of her character Khadra of The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf.
She received her Ph.D. in comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
and is currently an associate professor of comparative literature and faculty member of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
, Fayetteville.
Literary career
Kahf's work explores themes of cultural dissonance and overlap between Muslim-American and other communities, both religious and secular. Islam, morality, modesty, gender and gender-relations, sexuality, politics, and especially identity are important aspects of her work.Her first book of poetry, E-mails From Scheherazad, was a finalist for the 2004 Paterson Poetry Prize.
Novels
The Girl in the Tangerine ScarfThe Girl in the Tangerine Scarf
The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf is a novel written by American author Mohja Kahf and published in 2006....
2006, Carroll & Graf
Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant to Odalisque
Articles and Book Chapters
"Writing on Muslim Gender Issues in the West Today: Slipping Past the Pity Committee," in Rabab Abdal Hadi, ed., Studies in Arab American Feminisms (forthcoming)."From Her Royal Bod the Robe Was Removed: The Trauma of Forced Unveiling in the Middle East" in Jennifer Heat, ed., The Veil (UC Berkeley, 2008).
"The Silences of Contemporary Syrian Literature" World Literature Today, Spring 2001.
"Politics and Erotics in Nizar Kabbani's Poetry: From the Sultan's Wife to the Lady Friend" World Literature Today, Winter 2000.
"Packaging Huda: Sha'rawi's Memoirs in the US Reading Environment" in Amal Amireh & Lisa Suhair Majaj, ed., Going Global: The Transitional Reception of Third World Women Writers (Garland, 2000)
"Braiding the Stories: Women's Eloquence in the Early Islamic Era" in Gisela Webb, ed., Windows of Faith: Muslim Women's Scholarship and Activism (Syracuse UP, 2000).
Critical Studies
- Sabiha Sorgun, “‘Into the state of pure surrender’: Spirituality in Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine ScarfThe Girl in the Tangerine ScarfThe Girl in the Tangerine Scarf is a novel written by American author Mohja Kahf and published in 2006....
,” 30th Annual Meeting of Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, February 25–28, 2009. Albuquerque, NM.