266 · Hanita Brand
had to defend his loyalty to his nation more frequently. Al-Ḥusseini’s
subsequent writings also manifested an increased influence of the new
ethos. While, as I indicated above, he always wrote about Jerusalem and
Palestine before and after the change, in his later writings he tied this
topic to the national struggle. Thus he wrote in 1966 Literature and Arab
Nationalism, and in 1969 The Arabism of Jerusalem.
The last point I will make here regards the textual aspect of the view
expressed by most Arab critics and scholars according to which sending
away the young chickens from the chicken coop is seen as a defeatist
act. One needs to remember that the chicken coop is not left empty. Our
narrator-heroine does remain in it. But few Arab critics from the Nation-
alist period would have allowed such an important role in nationalism to
a female. As the message of nationalist struggle grew in importance and
influence, the male element took prime place, encroaching on the female
public space. This point too appeared in other Palestinian stories, and it
finds some parallel tendency in Hebrew literature of the same era, as is
dealt with and analyzed in my research on this topic. Even writers who
allowed or even preached women’s equality shied away from it later on
in their nationalist stories. In Memoirs, the feminist aspect is dealt with at
length, though the author claimed in the interview with Abul ̔afiya that
“the woman issue did not cross my mind [when writing Memoirs],”^35
echoing the same phrasing of denial he used regarding the Palestinian
interpretation. This statement too is not borne by the text: the narrator
hen sees as one of the desired tenets for her ideal society the ability of
females to fend for themselves and take an equal share in life’s burdens
and pleasures. First she thinks: “My thoughts were turned to the need to
arm ourselves with the same strength with which our husband armed
himself. We need to be prepared for defending ourselves in hard times,
so as not to be at the mercy of fickle fate. What is to prevent a female from
being just like the male in taking arms against misfortunes and facing
[life’s] horrors? Until when will we remain a burden on the male, mak-
ing him bear our responsibilities and hardships?”^36 Later on, she tries to
persuade the other hens to learn to enjoy life, by venturing outside the
chicken coop on their own. “You, my sister,” she tells one of the hens, “are
kind of heart and great of soul. If you were able to go out of your shelter,
you would see outside wondrous things indeed.”^37
No doubt, the hen’s significance at the end of the story was not ac-
cepted by Arab critics. Her remaining in the chicken coop was not seen as