Women in Cultural Insularity and Anxious Spaces in the Arab and Arab American Contexts in Laila Halaby’s West of the Jordan

This article, throughout Laila Halaby’s West of the Jordan (2013), examines socio-cultural characteristics and conditions that determine identity construction Arab women in both diaspora homeland. In other words, it demonstrates how women’s oscillates between their country residence – countries origin, showcasing complexity belonging. I argue traditional mechanisms such as conservatism judgementalism contribute to positioning context a complex cultural insularity spaces anxiety, providing multiple readings female bodies. article concludes portrayal experiences her fiction tends trigger feminist empathetic engagements. addition critical analytical approaches novel, arguments this are based on perspectives prominent critics scholars Fadda-Carol Conrey, Nadine Naber, Homi Bhabha, name just few, well interviews conducted with American novelists, namely Rajia Hassib Halaby.