In 1908, at the age of 25, ‘Af?fa Karam (1883-1924) published her riveting second novel, F??ima al-Badawiyya (Fatima the Bedouin). Written by a Maronite Christian Arab woman living in America, the novel is an inaugural Arabic text inspired by the encounter of Islam and the West in the era of imperialism. Fatima, the novel’s heroine, is a Muslim Bedouin woman who falls in love with a Christian officer and elopes with him to America, thus causing her family dishonor. Abandoned by her husband in New York City with their infant child, Fatima is rescued by a wealthy American heiress named Alice. It is through the friendship between Fatima and her American host that the author explores the dynamics of exchange between “oriental” and “Western” worldviews at the onset of the twentieth century. This paper will investigate the complex dynamics between individual liberties and religious dogma, whereby Islam is represented as an alien other (both to a Christian author and the fictitious America the protagonist inhabits). It will also explore the intricate imbrications of religious identity and gender, as reflected in one of the earliest Arabic literary treatments of interreligious romances and honor killings. F??ima al-Badawiyya is a ground breaking Arabic text that speaks to one of the most fervid debates of the Nah??, namely the “woman question” (qa?iyat al-mar’?). The author’s contention seems to be that all women, whether Muslim or Christian, Arab or American, educated or illiterate, cosmopolitan or Bedouin, are victims of oppression in male-dominated societies where religion, tradition, or metropolitan fashion and consumer culture become mere tools to subordinate, objectify, and reduce them to second-class citizenship. F??ima al-Badawiyya illustrates Karam’s innovative, literary venture, which aimed to raise awareness among her readers about gender inequalities present in both Arab and American societies, depicting the oppression and abuse of women as a universal phenomenon occurring across religions and cultures. In the novel, it is the act of storytelling (and by extension, novel writing) that strengthens and solidifies the bonds between women and empowers them to move from victims of their own oppression to actors with agency and the power to shape their own destinies. In Karam’s literary imagination, humanism and love can ultimately transcend the boundaries of language, nation, race, class, culture, and religion.