Khalf al-shams by Bushra al-Maqtari: when commitment is female in a macho society

The political (social and cultural) commitment of the contemporary Arab writers is no doubt paralleled in the writings of authors who live under repressive authoritarian regimes in many parts of the Arab world. From that point of view, Yemen is one of the Arab countries with the most complex issues. What is peculiar of Yemen is that commitment comes often from female writers. In 2012 Bushrā al-Maqṭarī, a young Yemeni writer, published her first novel with the title Khalf al-shams (Behind the Sun). The novel retraces the main political struggles which have characterized the history of post-revolutionary Yemen, that is to say from the Sixties onwards. The characters of the novel are people involved in intellectual circles and revolutionary actions who were exiled, tortured or imprisoned by the regime. Khalf al-shams offers a complete view of the Yemeni political events of the last two decades, and helps the reader understand the Yemeni Spring.