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

In this part, we read ten short stories discussing the issue of marriage in the various social and cultural groups in the Arab world. We can read on forced marriage, polygamy, deception, leaving women alone, leading a boring marital life, and the marriage of convenience.

In “A mistake in the knitting” by the Egyptian author Ihsan Kamal, we read on the obstacles a woman faces during engagement, when she knows about the faults her fiancée carries, but still unable to end the relationship to avoid the gossip, and losing other opportunities in the future. The author criticizes the false liberation in the region by saying, “Our liberation has only been external-;- our thoughts still wear the veil.” The idea of knitting a sweater on a mistake is brilliant example that reminds us of the heroin situation continuing building her life on faulty foundations.

In “My wedding night” by the Egyptian author Alifa Rifaat, we read about the role of society in shaping girls’ dreams, and determining their future through choosing their possible partners since childhood. We read about the worries a woman experiences in the wedding night, why she does not feel happy as she used to be when they were playing “the marriage game” as little kids. In this story, a sacrificial ram helped the heroine to escape from her fate safely.

In “The Dummy” by the Egyptian author Sahar Al-Muji, we read a strange short text emphasizing the unrealistic idea of the necessity on a man in a woman’s life-;- that she treated a big dummy as a real man even in front of her children. It is a mysterious text with a deep meaning expressing the psychic need for a man for many women in many cultures.

In “The cat, the maid, and the wife” by the Iraqi author Daisy Al-Amir, we read on the conflicts of working and non-working women-;- and how they can understand the idea of time of each other. In addition, we read on the men who appreciate the working of other women, and praise their efforts to establish themselves, but in the same time, they think that their wives do not need to work. The story discusses how some women cannot liberate themselves from the submission even to the men they despise.

In “Sun, I am the moon” by the Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh, we read on the traditional families, polygamy, religious men who marry young girls, and the mutual hatred among the three wives. We read about a strange will of the new teenage wife who want to rebel and liberate herself in such a strange way before she was herself forced to give up and submit to her sixty-year old husband.

In “The dreadful sea” by the Algerian author Zuhur Wanisi, we read on the suffers of a woman in an Algerian village, when she keeps waiting for her husband to return from working overseas. We read on how she was envied by other women for having good money sent to her by her husband, but still she wants him to stand by her. Finally, she discovered that women for such men are all the same, and a mere vessel where they emptied their desires-;- she discovered that she means nothing to him, as he had married a European woman there, and said she can go to her father’s home, but he should take his son. The story shows the injustice of polygamy, and custody according to the religious and tribal values in the east.

In “A woman with story” by the Lebanese-Palestinian author Mayy Ziyada, we read on another classy society open to Europe, attending recitals and concerts, enjoying a good space of freedom, learning music, and intermingle with the foreign colonies in Egypt. Still amid this apparent liberty, we read on the misery of a beauty whose life was destroyed after marrying an Italian man who left her within months to discover that he had a wife there. The church could not consider her married´-or-divorced, and thus she stayed in such a terrible situation-;- she lost her trust in people, and accommodates to her misery trying to hide it after a mask of joy, elegance, and silence.

In “The Persian rug” by the Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh, we read on the relation between three daughters and their divorced mother. We discover how a man wants to dominate his ex-wife’s life even if she has left him, and how he prevents his daughters from visiting their mothers, but again when one of the daughters regret visiting her mother after she discovered how an evil liar she was when she got the Persian rug as a gift from her.

In “The dream” by the Iraqi author Aliya Mamdouh, we read on a man’s experience in a nightclub-;- and how he wants her wife to behave like the belly dancer he meets there. It shows us how he dislikes the liberty of dancers, and hate the shyness of her wife too. It is a meaningful short story.

In “Pharaoh is drowning again” by the Egyptian author Sakina Fuad, we read a wonder elaborated short story full of philosophical questions, and contemplations mixed with religious legends, and unsolved materialistic questions. It shows the longing of a woman to feel her existence, to meet her lost father who was taken from home, for his opinions as I guess, and feels bored of her refine life and her elegant husband until she decided to put an end for everything. This story condemns existence from the beginning when it says, “Life in its eternity is the sin of one night. Damned are the nights that produce human beings.” It also indicated her eagerness to liberty as she decided not to return until the sea would swallow all the Pharaohs.

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