#LivefromLucy with Dr Eva Simmons

Wed 2 June 2021

Lucy Cavendish College

When we think about Muslim women from times past, we are quite likely to imagine heavily veiled and downtrodden women: restricted in their movements, and completely subject to the men in their families: their fathers and brothers, and then their husbands.

But in many works of mediaeval literature there are recurring examples of fiery, independent Muslim women who fight for their cause. The originals for these characters actually feature in Arab texts, particularly epics that abounded in both pre-Islamic and Islamic times. Their heroines fight and kill alongside – and often at the head of – the men of their tribes and societies.

These archetypes were adopted into European literature, of the 10th or 11th century onwards, with this crucial difference: in a Christian society, the emphasis had to be on Christian values. The talk will show how Muslim heroines negotiated the two worlds which they encountered, and the Christian men they came to love. Floripas is the most celebrated of these women, appearing in a dozen or more French and English texts.

About the speaker

Dr Eva Simmons is a journalist and academic, who grew up in North London, and moved to Cambridge in 1969. She was the first undergraduate to be accepted into Lucy Cavendish in 1972, and graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in English literature 1975. Dr Simmons received a Ph.D. from London University (Bedford and Royal Holloway New College), in 1990: her thesis on the plays of Aphra Behn broke new ground, and can be read online (Virtue Intire: Aphra Behn’s Contribution, in her Comedies, to the Marriage Debates of the 17th Century).

Dr Simmons has lived in the United States, presenting a music programme at a New York radio station, and reporting on race and civil rights issues for newspapers in Chicago. She worked for the BBC as a broadcast journalist for 25 years, including stints teaching journalism for the BBC World Service in Romania and Malawi. She has also worked for the British Library Oral History department, interviewing people about their lives. Dr Simmons has a long-standing interest in inter-cultural matters, and studied interfaith relations at the Woolf Institute, Cambridge. Following this, she collaborated with a Muslim colleague, giving talks to local children and adults.

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Cost: Free