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

In this part of the anthology, we read five short stories discussing various issues: the importance of childbearing in oriental culture, how they perceive the issues of childlessness--;-- mothers leaving their families to follow their lovers, having many children,´-or-refusing to have children out of worries rising from the miserable situations in this world, as well as the issue of preferring boys over girls even in the so-called modern societies sometimes.

In “The Spider’s web” by the Egyptian author Ihsan Kamal, we read on the worries, and suffering of a childless woman, how her relatives annoy her even if her husband was accepting their situation. A relative then compares a childless house with the fragility of a spider’s web, but finally the circumstances prove that happiness is never about childbearing.

In “Man and Woman” by the Moroccan author Rafiqat Al-Tabi’a, we read on modern concerns as regards the misery of the world: poverty, hunger, wars, natural disasters, and illness. This leads the woman to take a decision not to bring a child to this miserable world. The idea is noble, and the language is so poetic and influential.

In “Half a woman” by the Egyptian author Sufi Abdallah, we read on the concerns of a mother about her future in case she deceives her good husband. She also discusses the causes behind doing so despite being a good, generous, and handsome young man, it was out of boredom. Finally, her maternal love forced her to forget about her lover, and returns to home.

In “Heir Apparent” by the Yemeni author Ramziya Abbas Al-Iryani, we read on the grief many men felt when their wives give birth to female babies, and their intense desire to have boys, that even women start to share such a feeling at last. It shows the stupid mentality unable to realize that man’s sperms decide the sex of the baby--;-- thus, they have no right to blame the women. Finally, the boy arrives, but the mother would die to leave the father – who plants nothing but qat – in grief and despair.

In “The Newcomer” by the Iraqi author Daisy Al-Amir, we read about a poor family with a large number of sons – who did nothing but fighting the regime – and a group of idle sisters, while the entire burden is left for the only working sister to bear. We read about the mother’s naïve character that led them to arrest his son, because of her chatting with neighbors. We read about the worries of the working sister of having a new baby, which means a new burden. This short story shows us how miserable and scattered poor families are, and how this poverty made them hating each other.

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