The study aims primarily at exploring the images of Swahili women as depicted in taarab songs in Zanzibar and factors that shape these images at different epochs or points in time. A secondary concern of the book is to highlight the history of taarab songs in Zanzibar and to identify the relationship between this art of songs and the Egyptian song. The author adopted a holistic approach, concentrating on sung lyrics. The analysis is descriptive and utilizes perspectives of literary theories of orature as well as insights from gender, cultural, structural, and functional theories.

The Author: Mohamed El-Mohammady Rizk was born in 1966 in Damietta (Egypt). He received his doctorate in 2004 at the University of Frankfurt am Main and is presently a staff member of the Institute of African Research and Studies, Department of Languages, at Cairo University.