Between 1948 and 1957, a period that witnessed two wars between Egypt and Israel, 60,000 members of Egypt's 75,000-strong Jewish population left the country, compelled by growing hostility to them because of their presumed links to Zionism, economic insecurity, and after 1956, overt expulsion. Decades later, during the 1980s and 1990s, the personal reminiscences of eight Egyptian Jewish women, presently residents of New York who had left Egypt, were meticulously collected by Nayra Atiya. While Atiya's sample of eight narrators represents only a tiny percentage of the Jews who left Egypt, their accounts tell us much about the middle- and upper-class Jews who migrated to the Americas and Europe, giving us a vivid sense of their lives in Egypt before their departure and the dynamic role they played in Egyptian society. They were the children or grandchildren of generations of Jews who migrated to Egypt from around or near the Mediterranean to escape economic hardship and persecution or, in one case, a family conflict. With one exception, Atiya's interlocutors resided in relatively upscale neighborhoods in Egypt near other Jewish families. They lived in elegant apartments, with servants, fine foods, memberships in elite clubs, and summers spent near Alexandria or in Europe. In Zikrayat, Atiya movingly captures the essence of these women's characters and experiences, the fabric of their day-to-day lives, and the complex, many-layered mood of those times in Egypt. In doing so she brings to life the ties that bind all Egyptians, offering a glimpse into a now vanished world-and the heartbreak of exile and migration.

This novel of the harem, originally published in 1958, is a dramatisation of a piece of Egyptian feminine and feminist history. Set at the turn of the century, when Egyptian women were struggling to come forward, it tells the story of life behind the veil and of one woman's rebellion against it.

First published in 1940, but translated here for the first time, this work comprises three poignant novellas of love and death in the Egyptian countryside.

The heroines of Out El Kouloub's Three Tales tells the stories of Nazira, Zahira, and Zarifa, whose narratives afford the rest of the world a glimpse of the "veiled" culture from an insider's perspective.

Throughout the book, Out El Kouloub takes the reader to a variety of colorful locations -- through streets, bazaars, holy sites and homes of Cairo. Her stories take her characters into the intimate geographical and psychological space of different classes and upbringings that make up Egyptian life. This is an Egypt described not by an orientalist but by an Egyptian woman who has either lived or observed the experiences that form the fabric of her written work.

Three Tales is a companion volume to Ramza and Zanouba, also by Out El Kouloub, and each translated from the French by Nayra Atiya.

Set in late 19th and 20th-century Egypt, this novel offers a window on the everyday lives of cloistered women and the way they interact with each other and with male relatives, spouses and other men.

Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Nayra Atiya gathered the oral histories of five Egyptian men: a fisherman, an attorney, a scholar, a businessman, and a production manager. Through personal interviews over the course of several years, Atiya intimately captured the everyday triumphs and struggles of these young men in a rapidly changing Egyptian society. These tender stories of childhood experiences in the rural countryside, of the rigors of schooling, and of the many challenges in navigating adulthood shed light on both the rich diversity of Egyptian society and the values and traditions that are shared by all Egyptians. The concept of shahaama-a code of honor that demands loyalty, generosity, and a readiness to help others-is threaded throughout the narratives, reflecting its deeply rooted presence in Egyptian culture. Moving beyond leaden stereotypes of the oppressive Middle Eastern male, these candid selfportraits reveal the complexity of male identity in contemporary Egyptian society, highlighting the men-s desires for economically viable lives, the same desires that fuel the many Egyptians today working toward revolutionary change.

Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Nayra Atiya gathered the oral histories of five Egyptian men: a fisherman, an attorney, a scholar, a businessman, and a production manager. Through personal interviews over the course of several years, Atiya intimately captured the everyday triumphs and struggles of these young men in a rapidly changing Egyptian society. These tender stories of childhood experiences in the rural countryside, of the rigors of schooling, and of the many challenges in navigating adulthood shed light on both the rich diversity of Egyptian society and the values and traditions that are shared by all Egyptians. The concept of shahaama-a code of honor that demands loyalty, generosity, and a readiness to help others-is threaded throughout the narratives, reflecting its deeply rooted presence in Egyptian culture. Moving beyond leaden stereotypes of the oppressive Middle Eastern male, these candid selfportraits reveal the complexity of male identity in contemporary Egyptian society, highlighting the men-s desires for economically viable lives, the same desires that fuel the many Egyptians today working toward revolutionary change.

Set in late 19th and 20th-century Egypt, this novel offers a window on the everyday lives of cloistered women and the way they interact with each other and with male relatives, spouses and other men.

This novel of the harem, originally published in 1958, is a dramatisation of a piece of Egyptian feminine and feminist history. Set at the turn of the century, when Egyptian women were struggling to come forward, it tells the story of life behind the veil and of one woman's rebellion against it.

Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Nayra Atiya gathered the oral histories of five Egyptian men: a fisherman, an attorney, a scholar, a businessman, and a production manager. Through personal interviews over the course of several years, Atiya intimately captured the everyday triumphs and struggles of these young men in a rapidly changing Egyptian society. These tender stories of childhood experiences in the rural countryside, of the rigors of schooling, and of the many challenges in navigating adulthood shed light on both the rich diversity of Egyptian society and the values and traditions that are shared by all Egyptians. The concept of shahaama-a code of honor that demands loyalty, generosity, and a readiness to help others-is threaded throughout the narratives, reflecting its deeply rooted presence in Egyptian culture. Moving beyond leaden stereotypes of the oppressive Middle Eastern male, these candid self-portraits reveal the complexity of male identity in contemporary Egyptian society, highlighting the men's desires for economically viable lives, the same desires that fuel the many Egyptians today working toward revolutionary change.