Say it in Arabic

A review-based short essay

In how many of the languages you speak can you express yourself and tell your story? Do you ever start discussing a topic to only find yourself lacking sufficient vocabularies and terms in one of the languages you know? Or find it heavy and disturbing to talk about it? Our linguistics abilities and our connection with a language are fascinating. I have been interested lately in how Arab feminists express themselves and how comfortable they are talking in Arabic on the different topics of gender, feminism, sexuality, and body.

In an environment where all the topics mentioned above are taboos and provocative, we are raised with trauma triggered whenever we try to tackle those topics in Arabic; in addition, the used Arabic terms are mostly clunky. Arabic as a language is outdated with the movements of translations, and updating the language is slow and have not been keeping up with all the latest technologies and information. Furthermore, the publications and literature, and work done in feminism and gender are primarily in English, even by Arabic native speakers. To initiate and facilitate the conversation in our society, we need to speak its language, provide the knowledge and resources needed, and eliminate the obstacles.

Eventually, I think becoming conscious of the limitation of our language and having a desire to alter and work on that is the first step for us as feminists’ contributors. The knowledge is cumulative; every conversation taking place right now will pave the way for an easier one in the future, and maybe next time we organise a workshop or a course, we do it in Arabic.

Source: Jeem.me
Author: Farah Barqawi
Title: Creating a language of our own
Link: https://jeem.me/en/internet/farah-barqawi/creating-language-our-own