Intersectionality and Transnationalism in Lailā Al-Johanī’s, Jāhiliyya (Age of Ignorance)

Abstract

Abstract Lailā Al-Johanī’s 2007 novel, Jāhiliyya (Days of Ignorance), is an innovative fictional work that employs the concept of “Jāhiliyya,” a period of ignorance that is thought to have characterized pre-Islamic Arabia. Jāhiliyya expresses Al-Johanī’s critique of the prevailing social and religious practices adapted by some tribal members of her society. These practices, including racial discrimination, negative stereotyping, and marginalization of women, as depicted in Al-Johanī’s text, are detrimental in their effect on the cultural fabric of society. This study uses intersectionality as an analytical framework through which to examine Al-Johanī’s Jāhiliyya. The essay demonstrates the novel’s integration of aspects of gender, race, and religion as interlocking systems of oppression and sites of transgression in the characters’ lives as they attempt to comprehend their subjectivity, while articulating and negotiating their society’s essentialist and reductionist discourse.