After Nasrallah received her degree, she began working as a lecturer, journalist, and writer. In 1962, the blossoming author released her first novel, Touyour Ayloul (September Birds), to international recognition and critical acclaim. Throughout the next thirteen years, Nasrallah continued publishing novels as well as collections of short stories. However, her career and role as an author took a dramatic turn with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.

The social and cultural atmosphere of Lebanon was permanently changed during the war. Prior to the war, the city—specifically, Beirut—represented modernity and was a symbol of masculine aspiration to village residents, while the village itself maintained and symbolized antiquity and the repression of women under the guise of traditional law (Cooke 53). While men from the village were expected to emigrate and provide a source of income to their families at home, women were expected to remain patient and docile as home caretakers in the men’s absence. However, many men began to permanently flee the state for safety and social aspirations as violence in the region escalated at the dawn of the war. Meanwhile, those who had already migrated from Lebanon feared to return to their homeland in the midst of war (Cooke 55). Because men were, in general, exclusively given the opportunity to migrate freely, women like Nasrallah were forced to remain in Lebanon and diligently await the return of civil life. As a result, women in Beirut were placed alongside the warring factions of their shell of a country, and provided an unprecedented voice to actively protest against traditional social structures.

Nasrallah—like many other Beirut artists, writers, and intellectuals—saw the conflict and absence of patriarchal authority as an opportunity to affect the changing identity of Lebanese culture (Cooke 55). During the war, Nasrallah and her Lebanese revolutionary contemporaries became known as the “Beirut Decentrists” for their steadfast opposition to the stagnant progress of gender equality as well as their active participation in Lebanese culture. Progressive ethos began to permeate the traditional village society as the civil war dissolved the boundaries separating village life from Beirut, thus strengthening the unification of Lebanese resistance (Cooke 59).  Through this view, Nasrallah was able to reconcile her feelings between isolated village life and the progressive reforms of Beirut without feeling shameful for abandoning Kfeir. Nasrallah and the other Beirut Decentrists solidified their Lebanese identity directly through their refusal to leave their homeland. By remaining loyal and active in Lebanon during its time of crisis, Nasrallah and the Decentrists assumed a maternal responsibility to the nation; however, the Decentrists also perceived those who had fled the country as cowards who had willingly given up their birthright (Cooke 66). Many of Nasrallah's novels directly challenge the concept of Lebanese identity by depicting the returning refugees as lacking the wartime experience to empathize with Lebanon or the Decentrists.

Nasrallah's impact on the plight of Arab women writers has been unquestionable. Her scathing criticism of the cowardice and ineffectiveness of the ruling patriarchy's response towards domestic turmoil has arguably helped transform a socially divided society into the most progressive state in the Arab region. Through the efforts of Nasrallah and her contemporaries, the Lebanese people have embraced a maternal commitment to restore the health of the struggling nation, which has been increasingly portrayed as an ill child by the Decentrist group (Cook 66). Today, Nasrallah continues to publish her writing and, self-admittedly, waits to create her magnum opus (Nohad). Although the author's prolific and highly successful writing career has failed to meet her own expectations, Nasrallah’s contribution to Arab literature has been nothing short of extraordinary. In the modern Arab literary world, Nasrallah has certainly secured her place as one of the most influential feminist authors in the region.





Works Cited

“Biography.” Emily Nasrallah : Lebanese Novelist. n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Cook, Miriam. "Women Write War: The Feminization of Lebanese Society in the War Literature  of Emily Nasrallah." Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern

    Studies), vol. 14. No. 1.  Taylor and Francis Ltd. 1987. pp. 52-67. Print.

Topalian, Nohad. “Novelist Emily Nasrallah: 'I still dream about writing a great novel.'" Interview  with Emily Nasrallah. Al-Shorfa. August, 2012. Web. 30 Nov.

    2012.