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Expression of Desires In Arabic Women’s Novels

Posted by Collin Hull on December 19, 2003 at 17:35:04:

Picking an original and engaging topic that is able to span all five of the very different authors’ novels we examined this semester proved to be a difficult task. Though there are certainly similarities between each book and overlying themes that connect them, ultimately I didn’t want to get tied down into the shifty and unsafe territory of placing novels together solely because one, they are all written by women; or two, they all emerge out of the Arabic world. However, there are certainly broad themes present in all of the novels, and I chose to focus on how women express, or can’t express their desires and wants, and how the ability to do so leads to agency and freedom in one’s own life.
A woman’s desires, sexual and otherwise, seems surprisingly suppressed or not allowed in each novel. When it does emerge, it seems that too often one’s own desire is replaced with the need to be desirable for men, and so these women’s wants are placed aside in favor of the male protagonists’ wishes. I want to explore this topic in each novel, taking a look at when a woman is able to express desire, when it must give way and take second place to a man’s wants, and how, ultimately, it seems to free the women who chose to make their own path according to their wants, dreams, and goals. As we finish the semester and conclude our discussions on Arabic women, I think it’s important to note that though at times these women have agency in their lives, quite often, despite different upbringings, social/political/economic status, regions of habitation, and direct contact with Western influence, they are ultimately unable to take total control of their own lives. Obviously there are varying degrees to which this is applicable, and certainly some of the women are stronger than others, but overall, I think a very key message that all of these female authors are sending out is that women’s struggle for freedom and equality is still a battle that is being fought-- all over the world for sure, but certainly in the Middle East.
Pillars of Salt, perhaps the novel with the strongest female character, is the one novel where desire is seen and nothing stops Maha from expressing her wants, both sexually and when it concerns her husband, son, and father. Maha is a peasant from Jordan and an example of a willful and sure female character emerging from the Arab world. Her marriage to Harb is kind and loving, as is her relationship to her father and other female characters in the novel. Unlike other novelists we've read, the author, Fadia Faqir, is able to allow often-repressed sexual desire to surface with this character. Perhaps because Faqir is writing in English she has more freedom than she might have writing and publishing in Jordan. She admits that she would not be able to publish this novel as it is in Arabic; it simply wouldn't be accepted. Both for the rebellious nature of Maha, as well as the inclusion of folk-tale and satanically portrayed male characters such as Maha's brother, Daffash.
The scene where Harb and Maha make love in the Dead Sea is an example of desire that is expressed, though even in this scene the reader gets the sense that it usually isn't accepted for a woman to feel or express those emotions. "I swam closer to my husband, stood up, then kissed his forehead. I would not listen to old advice. My body burst with heat and life. No, I would not follow my mother's advice. Forgive me, mother. The look in his eyes was one of respect and delight. So, he didn't look down on me because I kissed his forehead. Women of Hamina, you were living in a heap of dung. I leapt towards him to receive every drop of the sea's water" (54).
Here we see Maha's desire and her fear that Harb won't accept her because it might seem improper. She feels alive and exclaims that women are missing out on one of life's pleasures because they are not traditionally supposed to feel this way or express these sexual feelings. This is an example of an explicit (or somewhat explicit) portrayal of the sexual desire of a woman. The only other time we see a sexual encounter described this explicitly is in Ahdaf Soueif’s In the Eye of the Sun. Specifically the scene in which Asya is in Italy, but there are many more examples I will discuss later on when we take a closer look at that novel.
I also discuss Nadia's desire in A Woman of Five Seasons, which is certainly seen, but in no way can it be portrayed as Maha's is here or Asya’s in In the Eye of the Sun.
Maha is also able to express her desires in other areas of her life, though she is sometime unsuccessful in her attempts to get what she wants. After Harb's death, her brother Daffash asks her to help cook a dinner at the pasha's house. When she realizes it's a dinner for the English, the people who killed her husband, she becomes angry. "My chin was quivering when I said, 'You killed my husband Harb.' With metal eagles. The hum subsided and all the eyes were staring at me. Tears running on cheeks, head held high, I stepped forward, wrenched the eagle off the chest of an elderly man, threw it on the ground and stamped on it. I collected as much saliva as I could and spat on the surprised face of the English officer...'Foreign killers, all of you,' I cried, then marched past the parked cars, past the flashing lights of lamps, past the mud hut of the guard, and out of the wide gate" (162).
Here she is unwilling to serve people she believes to have killed her husband, and despite the consequences of her actions, she chooses not to go against her conscience. She does what she wants, and what she feels she must, though it costs her a great deal.
However, though Maha is a strong woman, she is ultimately unable to stay free. She tells her story form the confines of a mental hospital, where she is forced to remain. She expresses her desires, but it seems that the world isn't ready to let her be as strong as she is. It sends a somewhat despairing message, but there is also hope for change. The first woman to instigate change always fights a losing battle, but she paves the way for others to follow her example.

In A Woman of Five Seasons, Nadia starts out as a weak character who grows stronger and more independent by the end of the novel. She is unable to express her desire for Jalal or to be free from Ihsan (though at the end she is able to fight for herself). She lets herself be ruled by him, not reading books because he doesn't like her to, wearing the perfume he buys for her, not wearing the color rose-red which she loves, and going to all his parties even though she doesn't want to. However, Leila al-Atrash writes the novel from both Ihsan and Nadia's perspective, so we see how unhappy Nadia is. "There is another person there inside me, sexless, a person who feels and thinks and suffers, and makes me suffer. A person who doesn't know the meaning of female and male, who rises above anything Ihsan ever thinks about. It burns me with its whip whenever Ihsan enjoys arousing the female in me. But it's a suffering too, weak and suppressed, powerless to rise to resistance and refusal, when Ihsan treats me as his toy, then goes happily off to sleep" (34). She realizes that she is powerless and hates the position she's in, but she can't change it. She gives in to her husband and his desires, and suppresses her own.
She talks about Jalal and her attraction to him as a young girl, before her marriage to Ihsan, yet she never is able to express her feelings. When she sees him again after a long separation she is demure and only speaks the traditional greeting. But because she is the narrator, we are able to see her inner thoughts. "The moment he opened the door, before I saw him even, the blood began surging through the arteries in my neck, and a searing heat started glowing inside me, coloring everything around me...I was trembling, peering to see his face" (69). Yet her desire never moves past her thoughts and into spoken words with Jalal. It stays pent up, as do her other desires, until, finally, after Jalal tries to rape her, she takes control of her own life. She says, "I haven't met Jalal since that day, since I took possession of myself" (109). There are hints before this scene that let the reader know Nadia is beginning to express her wants to Ihsan. She demands land and money from Ihsan (78), she tells him she is going to school, she learns to drive (68), etc. Once she takes this step she gains a tremendous amount of power because, finally, she is expressing what she really wants and is no longer letting Ihsan control her. I think the scene where she is raped, because it is written with Nadia as the narrator, allows us to see that here is where she is asserting that she will no longer be controlled by anyone. But still, though she does become more assertive and independent, she still seems unhappy. Again, as in Maha's story, even though these women have strength, there seems to be no way for them to really live happily in their worlds. Perhaps this is a comment on the status of many women in the Middle East: though women are gaining power and independence, it is a slow process and one that is not nearly close to being finished. Still, it is important that these women are being written about and their stories are emerging as a kind of example for other women. Most importantly, the message that needs to be heard is that a woman must live for herself, for her dreams, for her desires, in order to be free.
In A Woman of Five Seasons, the men are always able to express their desires. Jalal tries to be with Nadia, expressing his desire for her in a sexual manner. It would be striking to see a woman's sexual desire described in such a way, because women aren't supposed to feel the same way about sex that men are. This is true all over the world in many cultures, but definitely true in the Middle East. Ihsan's affair with Angela is another example of men being able to express their sexual desire. The men of these novels can choose what they want to do and have much more power than the women. This is because they control their own lives and are able to do as they wish.

In A Balcony over the Fakihani the first two novellas in the collection are good examples of strong women who try as hard as they can to keep their family together in a time of war. This book defies easy categorization of its female protagonists because it is a story set in a time of extreme political unrest and wars that break the families apart. Additionally, the stories are told in the fist person so it’s hard to see how the women are able to express their desires because the story is told from their point of view. Still, the women are undeniably strong, and deserve a closer look.
The first story, A Land of Rock and Thyme, is narrated by Yusra, a young woman trying to keep her family together during the 1948 Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She seems like a very strong woman, as we see on many occasions. One night she is waiting for hours to fill up her cans with water. “‘Still here?’ he said. ‘I think you’d better go home.’ He didn’t want to tell me what had happened. ‘By God,’ I said, ‘i’ll stay till I’ve filled my jerry can if I die doing it! We don’t have a drop at home’” (9). She finds out that her father has died while she was trying to get water for the family. Yet she still goes on, even after this tragedy. And there is more in store for her. She gets married and seems to really love her husband, but he is killed in an Israeli air strike. Though it’s hard to pick up the pieces and move on, she gives us every indication that that is exactly what she plans on doing. “I’ll try to live…to fight against the sadness weighing down on my soul, leading me, sometimes, to feel that I’m losing my sanity. I’ll try—but it’s not easy at all. But I will try” (29). Still, though we see Ysura as a strong character, we can’t really tell if she is able to express her desires and wants because she is the one narrating the story. However, she comes off to the reader as an incredibly strong woman, especially considering the stress of living in fear of dying everyday, so I think we can classify her as such. It does seem as though she decides for herself what she should do, which gives her undeniable power.
The second novella, the title story, is another example of a strong female character. Yet, again, we run into the problem of the woman narrating her own story, so it’s difficult to know if she is making her own decisions and how those decisions affect her life. Su’ad is strong, but she seems inhibited in many ways. This seems due to her upbringing, perhaps, or maybe cultural normality. She doesn’t wish to show affection for her husband, or maybe is unable to express it because she has been taught not to. “He’d pull me towards him and put his arm round me, and we’d go on. I didn’t dare tell him how embarrassed I felt to have him so close to me in front of all these people. But though I was still and tense, he was relaxed and at ease” (40). Here, even though she is uncomfortable with his public display of affection, she cannot say anything to him. While we see her as a strong woman, intent on keeping her family together, here she seems to let her desires take second place to her husband’s.
In the end, her husband is killed and we are left wondering what will happen next. The author implies that Su’ad will be okay, letting us know that she is capable of forging her own life. Ultimately, in these novellas, it is more difficult to discern how able these women are to have agency in their lives because of the way the stories are written and because it is a time of war in which exceptions to how we normally act must be made.

In Dreams of Trespass women’s desire is often suppressed, in both the country and the city harems. Also, in this novel we see Fatima Mernissi learn, as a young girl, the importance of making herself beautiful to attract men. Here, it is important to be desirable rather than to express one’s own desires, such as playing games with childhood friends.
Fatima’s mother yearned for privacy from the rest of the harem and loved the occasional nights she could have dinner with just her family on the terrace. Her mother longed for her own space, for her children to grow up “modern,” and for time alone with her husband. Though she got these things sometimes, she couldn’t have them whenever she wanted. She wants her daughter to have all the things she can’t have, which seems, if we look at the root of it, to be agency in her own life; the ability to choose her own path and to not be tied down by any rules. In other words, she wants Fatima to be able to do what she wants.
Yasmina, Fatima’s grandmother, is part of the harem in the country. She, too, sees the unfairness of women’s roles in Morocco (and beyond) and fights against it. But even a strong character like her can’t get everything she wants. She wants to spend more than one out of every eight nights with her husband, but can’t. She talks to Fatima about the inequality of men and women. “The world, Yasmina said, was not concerned about being fair to women. Rules were made in such a manner as to deprive them in some way or another. For example, she said, both men and women worked from dawn until very late at night. But men made money and women did not” (63). This issue traps women because it gives them no ability to move. They have no money, no skills to make money, and no way to get anywhere without money. So it forces them to stay in places and situations they might not be happy in. Because of this, and many other issues, women can’t do what they want because they simply don’t have any agency. This was a huge issue in the women’s movement in the United States, and once women started working, they found they had a much better chance of living on their own and doing what they wanted. I think Fatima’s grandmother pinpoints a very important problem for women fighting for their rights. If you can’t earn money, it is very hard to live on your own in today’s society; you will always be dependent on the man who brings in the money. This will never be a situation in which a woman can truly be free.
Two entire chapters at the end of the novel are devoted to beauty secrets so as to become desirable for men. Here, what young Fatima seems to want is replaced by what, in the future, men will want. So, though she seems to enjoy the process of beautifying herself, she puts aside her own wants for the desires of men. Arguably, she wants to take part in this ritual so as to become a woman and more mature, but still, the very fact that “becoming a woman” is equated with “learning how to be beautiful to please men” seems wrong. In many cultures, women spend a lot of time on making themselves up to be considered attractive by men. Perhaps this isn’t something particular to just the Middle East, but an issue for women all around the world.
Fatima describes the process of making your skin beautiful with the most minuet details. “First, take a fresh egg. The only way you will know for certain that it is fresh is to have a little hen as a guest on your terrace for a few weeks…Once your hands are clean, carefully break open the egg and throw away the yolk. Now place the white on a flat earthenware plate…” (227). And she goes on and on and on. There is so much energy spent trying to please men, and yet again, it seems that a woman’s desire takes second place to that of the man’s.
Fatima, though, ends her story with hope. She has very strong models to look up to, both her mother and grandmother. Though these women are confined by rules, they are able to let at least a few of their desires be heard and their wishes granted. Her mother gets the nights on the terrace and the late breakfast with the fancy food. Her grandmother gets to name her duck after the first wife, Lalla Thor, the privilege of running free in the country, climbing trees and swimming, and washing the dishes in the river. Yet both are still tied down in situations they ultimately don’t want. They both long for Fatima to break out of their traditions and live a life where she can decide for herself what she wants to do and become. Fatima asks Mina how she can escape the rules, and Mina answers that she has to choose a side, either the powerless or the powerful. “I asked Mina how would I know on which side I stood. Her answer was quick, short, and very clear: ‘If you can’t get out, you are on the powerless side’” (242). To be able to escape form rules, a harem, anything that ties you down and makes it impossible for you to do what you want, is the only way to freedom. Once you are free, you have the agency to choose your own path and make your own decisions.

The last novel we looked at, In the Eye of the Sun, is the most modern and westernized novel, partly because much of it takes place in England, as well as the fact that Asya’s parents are westernized and very influential and wealthy members of Egyptian academic society. In this novel, Asya has difficulty expressing her desires, though we can see what she’s feeling because the narrator tells us. However, I would argue that Asya goes through a transformation by the end of the novel in which she learns to express herself and take control of her own life.
The scene in Beirut, where Saif, Asya’s boyfriend, and she spend secret time together is one of the first examples of Asya’s inability to express her sexual desires. “Then he turns and starts to kiss her. In the Omar Khayyam he has always kept his jeans on and through the denim she had felt him harden. Here in Beirut she feels him warm and growing: moving against her body. But she is too shy to look. She wants to put her hand down there and feel him, but what would he think of her? (139). Though she seems to want a more physical relationship with him (which we also gather from conversations with her friends and aunt), she is unable to express these desires because she is worried about what he will think of her.
However, when she is studying for the summer in Italy, we see clearly that she is a very sexual person, with wants and desires. Ahdaf Soueif, the author, writes about Asya’s sexual encounters very explicitly, which is a little surprising to read, knowing that she is an Arabic woman. Yet she was educated in England as well as Egypt and this novel was actually published in America, not the Middle East. She writes, “She feels a burning, liquid, simple need, intensely specific but radiating out to every finger tip…a terrible, terrible urge to spread her legs as far as they will go and strain towards him so that he can push his fingers inside her—and even as she clutches him with one hand she pulls at Umberto with the other” (175). This explicit scene describes Asya’s sexual desires, something that she might not be as easily able to do if she wasn’t in Italy, and far away from her home. But even here, she shows restraint.
Asya’s affair with Gerald allows us to see her desire, which she seems finally more able to express openly. She asks him if he wants to spend the night at her place, though she is still married to Saif. They are having a lot of difficulties, because he isn’t ever there and they can’t have sex because it is too painful for Asya. “Why should she always be ‘sweetie’ and ‘princess’, and never this, never this, never to be kissed and caressed and undressed and looked at and admired, never to feel hot breath on her face and on her neck, never to feel a man’s hands on her breasts, on her waist, on her tummy, never to feel strong fingers urgently exploring her, pushing her legs apart, never to feel the weight of another body on hers, the bite of teeth on her shoulder—“ (539). However, her affair with Gerald quickly turns sour, and it takes her a lot of time to figure out a way to get out of it because she isn’t being strong with him. Perhaps her ability to express her desire with Gerald stems from the fact that he is American and they are living in England. And, maybe, because Saif is Egyptian that is why she had more difficulty expressing herself with him.
There are other examples, not sexual, of Asya’s inability to make her own decisions and do what she wants. She listens to her parents when they tell her she shouldn’t marry Saif until she finishes school, which doesn’t seem to be what she really wants. This decision possibly leads to much of the trouble in her and Saif’s relationship. She goes to northern England to study, a decision she doesn’t seem satisfied with, yet won’t back down on because of the pressure her parents and she herself places on her. And at times, the reader isn’t sure that she is writing her dissertation because she really wants to, or because she thinks she is expected to as the daughter of academics.
However, I believe there is a marked change in Asya by the end of the novel. Once she makes the decision to tell Saif about her affair and end things with him, she seems to be on the path to building her own life. When she is in America with Gerald she finally takes control of her life. She has had it with their fighting and all of his issues with her and her money and her ex-husband, etc. “You’ve pushed me and pushed me and pushed me and I’ve had it. I hate it. I hate people who go around trying to change people. The hypocrisy of it…well I’ve had it—“ (723). And then later, “‘Fuck their hospitality,’ Asya cries, throwing out her arms—and almost laughs out loud for joy—she’s done it, oh, she’s done it—she could clap her hands and dance in the street. ‘Fuck – their – hospitality.’ Oh boy oh boy oh boy…if she can say that she can say anything, anything at all—nothing can stop her now—“ (724). Finally Asya shows the readers the strength she is capable of. Though this novel is quite different from all the others because of the setting and status of Asya and her family, the theme of a woman’s difficulty of taking control of her own life is still prevalent.

All of these novels explore women’s roles in Arabic society and the different ways they deal with their restricting and confining situations. Maha is able to express herself the most and do what she wants, though at a great cost. I think because of this we recognize her as the strongest character, willing to sacrifice everything in order to remain true to her own desires and heart. Asya, arguably, has a lot of freedom to do as she chooses, and so we might assume that she, too, is a very strong female character. Yet she still seems unable to truly take control of her life. Perhaps a message to take from this is that it isn’t only being in a western environment that makes someone “free”, but rather the way in which one is raised, personal character, life situations, etc. that make one able to make choices for oneself. Nadia certainly gains power as she begins to stand up for herself half way through the novel. Again, as these women start thinking for themselves and letting their own personal wants be what guides them, not the wants of their husbands, brothers, societies, etc., they gain agency in their own life. The women in A Balcony over the Fakihani seem to be strong women because of their ability to keep their families together in a time of great turmoil. This novel is harder to judge because conditions and standards must be altered in a time of war, and the novels are narrated by the women, so it is hard to fully discern they are able to express themselves. Fatima’s mother and grandmother have less freedom, but when they express their desires and fight for them, they can sometimes gain some ground. I think that the ability to express yourself and your wants gives you free will, which in turn gives you power in your own life. Without the ability to control your own life, can you really call it your own? The ability of these women to express their desires is ultimately the key to their freedom.

Works Cited
Al-Atrash, Leila. A Woman of Five Seasons. New York: Interlink Books, 2002
Badr, Liyana. A Balcony over the Fakihani. New York: Interlink Books, 1993
Faqir, Fadia. Pillars of Salt. New York: Interlink Books, 1997
Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1994
Soueif, Ahdaf. In the Eye of the Sun. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992

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: Expression of Desires In Arabic Women’s Novels : : Picking an original and engaging topic that is able to span all five of the very different authors’ novels we examined this semester proved to be a difficult task. Though there are certainly similarities between each book and overlying themes that connect them, ultimately I didn’t want to get tied down into the shifty and unsafe territory of placing novels together solely because one, they are all written by women; or two, they all emerge out of the Arabic world. However, there are certainly broad themes present in all of the novels, and I chose to focus on how women express, or can’t express their desires and wants, and how the ability to do so leads to agency and freedom in one’s own life. : A woman’s desires, sexual and otherwise, seems surprisingly suppressed or not allowed in each novel. When it does emerge, it seems that too often one’s own desire is replaced with the need to be desirable for men, and so these women’s wants are placed aside in favor of the male protagonists’ wishes. I want to explore this topic in each novel, taking a look at when a woman is able to express desire, when it must give way and take second place to a man’s wants, and how, ultimately, it seems to free the women who chose to make their own path according to their wants, dreams, and goals. As we finish the semester and conclude our discussions on Arabic women, I think it’s important to note that though at times these women have agency in their lives, quite often, despite different upbringings, social/political/economic status, regions of habitation, and direct contact with Western influence, they are ultimately unable to take total control of their own lives. Obviously there are varying degrees to which this is applicable, and certainly some of the women are stronger than others, but overall, I think a very key message that all of these female authors are sending out is that women’s struggle for freedom and equality is still a battle that is being fought-- all over the world for sure, but certainly in the Middle East. : Pillars of Salt, perhaps the novel with the strongest female character, is the one novel where desire is seen and nothing stops Maha from expressing her wants, both sexually and when it concerns her husband, son, and father. Maha is a peasant from Jordan and an example of a willful and sure female character emerging from the Arab world. Her marriage to Harb is kind and loving, as is her relationship to her father and other female characters in the novel. Unlike other novelists we've read, the author, Fadia Faqir, is able to allow often-repressed sexual desire to surface with this character. Perhaps because Faqir is writing in English she has more freedom than she might have writing and publishing in Jordan. She admits that she would not be able to publish this novel as it is in Arabic; it simply wouldn't be accepted. Both for the rebellious nature of Maha, as well as the inclusion of folk-tale and satanically portrayed male characters such as Maha's brother, Daffash. : The scene where Harb and Maha make love in the Dead Sea is an example of desire that is expressed, though even in this scene the reader gets the sense that it usually isn't accepted for a woman to feel or express those emotions. "I swam closer to my husband, stood up, then kissed his forehead. I would not listen to old advice. My body burst with heat and life. No, I would not follow my mother's advice. Forgive me, mother. The look in his eyes was one of respect and delight. So, he didn't look down on me because I kissed his forehead. Women of Hamina, you were living in a heap of dung. I leapt towards him to receive every drop of the sea's water" (54). : Here we see Maha's desire and her fear that Harb won't accept her because it might seem improper. She feels alive and exclaims that women are missing out on one of life's pleasures because they are not traditionally supposed to feel this way or express these sexual feelings. This is an example of an explicit (or somewhat explicit) portrayal of the sexual desire of a woman. The only other time we see a sexual encounter described this explicitly is in Ahdaf Soueif’s In the Eye of the Sun. Specifically the scene in which Asya is in Italy, but there are many more examples I will discuss later on when we take a closer look at that novel. : I also discuss Nadia's desire in A Woman of Five Seasons, which is certainly seen, but in no way can it be portrayed as Maha's is here or Asya’s in In the Eye of the Sun. : Maha is also able to express her desires in other areas of her life, though she is sometime unsuccessful in her attempts to get what she wants. After Harb's death, her brother Daffash asks her to help cook a dinner at the pasha's house. When she realizes it's a dinner for the English, the people who killed her husband, she becomes angry. "My chin was quivering when I said, 'You killed my husband Harb.' With metal eagles. The hum subsided and all the eyes were staring at me. Tears running on cheeks, head held high, I stepped forward, wrenched the eagle off the chest of an elderly man, threw it on the ground and stamped on it. I collected as much saliva as I could and spat on the surprised face of the English officer...'Foreign killers, all of you,' I cried, then marched past the parked cars, past the flashing lights of lamps, past the mud hut of the guard, and out of the wide gate" (162). : Here she is unwilling to serve people she believes to have killed her husband, and despite the consequences of her actions, she chooses not to go against her conscience. She does what she wants, and what she feels she must, though it costs her a great deal. : However, though Maha is a strong woman, she is ultimately unable to stay free. She tells her story form the confines of a mental hospital, where she is forced to remain. She expresses her desires, but it seems that the world isn't ready to let her be as strong as she is. It sends a somewhat despairing message, but there is also hope for change. The first woman to instigate change always fights a losing battle, but she paves the way for others to follow her example. : In A Woman of Five Seasons, Nadia starts out as a weak character who grows stronger and more independent by the end of the novel. She is unable to express her desire for Jalal or to be free from Ihsan (though at the end she is able to fight for herself). She lets herself be ruled by him, not reading books because he doesn't like her to, wearing the perfume he buys for her, not wearing the color rose-red which she loves, and going to all his parties even though she doesn't want to. However, Leila al-Atrash writes the novel from both Ihsan and Nadia's perspective, so we see how unhappy Nadia is. "There is another person there inside me, sexless, a person who feels and thinks and suffers, and makes me suffer. A person who doesn't know the meaning of female and male, who rises above anything Ihsan ever thinks about. It burns me with its whip whenever Ihsan enjoys arousing the female in me. But it's a suffering too, weak and suppressed, powerless to rise to resistance and refusal, when Ihsan treats me as his toy, then goes happily off to sleep" (34). She realizes that she is powerless and hates the position she's in, but she can't change it. She gives in to her husband and his desires, and suppresses her own. : She talks about Jalal and her attraction to him as a young girl, before her marriage to Ihsan, yet she never is able to express her feelings. When she sees him again after a long separation she is demure and only speaks the traditional greeting. But because she is the narrator, we are able to see her inner thoughts. "The moment he opened the door, before I saw him even, the blood began surging through the arteries in my neck, and a searing heat started glowing inside me, coloring everything around me...I was trembling, peering to see his face" (69). Yet her desire never moves past her thoughts and into spoken words with Jalal. It stays pent up, as do her other desires, until, finally, after Jalal tries to rape her, she takes control of her own life. She says, "I haven't met Jalal since that day, since I took possession of myself" (109). There are hints before this scene that let the reader know Nadia is beginning to express her wants to Ihsan. She demands land and money from Ihsan (78), she tells him she is going to school, she learns to drive (68), etc. Once she takes this step she gains a tremendous amount of power because, finally, she is expressing what she really wants and is no longer letting Ihsan control her. I think the scene where she is raped, because it is written with Nadia as the narrator, allows us to see that here is where she is asserting that she will no longer be controlled by anyone. But still, though she does become more assertive and independent, she still seems unhappy. Again, as in Maha's story, even though these women have strength, there seems to be no way for them to really live happily in their worlds. Perhaps this is a comment on the status of many women in the Middle East: though women are gaining power and independence, it is a slow process and one that is not nearly close to being finished. Still, it is important that these women are being written about and their stories are emerging as a kind of example for other women. Most importantly, the message that needs to be heard is that a woman must live for herself, for her dreams, for her desires, in order to be free. : In A Woman of Five Seasons, the men are always able to express their desires. Jalal tries to be with Nadia, expressing his desire for her in a sexual manner. It would be striking to see a woman's sexual desire described in such a way, because women aren't supposed to feel the same way about sex that men are. This is true all over the world in many cultures, but definitely true in the Middle East. Ihsan's affair with Angela is another example of men being able to express their sexual desire. The men of these novels can choose what they want to do and have much more power than the women. This is because they control their own lives and are able to do as they wish. : In A Balcony over the Fakihani the first two novellas in the collection are good examples of strong women who try as hard as they can to keep their family together in a time of war. This book defies easy categorization of its female protagonists because it is a story set in a time of extreme political unrest and wars that break the families apart. Additionally, the stories are told in the fist person so it’s hard to see how the women are able to express their desires because the story is told from their point of view. Still, the women are undeniably strong, and deserve a closer look. : The first story, A Land of Rock and Thyme, is narrated by Yusra, a young woman trying to keep her family together during the 1948 Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She seems like a very strong woman, as we see on many occasions. One night she is waiting for hours to fill up her cans with water. “‘Still here?’ he said. ‘I think you’d better go home.’ He didn’t want to tell me what had happened. ‘By God,’ I said, ‘i’ll stay till I’ve filled my jerry can if I die doing it! We don’t have a drop at home’” (9). She finds out that her father has died while she was trying to get water for the family. Yet she still goes on, even after this tragedy. And there is more in store for her. She gets married and seems to really love her husband, but he is killed in an Israeli air strike. Though it’s hard to pick up the pieces and move on, she gives us every indication that that is exactly what she plans on doing. “I’ll try to live…to fight against the sadness weighing down on my soul, leading me, sometimes, to feel that I’m losing my sanity. I’ll try—but it’s not easy at all. But I will try” (29). Still, though we see Ysura as a strong character, we can’t really tell if she is able to express her desires and wants because she is the one narrating the story. However, she comes off to the reader as an incredibly strong woman, especially considering the stress of living in fear of dying everyday, so I think we can classify her as such. It does seem as though she decides for herself what she should do, which gives her undeniable power. : The second novella, the title story, is another example of a strong female character. Yet, again, we run into the problem of the woman narrating her own story, so it’s difficult to know if she is making her own decisions and how those decisions affect her life. Su’ad is strong, but she seems inhibited in many ways. This seems due to her upbringing, perhaps, or maybe cultural normality. She doesn’t wish to show affection for her husband, or maybe is unable to express it because she has been taught not to. “He’d pull me towards him and put his arm round me, and we’d go on. I didn’t dare tell him how embarrassed I felt to have him so close to me in front of all these people. But though I was still and tense, he was relaxed and at ease” (40). Here, even though she is uncomfortable with his public display of affection, she cannot say anything to him. While we see her as a strong woman, intent on keeping her family together, here she seems to let her desires take second place to her husband’s. : In the end, her husband is killed and we are left wondering what will happen next. The author implies that Su’ad will be okay, letting us know that she is capable of forging her own life. Ultimately, in these novellas, it is more difficult to discern how able these women are to have agency in their lives because of the way the stories are written and because it is a time of war in which exceptions to how we normally act must be made. : In Dreams of Trespass women’s desire is often suppressed, in both the country and the city harems. Also, in this novel we see Fatima Mernissi learn, as a young girl, the importance of making herself beautiful to attract men. Here, it is important to be desirable rather than to express one’s own desires, such as playing games with childhood friends. : Fatima’s mother yearned for privacy from the rest of the harem and loved the occasional nights she could have dinner with just her family on the terrace. Her mother longed for her own space, for her children to grow up “modern,” and for time alone with her husband. Though she got these things sometimes, she couldn’t have them whenever she wanted. She wants her daughter to have all the things she can’t have, which seems, if we look at the root of it, to be agency in her own life; the ability to choose her own path and to not be tied down by any rules. In other words, she wants Fatima to be able to do what she wants. : Yasmina, Fatima’s grandmother, is part of the harem in the country. She, too, sees the unfairness of women’s roles in Morocco (and beyond) and fights against it. But even a strong character like her can’t get everything she wants. She wants to spend more than one out of every eight nights with her husband, but can’t. She talks to Fatima about the inequality of men and women. “The world, Yasmina said, was not concerned about being fair to women. Rules were made in such a manner as to deprive them in some way or another. For example, she said, both men and women worked from dawn until very late at night. But men made money and women did not” (63). This issue traps women because it gives them no ability to move. They have no money, no skills to make money, and no way to get anywhere without money. So it forces them to stay in places and situations they might not be happy in. Because of this, and many other issues, women can’t do what they want because they simply don’t have any agency. This was a huge issue in the women’s movement in the United States, and once women started working, they found they had a much better chance of living on their own and doing what they wanted. I think Fatima’s grandmother pinpoints a very important problem for women fighting for their rights. If you can’t earn money, it is very hard to live on your own in today’s society; you will always be dependent on the man who brings in the money. This will never be a situation in which a woman can truly be free. : Two entire chapters at the end of the novel are devoted to beauty secrets so as to become desirable for men. Here, what young Fatima seems to want is replaced by what, in the future, men will want. So, though she seems to enjoy the process of beautifying herself, she puts aside her own wants for the desires of men. Arguably, she wants to take part in this ritual so as to become a woman and more mature, but still, the very fact that “becoming a woman” is equated with “learning how to be beautiful to please men” seems wrong. In many cultures, women spend a lot of time on making themselves up to be considered attractive by men. Perhaps this isn’t something particular to just the Middle East, but an issue for women all around the world. : Fatima describes the process of making your skin beautiful with the most minuet details. “First, take a fresh egg. The only way you will know for certain that it is fresh is to have a little hen as a guest on your terrace for a few weeks…Once your hands are clean, carefully break open the egg and throw away the yolk. Now place the white on a flat earthenware plate…” (227). And she goes on and on and on. There is so much energy spent trying to please men, and yet again, it seems that a woman’s desire takes second place to that of the man’s. : Fatima, though, ends her story with hope. She has very strong models to look up to, both her mother and grandmother. Though these women are confined by rules, they are able to let at least a few of their desires be heard and their wishes granted. Her mother gets the nights on the terrace and the late breakfast with the fancy food. Her grandmother gets to name her duck after the first wife, Lalla Thor, the privilege of running free in the country, climbing trees and swimming, and washing the dishes in the river. Yet both are still tied down in situations they ultimately don’t want. They both long for Fatima to break out of their traditions and live a life where she can decide for herself what she wants to do and become. Fatima asks Mina how she can escape the rules, and Mina answers that she has to choose a side, either the powerless or the powerful. “I asked Mina how would I know on which side I stood. Her answer was quick, short, and very clear: ‘If you can’t get out, you are on the powerless side’” (242). To be able to escape form rules, a harem, anything that ties you down and makes it impossible for you to do what you want, is the only way to freedom. Once you are free, you have the agency to choose your own path and make your own decisions. : The last novel we looked at, In the Eye of the Sun, is the most modern and westernized novel, partly because much of it takes place in England, as well as the fact that Asya’s parents are westernized and very influential and wealthy members of Egyptian academic society. In this novel, Asya has difficulty expressing her desires, though we can see what she’s feeling because the narrator tells us. However, I would argue that Asya goes through a transformation by the end of the novel in which she learns to express herself and take control of her own life. : The scene in Beirut, where Saif, Asya’s boyfriend, and she spend secret time together is one of the first examples of Asya’s inability to express her sexual desires. “Then he turns and starts to kiss her. In the Omar Khayyam he has always kept his jeans on and through the denim she had felt him harden. Here in Beirut she feels him warm and growing: moving against her body. But she is too shy to look. She wants to put her hand down there and feel him, but what would he think of her? (139). Though she seems to want a more physical relationship with him (which we also gather from conversations with her friends and aunt), she is unable to express these desires because she is worried about what he will think of her. : However, when she is studying for the summer in Italy, we see clearly that she is a very sexual person, with wants and desires. Ahdaf Soueif, the author, writes about Asya’s sexual encounters very explicitly, which is a little surprising to read, knowing that she is an Arabic woman. Yet she was educated in England as well as Egypt and this novel was actually published in America, not the Middle East. She writes, “She feels a burning, liquid, simple need, intensely specific but radiating out to every finger tip…a terrible, terrible urge to spread her legs as far as they will go and strain towards him so that he can push his fingers inside her—and even as she clutches him with one hand she pulls at Umberto with the other” (175). This explicit scene describes Asya’s sexual desires, something that she might not be as easily able to do if she wasn’t in Italy, and far away from her home. But even here, she shows restraint. : Asya’s affair with Gerald allows us to see her desire, which she seems finally more able to express openly. She asks him if he wants to spend the night at her place, though she is still married to Saif. They are having a lot of difficulties, because he isn’t ever there and they can’t have sex because it is too painful for Asya. “Why should she always be ‘sweetie’ and ‘princess’, and never this, never this, never to be kissed and caressed and undressed and looked at and admired, never to feel hot breath on her face and on her neck, never to feel a man’s hands on her breasts, on her waist, on her tummy, never to feel strong fingers urgently exploring her, pushing her legs apart, never to feel the weight of another body on hers, the bite of teeth on her shoulder—“ (539). However, her affair with Gerald quickly turns sour, and it takes her a lot of time to figure out a way to get out of it because she isn’t being strong with him. Perhaps her ability to express her desire with Gerald stems from the fact that he is American and they are living in England. And, maybe, because Saif is Egyptian that is why she had more difficulty expressing herself with him. : There are other examples, not sexual, of Asya’s inability to make her own decisions and do what she wants. She listens to her parents when they tell her she shouldn’t marry Saif until she finishes school, which doesn’t seem to be what she really wants. This decision possibly leads to much of the trouble in her and Saif’s relationship. She goes to northern England to study, a decision she doesn’t seem satisfied with, yet won’t back down on because of the pressure her parents and she herself places on her. And at times, the reader isn’t sure that she is writing her dissertation because she really wants to, or because she thinks she is expected to as the daughter of academics. : However, I believe there is a marked change in Asya by the end of the novel. Once she makes the decision to tell Saif about her affair and end things with him, she seems to be on the path to building her own life. When she is in America with Gerald she finally takes control of her life. She has had it with their fighting and all of his issues with her and her money and her ex-husband, etc. “You’ve pushed me and pushed me and pushed me and I’ve had it. I hate it. I hate people who go around trying to change people. The hypocrisy of it…well I’ve had it—“ (723). And then later, “‘Fuck their hospitality,’ Asya cries, throwing out her arms—and almost laughs out loud for joy—she’s done it, oh, she’s done it—she could clap her hands and dance in the street. ‘Fuck – their – hospitality.’ Oh boy oh boy oh boy…if she can say that she can say anything, anything at all—nothing can stop her now—“ (724). Finally Asya shows the readers the strength she is capable of. Though this novel is quite different from all the others because of the setting and status of Asya and her family, the theme of a woman’s difficulty of taking control of her own life is still prevalent. : All of these novels explore women’s roles in Arabic society and the different ways they deal with their restricting and confining situations. Maha is able to express herself the most and do what she wants, though at a great cost. I think because of this we recognize her as the strongest character, willing to sacrifice everything in order to remain true to her own desires and heart. Asya, arguably, has a lot of freedom to do as she chooses, and so we might assume that she, too, is a very strong female character. Yet she still seems unable to truly take control of her life. Perhaps a message to take from this is that it isn’t only being in a western environment that makes someone “free”, but rather the way in which one is raised, personal character, life situations, etc. that make one able to make choices for oneself. Nadia certainly gains power as she begins to stand up for herself half way through the novel. Again, as these women start thinking for themselves and letting their own personal wants be what guides them, not the wants of their husbands, brothers, societies, etc., they gain agency in their own life. The women in A Balcony over the Fakihani seem to be strong women because of their ability to keep their families together in a time of great turmoil. This novel is harder to judge because conditions and standards must be altered in a time of war, and the novels are narrated by the women, so it is hard to fully discern they are able to express themselves. Fatima’s mother and grandmother have less freedom, but when they express their desires and fight for them, they can sometimes gain some ground. I think that the ability to express yourself and your wants gives you free will, which in turn gives you power in your own life. Without the ability to control your own life, can you really call it your own? The ability of these women to express their desires is ultimately the key to their freedom. : Works Cited : Al-Atrash, Leila. A Woman of Five Seasons. New York: Interlink Books, 2002 : Badr, Liyana. A Balcony over the Fakihani. New York: Interlink Books, 1993 : Faqir, Fadia. Pillars of Salt. New York: Interlink Books, 1997 : Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1994 : Soueif, Ahdaf. In the Eye of the Sun. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992 :

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