Shaping a Female Identity

Abstract

Suad al-Sabah (born 1942) is a Kuwaiti economist, writer, and poet. She is the daughter of the grandson of the sixth ruler of Kuwait and is one of the prominent female voices in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Among her writings are collections of poetry, such as Fragments of a Woman (1986), In the Beginning Was a Female (1988), and Urgent Telegrams to My Country (1992). These collections are translated anonymously from Arabic into English by al-Sabah Publishing House. The poet focuses on women’s issues, such as the veil, gender inequality, and sexual and domestic violence. These topics belong to second wave feminism, which is the wave most applicable to al-Sabah’s poetry. Her poetry does not raise the argumentative thoughts of the third wave feminism, such as intersectionality between sex, gender, and race. al-Sabah does not discuss sexual division of labor, economic democracy, or working-class power. Although her poetry expresses weak feminist contributions, the poet has an efficient and critical national voice about her country. She raises her people’s consciousness of their national identity and heritage.