Embodied Resistance to Othering and the Pursuit of Belonging in Fawzia Zouari’s

The narratives of Fawzia Zouari’s I Die by This Country (2018) and Faïza Guène’s Some Dreams for Fools (2009) rely on the immigrant’s suffering body to narrate experiences of othering, exploitation, and alienation. While some critics argue that the persistent use of disabled bodies to foreground the immigrant experience can lead to ableist prejudices, both authors use disability as embodied resistance that exposes systemic harm entrenched in the legacies of colonial othering and capitalist exploitation. The characters’ lived experiences thus possess a documentary effect that challenges their erasure and objectification. This research article draws from postcolonial and critical disability studies to read the disabled body in terms of its agency and documentary effect, rather than as a mere opportunistic literary device. The focus is not on portraying victimhood only; the article highlights the agency that the immigrant body asserts within alienating spaces where Arab/Muslim immigrants are framed as embodiments of alterity. The metaphor of the disabled body functions as a narrative diversion device, challenging conventional narratives of successful immigrant integration.