Published: 2025-11-21

Curiosity and courage. Women’s journeys to the Orient

Julia Szołtysek , Julia Galas

Abstract

Despite the social restrictions of their era, women had been travelling and exploring the Middle East and Asia since the 18th century, combining their passion for knowledge with a desire for independence. Among them were Gertrude Bell, a researcher and diplomat who played an important role in the creation of the state of Iraq; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a researcher of the Orient who broke stereotypes about Eastern women; and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a 20th-century writer and traveller who made travelling a form of personal salvation. The article shows how travel became an act of courage, emancipation, and creative expression for women, and how their accounts became a valuable testimony to the meeting of cultures and a source of inspiration for future generations.

Citation rules

Szołtysek, J., & Galas, J. (2025). Curiosity and courage. Women’s journeys to the Orient. No Limits, (2(12), 20–23. Retrieved from https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/no_limits/article/view/22890

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No. 2(12) (2025)
Published: 2025-11-21


ISSN: 2719-2830
eISSN: 2719-2849

Publisher
Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach | University of Silesia in Katowice

Licence CC Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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