El-Tarikh El-Zokouri le Dorra (Dorra’s Masculine History) by Mona Khalil, Beit Al Yasmine Publishing House, Cairo 2021.
Mona Khalil dedicated her first novel to the Queens and Princesses of ancient Egypt. Her dedication took the form of a mayday from one of their granddaughters who feels the injustices of society. She signed it, justifiably: “Your suffering granddaughter.” The title carries the author’s point of view clearly: history was written by men and women were ignored even if they were better and led the way.
This beginning gives the impression that it will be a feminist novel. This genre has been around for a while and male and female writers alike have covered the injustices and violence against women in Egyptian society. This time, the author managed to treat it in an original way, in its research and narration.
The story is that of Dorra, who is oppressed and mistreated by her older brother Marwan, nicknamed Abu Hatab by Dorra. Abu Hatab is also Dorra’s guardian, as both her parents died when she was a child.
The brother is a sadistic personality who hates all women. The readers cannot help but loathe such a person who makes his sister’s life miserable, tries to force a marriage on her, kills her cat, breaks her statue of the Princess Amen Raa that she carved with her own hands, beats her when she uses the phone or disobeys any of his orders, spies on her through a maid, and makes her pay for her studies by selling her mother’s jewelry despite his immense inherited wealth.
In addition, he is a playboy who uses his wealth, good looks, and family background to catch innocent girls, get them in trouble, and leave them to face their shame. The explanation that the author gives for the brother’s behavior and personality was an invented failed love story at an early age. He uses the imagined heartbreak to be cruel. He is a sick person who hates the whole world, women most of all.
The nickname – Hatab meaning “wood” – symbolizes the hard heart of Marwan. Instead of a heart, he has a piece of hard wood in his chest. He has no kindness or compassion for anyone but himself.
The novel’s first part is narrated by Dorra, explaining her miserable life under the cruel iron fist of her mercilessly violent and jealous brother. She was a smart little girl and a favorite of her father. Once she comes of age, she studies archeology, discovering that there is a different way of life outside the prison that her brother made for her.
Here the author uses her vast knowledge and research abilities to tell the reader about sixteen female pioneers that most readers might not have heard of.
For instance, it was Zeinab Fawaz who wrote the first Arabic novel Ghada el Zahera in 1899 and signed it with her name. This was something that the famous Mohamed Hussein Heikal Pacha could not do with his novel Zeinab published in 1912. He signed it under the pseudonym “Egyptian Peasant” out of a worry that society would not accept this new form of writing and the ideas he had integrated into the novel. Literary historians considered Zeinab the first Arabic novel, ignoring Fawaz altogether. This is just one of many examples in social and literary history where women were dropped from the pages of history books written by men.
The novel’s second part is narrated by Marwan himself. It shows that he has a whole different life, including a villa of his own that he refuses to let anyone see. He is proud of his wealth and how he stole his sister’s inheritance by fooling his father on his deathbed by promising to take good care of his younger sister.
All of a sudden, the novel transforms into a science fiction story. Abu Hatab wakes up the next morning after an unexpected storm in a different place and time as a different person.
The author got the idea from the famous Mel Gibson movie What Women Want. Marwan wakes up on three consecutive days as three different men who live under the thumb of three powerful women.
Mohamed the son of Hoda Shaarawy, who marries without her approval; then Mustafa, the son of Qoot El-Qoloob El-Demerdasheya the famous female writer and philanthropist. Finally, a funny twist occurs in the final chapter where Abu Hatab transfers into the least likely person the reader can imagine
In evaluating such a novel, more credit must be given to the author for the research than the storyline itself. Dorra disappears all of a sudden and the cruel Marwan we were introduced to is no longer in the novel. In other words, no closure is provided to either of the main characters, which indicates a lack of imagination and weakness in the ideas.
The positive side is the new and old information that the writer provided with devotion and accuracy
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