The Discourse of Female Western Travelers in the Region Identifies with Colonial Narratives

During Her
Participation in The Orient Pioneers Symposium in Abu Dhabi…

Dr. Al-Kaabi:

The Discourse of Female
Western Travelers in the Region Identifies with Colonial Narratives

 

The Assistant Professor of
Narratives and Literary Criticism at the Department of Arabic Language and
Islamic Studies at the College of Arts, Dr. Dheya Abdullah Al-Kaabi, confirmed
that the discourse of female western travelers in Arabia is identical and consistent
with the colonial discourse.

The term “colonialist” refers to
the approach of control and influence imposed by a colonial state on its
entity.

This came during the
participation of Dr. Al-Kaabi at the international symposium organized by Abu
Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism on the 24^th and 25^th
of last November and entitled “Orient Pioneers: Western Travelers in
Arabia Forum”.

Where Dr. Al-Kaabi presented her research
paper, entitled: “Colonial Narratives and Gender Policies: Female Western Travelers
in Arabia as A Model.”

Dr. Al-Kaabi stated, “The
writings of female western travelers in Arabia and the Arabian Gulf region from
the mid-nineteenth century until the early decades of the twentieth century
formed extremely important records, whose major cultural discourses must be unraveled,
and they must be linked to the colonial discourse of the British Empire and the
politics of imperial gender policies as well.”

Also, she noted that “Female western
travelers in the Arabia and the Arabian Gulf region had extremely limited
references in the official archives of the British Government of British India
and the archives of the Colonial Office. And despite this absence and
obliteration, most of these travelers have recorded their travels in books and
left us with a large number of personal correspondence and documents, and some
of them wrote their own biographies. “

Moreover, Al-Kaabi worked on
investigating colonial narratives and gender policies in the discourse of three
female western travelers, namely: Lady Anne Blunt in her books, “

Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates,
A Journey between the Bedouins in the Euphrates Island in Syria in 1878” and “A
Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race 1879-1878” , Theodore and Mable
Bent in their book “Southern Arabia” and the German Countess Dorotea Von
Linka in her book “A Journey to Medina through the Heart of the Desert
(Deserts of the Inner Inland)”.

The study sought to observe how
gender (colonial) policies affected the discourse of these female western
travelers, reveal the relation between their narratives and the rising
discourse of the British Empire at the time, and to know the what’s harmonious and
different between these three journeys.

The international symposium included
eight scientific sessions and attracted elite orientalists, historians and
researchers in the history of the region.