Political Islam, Islam as faith and modernity in 1970s Egypt: a socio-political reading of Ahdaf Soueif’s In the Eye of the Sun

Abstract

In her In the Eye of the Sun (1992), Ahdaf Soueif constructs Muslim characters and negotiates public manifestations of Islamic piety such as veiling. This article argues for a reading of her constructions within their historical and socio-political contexts in order to illustrate a common perceived difference between political Islam and Islam as private faith and to elucidate what it means to be Muslim and modern in 1970s Egypt. This reading will highlight the different ways by which Soueif’s text has been interpreted and manipulated by some of her readers and critics. In addition, it will question anew Arab women writers’ presumed role as reliable ‘native informants’ or ‘cultural commentators’.