The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War

[Hypoxia]

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/glenna-gordon-diagram-heart/

The 30 million Hausa of northern Nigeria have a history going back more than a 1,000 years. Theirs is a rich and vibrant culture, but also a patriarchal one. And in recent years, the region has been terrorized by the brutality of jihadist militant group Boko Haram. It is not, in short, a place you’d expect a literary movement of Muslim women to flourish, especially one that sells pulpy novels in the very marketplaces targeted by jihadists.

These women write sultry romances, scandalous family dramas and other stories. Some are universal—the classic Cinderella tale of a poor woman marrying a rich man—but others are more socially risqué, like the story of a divorced woman romantically involved with a virgin man. Whatever the plot, these stories frequently denounce child marriage, sex trafficking, and slavery in all its forms. They are often handwritten, transcribed onto a computer, self-published and sold in markets throughout the Sahel region of Africa. The women who write them brave censorship and become leaders of their community, working within the bounds of society even as they shape it.

Have you shaped your society lately?

 

[sr71plt]

If writing about GM fisting in Africa qualifies, then yes.

 

[Handley_Page]

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/glenna-gordon-diagram-heart/
Have you shaped your society lately?

Would that we could have the ability. . .

 

[Bramblethorn]

Fascinating, thanks for that!

 

[legerdemer]

Quite interesting. And how defensive and weak is a culture that censors a scene showing a husband consoling his wife?

 

[NaokoSmith]

That's so cool. Just goes to show how subversive and empowering even pulp can be.

I actually did start out writing with the aim of changing the world, LOL. I am still wrestling with my feminist bodice ripper trilogy - one day I will finally get it edited into a form that's actually readable!

 

[Handley_Page]

That's so cool. Just goes to show how subversive and empowering even pulp can be.

I actually did start out writing with the aim of changing the world, LOL. I am still wrestling with my feminist bodice ripper trilogy - one day I will finally get it edited into a form that's actually readable!

Good Luck