Updates are available Correction dated 2024-09-26

Article History

Accepted: 13 August 2024

First Online: 13 September 2024

Change Date: 26 September 2024

Change Type: Correction

Change Details: A Correction to this paper has been published:

Change Details: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-024-09900-x

Declarations

:

: This is a study of cultural outputs and texts that are in the public domain and does not involve human participants. No ethical approval is required. The manuscript adheres to the ethical guidelines of the Research Committee in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at University of Durham.

: Verbal informed consent was obtained from actress Namaa al-Ward to include the statement from her stage rehearsals: “I want people to know that they can survive cancer! I want them to see me and know that I am here. That I made it.” (p. 18). Otherwise, this is a study of cultural outputs and texts that are in the public domain and does not involve individual participants. No informed consent required for the rest of the material.

: The author declares no competing interests.

: ¹ I use a general system of translation and only use the ayn (‘) and hamza (’). I also present all Arabic names and titles of people, places, and texts in the form most familiar to an English-speaking audience and/or the form used by the writers and the works under discussion.² In 2007, al-Amoudi won the first International Woman of Courage Award which is presented by the US Department of State.³ One such organization is the Barbara Nassar Organization in Lebanon.⁴ For a study of Banna’s breast cancer account, see Hamdar ().⁵ These include the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation, Baheya Foundation in Egypt, The Zahra Breast Cancer Association in Saudi Arabia, Think Pink in Bahrain, Best Friends and Pink Caravan in the UAE.⁶ Unless otherwise stated, all translations from the Arabic are my own.⁷ For studies of breast cancer in Arab contexts, see Fearon et al. ().⁸ See, for example, Hamdar ().⁹ See Fearon et al. ().¹⁰ These include Hind Sabri and the late Ragaa al-Geddawi.¹¹ The play is an ethnodrama based on interviews with female cancer patients from across the Arab world.¹² The character Ilham in Khedairi’s <i>Absent</i> and the Iraqi woman whose testimony features in the play both experience their cancer as “a disease that emerged out of the body politic of their nation.” The dialogism established between the real and the fictional is intended to “draw out this symbolic resonance” (Hamdar , 203).¹³ See, for example, Hamdar () on illness and disability representations in Arabic literature.¹⁴ As far as everyone is aware, this is the first time a female breast is exposed so explicitly on the Arab stage and it is the breast of a woman who had experienced breast cancer.¹⁵ In 2005, 2006 and 2010, she received the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist, and became the first Lebanese singer to receive the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist. .¹⁶ For breast cancer rates see, for example, el-Saghir et al. (), Ezzat et al. (), and Fearon et al. ().