UNNAMED
by Sonia Fernandez

It is a common enough story: women who had a profound impact on the world, forgotten by time when the writers of history never wrote down their names. Despite the lack of recognition, women have been leaving their mark for several millennia, affecting everything from the small sphere of their family to the course of history. Betty Shamieh's Territories focuses in on one such unnamed woman, who is believed to have triggered the start of the Third Crusade. Who was she? And what brought her to the point where she could and did change the course of history? Western and Eastern sources differ on who this woman actually was - whether she was Saladin's sister or simply a high born woman - but neither provides much detail.  It is because no one thought it necessary to write down her name that we know so little about what actually happened. And yet it is not hard to surmise that she shared a trait that united many of these women across centuries and distant lands: a life outside of the traditional role of woman as wife and mother and a passion to do more than was expected of her.

One such woman was Hypatia, the first notable female mathematician, remarkable for her intelligence, oration and beauty.  Although Hypatia had many suitors, she never married.  What’s more, her association with science and paganism led to her violent murder in 415 by a fanatical mob of Christians inflamed by political rhetoric.  Most of her works have been lost, save for a handful of statements attributed to her, such as “Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.”

In the Middle Ages, marriage or the cloister were the two main paths available to most upper-class women.  The convent provided women with an environment where creative and intellectual work was supported and encouraged.  Like most of the notable women of that period, little is known about the nun-playwright Hrotsvitha - even the spelling of her name is debated in scholarly circles today.  She is sometimes called Hrotsvit, Hrosvit, Hroswitha, Hrosvitha, Hrotsuit, or Roswitha.  What is known are the six religious comedies she wrote that provide the only surviving link between medieval and classical drama.

Japanese theatre also underwent a transformation when in1603 Okuni, a dancer of the Izumo shrine, set up her own theatre on the banks of the Shijo River.  She called it Kabuki, in honor of the kabukimono, the outcasts of society, forwith whom she mostly performed.  The irreverence of her performances shows delighted and appalled many.  In 1629 the Tokugawa shogun prohibited women from participating in Kabuki theatre because it was considered immoral for women to dance in public.  To this day, Kabuki remains a popular theatre form, traditionally performed by males.

Like Okuni, who employed her sexuality in her performances, women are not simply victims of societal perceptions, but often use those to their advantage. Throughout history women have utilized the assumption that they are the weaker sex, batting their eye lashes or playing dumb to fool an enemy. This duality - playing the stereotype to gain an advantage, thereby subverting the stereotype - made women especially suited to intelligence gathering during war. Throughout the American Revolution, women helped gather intelligence and deliver messages for both sides. The Culper Spy Ring, many of whose agents were women, provided crucial intelligence to George Washington, exposing Benedict Arnold’s treason and facilitating the capture of the head of England’s Intelligence Operations. Many of these operatives remain anonymous today.

The politics of gender and the notion that history is written by the winners veil the contributions of women. Yet among the women whose contributions and names have stood the test of time, we find that they all seem to have rejected certain aspects of ideal womanhood - as defined by their societies - and often put themselves at risk because of it. These women were unmarried by choice or circumstance (Hypatia, Hrotsvitha), used their feminine wiles to obtain success (Okuni, the Culper Ring spies), and behaved in ways that made them outsiders in their own communities. Yet there are many more examples that have been lost because no one documented the names and lives of seemingly insignificant females. We are left instead to ponder what and who these women might have been, and what would drive them to change the course of history.

Thus Betty Shamieh takes us on one possible journey into the heart and mind of Saladin’s sister, and how her capture by Reginald of Chantillon could have sparked the start of the Third Crusade. Yet the true identity of this woman, like so many before and after, remains unknown.