ʿĀʾisha al-Kaʿbī’s “The Ladies’ Fitting Room”: Translation with an Introduction

Abstract

This article features a translation of “Ghurfat al-qiyās” (2007, The Ladies’ Fitting Room), a short story by the emerging Emirati female writer ʿĀʾisha al-Kaʿbī (1973-). The Introduction provides some brief comments on the content of the story in order to show how, while foregrounding the portrayal of some women’s obsession with their looks, the narrative reflects some of the socio-cultural issues that concern women and gender in contemporary Emirati and Arabian Gulf societies. The story is very minimalistic in the exploration of its subject-matters, but it is this narrative technique that makes its content—especially the sub-text, or the un-said aspects of the story—much more intriguing than its form.