Arab speculative fiction

Arabic speculative fiction is speculative fiction written by Arabic authors that commonly portrays themes of repression, cyclical violence, and the concept of a utopia long lost by years of destruction. Arabic-American speculative fiction is portrayed through the involvement of the United States in the country-specific subgenres of Arabic speculative fiction. Country specific subgenres have their own distinct themes from one another characterized by the experiences of those within their respective countries, such as settler-occupation in Palestinian speculative fiction, and militant governments in Egyptian speculative fiction.

Palestinian speculative fiction
Palestinian speculative fiction if a sub-genre of Arabic speculative fiction written through the lens of a people experiencing settler occupation after the State of Israel was established in 1948, along with the concurrent effort to expel Palestinians from the claimed land, called Nakba.

This sub-genre includes different mediums of expression, including art, film, and literature. The works focus on a range of futures for Palestine, some tied to the permanent damage and trauma done to Palestinian land and its people, such as Tarzan and Arab's short film Condom Lead, while others speculate Palestinian futures rendered impossible by the reality of the present, as a way to call attention to current issues and events, such as Rabah's The Palestinian Museum of Natural History, a conceptual exhibit.

Amongst the themes present in Palestinian speculative fiction, there is the concept and practice of Sumūd, which is a uniquely Palestinian form of stoicism, and in Palestinian speculative fiction, portrays a form of rebellion in the act of endurance and perseverance in the face of constant struggle. This passive resistance is the effort to fend off the erasure of Palestinian knowledge and cultural norms that comes with the acknowledgement that systemic destruction of the Palestinian people is a possibility.

Themes of Palestinian and cultural destruction have multiple levels, one of which being the act of Palestinian reproduction, and the deprivation of sexual recreation and pleasure. These themes are presented both through the lens of children and afflicted adults under the assumption that ‘life must go on’, and many things must be left behind.

Egyptian speculative fiction
Egyptian speculative fiction arguably dates back to as early as 1906. In recent years, people from Egypt have been writing speculative fiction in response to the injustices they face.

Since a military coup in 2013, Egypt has been under a military rule. President Abdel Fattah al-Sis i has enforced an authoritative rule by severely punishing anyone who opposes, or has the threat of opposing, their actions. Since then, people have been arrested for protesting, and have faced extreme punishments if the security forces have even suspicions of disagreeing with those in power. Because of the strict laws around protesting, many citizens switch to creative critiques instead. Since 2014, the security forces have shut down and prevented any public expression of the arts, calling them “suspicious”. With activism and creativity being silenced and oppressed, many literary critics have turned to speculative fiction to express and comment on the dystopian qualities of their daily lives.

The works of Egyptian speculative writers, express themes such as anxiety of the possible punishment of expression, the pain that Egyptians are enduring under the military regime, and the effect of violence on the citizens. One example of speculative fiction is Otared by Egyptian writer Mohammed Rabie which follows an apocalyptic future in Egypt that ends in many deaths. Rabie expresses the pain of living under a military regime, that leads to love. Another author who works in the speculative genre, is Ahmed Khaled Towfik. He is one of the first Arab writers to write science-fiction. He inspired other authors such as Ahmed Mourad. Nawal El Saadawi was a feminist writer who wrote from the unique perspective of experience womanhood in a politically oppressive state. Her 1975 novel, Woman at Point Zero, is based on a woman facing execution. The novel is the woman's account of the oppression she faced as a woman in Egyptian society and goes on to express the feminist idea of female agency.

Much of the speculative works coming from Egypt express the hopelessness that they feel under an authoritative rule. Many authors, however, still hold onto their agency as writers and critics.