About

Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History presents exhibits featuring writings and digitized archival records around the lives and ideas of Arab women media workers from the 20th century through anti-colonial feminist perspective, situating contemporary uses of feminist and digital media activism in a longer history. Explore our curated exhibits here.

Arab feminists (Nasawiyyat) have played a central role in the development of Arab media and anti-colonial nationalist consciousness. Despite this fact, little is known amongst general audiences about the rich legacy of Arab women’s contributions to Arabic mass-media culture. Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History addresses this problem by illuminating Arab women’s revolutionary feminist ideas and media productions from the 20th century to contemporary Arabic and English-speaking internet audiences. In an environment in which Zionism and “global and local” imperialism still dominates the communications media landscape, this resource is created to inform and inspire contemporary media workers, students, and general audiences who are interested in learning about how 20th century Nasawiyyat used media to combat patriarchal and colonial oppression.

Arab feminists have for-long advocated for the need for us to use and create media as a means to serve the People. By learning our resistant feminist histories and studying women’s media, as presented in their own words and in the context of their lives experiences, we are better equipped to use media creatively and dissidently to implant and cultivate “the seeds of revolution in the hearts of the oppressed” (Nawal el-Saadawi, 1982).

Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History heeds the call of Arab feminist scholars and media workers who have for over a century theorized on the significance of resistant mass-media and literature (adab) in mobilizing and serving the needs of society.
Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History considers the history of Arab media as a feminist Nasawsiyyah history, rejecting masculinist and colonial segmentation of Arab women’s ideas as only related to “women’s issues”.
Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History considers literature and literary ideas as an integral part of the history of Arab media, while upholding a collectivist understanding of Arab nationalism and media history, rather than a “monopolized” history that follows the stories set by patriarchal state actors.
Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History engages with the ideas of Arab feminist media workers in a way that refuses orientalist myths around Arab women’s lives.

Meet the Team

Dr. Mariam Karim

Founder

Dr. Mariam Karim is a Lebanese-Iraqi Global Postdoctoral Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ) and the Founder of Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History. She is a member of the Steering Council of the Archives & Digital Media Lab where she also serves as a Feminist Histories & Archival Fellow.

Karim completed her PhD at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information (iSchool) and the Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI). She served as an inaugural graduate fellow at the University of Toronto's Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI) and was the recipient of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral award. She holds an Honours BA in Visual Culture & Communications from the University of Toronto and a MA in Cultural Studies & Critical Theory from McMaster University.

Her research agenda explores Arab Feminist Media from the 20th century. She situates contemporary uses of digital media through historical inquiry and studies Arabic mass-media in the context of media imperialism and colonialism. To do this, she follows Arab women’s expansive mass-media practices, contributions, and ideas from the 20th century as central points of reference.