A Reading in -Arab Women Writers: An Anthology Of Short Stories - - Part One

Arab women writers: an anthology of short stories

Edited by Dalya Cohen-Mor 2005

It is an interesting anthology to discover the various social conditions of women in the Arab world throughout the reading of sixty short stories written by forty authors from across the Arab world to express the various problems, conditions, experiences and successes in the region.

The introduction gives us a thorough understanding of Arab women writers’ main concerns, favorite topics, themes and styles. The anthology also shows clearly the problems they face for being writers, working in other fields than fiction, family conflicts rising out of jealous men who dislike seeing liberated and successful women, as well as the problems rise from touching the many religious and social taboos in this part of the world.

The editor thought that the majority of women writers in the region are well-educated, liberal, lived abroad for some time in their lives, work in medicine, business, academy´-or-journalism, drive cars, and almost from the upper middle class--;-- this made them a little bit away from their society, and made the solutions they offer unrealistic.

The collection is divided into eight parts according to the main theme of the stories.

Part One – Growing up female

In “That Summer Holiday”, the Palestinian author Samiya At’ut discussed the traumatic end of childhood’s joyfulness and innocence for a 9-year-old girl. The girl recollected her old summer holidays--;-- when she used to play with girls and boys in the narrow alleys, all together regardless their sex, playing soccer, war game and other games that demand muscular strength. Until the day came when her family told her that she is not allowed in the street again, as the grocer Abu Mahmud told her father that it was not good to let Delal to play in the street wearing shorts. The girl was shocked and went to discover her small budding breasts in the bathroom, before she remembered Abu Mahmud trials to touch them the day before. This story showed how such bad men could not prevent their pedophilic feelings, and thus they want to steal young girls’ happiness and innocence in order to save their false virtue.

In the “Parting Gift”, the Saudi author Umayma Al-Khamis discussed the secret love of a teenager to a young man driving a pickup truck. The man met her, kissed her, when she felt she is his wife, and he gave her a gift includes fabrics and a 500-riyal note that she lost in the school in the following day. However, as she lost the money in the school, she did not realize that her talking about that to the counselor would lead her to a big problem. The counselor knew that her family did not give the student such an amount--;-- she called her mother who came in her flowing cloak sweeping the ground after her. The story depicts the girl’s fears, wishes to die before living in shame if her secret was exposed, and she wished if the room sink´-or-explode to flee from that situation, she promised to be more religious if she escapes that situation too. The mother beats her, and thus she realized that the poor young man could not defend her. Finally, she forgets about her love--;-- and looked at her sewn dresses at the Pakistani tailor’s shop with despair and fear as they passed by it on their way back to home. Again, she remembered how many of her women relatives faced bad conditions due to love issues, while her father visits their Indonesian house cleaner’s room every night without facing problems.

In “Let’s play Doctor” The Egyptian author Nura Amin discusses the friendship of four little girl neighbors, and how one of them was asking them to play “doctor” asking them to be completely naked, and to be inspected. That girl had problems with her father, and every day was shouted at, and insulted by him, but she conveyed all that to her behavior when she deals as a leader for her group. Again, when they grew up, they stopped their secret game, and one of them traveled with her family to Saudi Arabia, and returned to Egypt on in veil – this shows the effects of working in the gulf on Egyptian society. Finally, the screams at the neighbor’s home was incomparable to any previous occasions. The father punished his daughter severely and vowed to divorce her mother when he discovered that his daughter in love with a male student in the University, and they were walking by the Nile every day. The girl fled from her home, swollen from beatings, and knocked at her old friend’s door. They hugged each other, and suddenly she laughed saying, “Let’s play doctor!” this here might be a joke as she really needed a doctor at that moment,´-or-that she found it much easier to be a Lesbian than to love a man in such a closed society.

In “In the moonlight” The Egyptian author Radwa Ashour discusses the sad situations of using little girls as young as six´-or-seven years old as maids, and how such families mistreat those poor girls, and deprive them from their childhood.

In “At the beach” by the Iraqi author Buthayna Al-Nasiri, we can read about a family journey to the beach, in which the mother takes care of her three kids, ignoring the fact that “Fatima” the 10-year old maid is a little girl too. We read on this little girl wishes to touch the sea water, but the mother asked her not to leave her chair and keep watching the children. The girl decided to lie and tell her friends in the village that she swam in the sea every day, while on the same time she told her mistress’s daughter Layla that she does not want to swim so as not to spoil her dress – that had been changed from an old dress for her mistress”. Finally, she succeeded in entering the sea, feeling the water--;-- and in their last photo, her smile was stretching from ear to ear. The story is about the suffers of young maids who cannot enjoy their childhood, and even women forget that they are just little girls and not old women.

In “A helping hand” by the Egyptian author Mona Ragab, we can read a short symbolic text expressing the willingness of girls to change what is called the law of life, as the little girl wondered why she was playing hopscotch on one leg, while the boy was playing soccer with his two legs firm on the ground. At last, the boy helped the girl when she was hurt, as if it is a symbol for not being able to fulfill her aim to change.

In “in the recesses of memory” by the Bahraini author Fawziya Rashid, we read a sad story about a young girl receiving candy from an old man, she takes them and escape, as there is something not trustable in him, her family talks to her badly and that she will bring them the shame. Finally, her mother said that her breasts are budding, and asked her to come closer to that man of the candy, telling her that he loves her, and will bring her more candy, and a real flesh and blood doll. The girl felt sad that her mother was not defending her, and declined her own words that “all men are beasts”. At a night, she screamed for seeing blood rushing from in between her thighs, she went to her parents’ room, they shouted at her. However, when they knew what happened, they say that she cannot go outside again, which enhances her terror. Moreover, they said that she should marry that man! She felt lonely and escaped in the street.

In “Fragments from a life” by the Saudi author Sharifa Al-Shamlan, we read about suffers of a woman, possibly confined in a mental hospital. We read on the trial of the doctor to rape her, on the stealing of the nurse for her drugs, on her stepmother who sent her to this place, and how she counted the years, she spent there, though her paintings.

In “the slave” by the Lebanese author Najiya Thamir, we read on the situations of a young woman who was brought up in a strange family without even a birth certificate, as her mother married another man after her father passed away, her uncle took her before regretting that decision and giving her to that family. She brought up serving them, having modest food, and given no education, and always hear the word “like her daughter” by her so-called aunt’s daughters. She wanted to learn but they refuse giving her unconvincing answers, and they refuse to let her marry one of the many men who had asked for her hand, saying that she is more precious and deserve a man from the cabinet of ministers. She grew up more submissive, and turned silent as time passes on. She realized that she was nobody but a servant, and they want her to stay so forever. Finally, she wondered if death would be different from the bars of her prison!´-or-would it be more merciful to her. It is a realistic comparison between hidden slavery and death!

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