Re: The Community of Female Voices in Arab Women Literature

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: : : : : : In her memoir, Dreams of Trespass, Fatima Mernissi remembers asking her grandmother Yasmina how one can discern a true story from a false one. The wise old woman, Yasmina, told her granddaughter to relax and not look at life in extreme polarities because "there are things which could be both [true and false] and things which could be neither" (Dreams, 61). "Words are like onions," Yasmina explained further and "the more skins you peel off, the more : : meanings you encounter" (Dreams, 61). Thus, according to Yasmina, the real : : power of finding the "true" answer for oneself is to discover "multiplicities : : of meanings" because then right and wrong become irrelevant (Dreams, 61). : : Yasmina's image of words as onions can be used in one's understanding of : : the multilayered complexity of oppression in Arab women literature. Although in : : some novels, such as The Pillars of Salt and Drams of Trespass, female : : oppression is an obvious result of social norms, in other texts (In the Eye of : : the Sun, for example) the main female character, Asya Ulama, seems to be free : : of any form of social pressure. However, one has to keep in mind that no woman : : ever stands alone in her oppression, whether it is physical or psychological : : oppression, or both. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to "peal off all the : : skins of an onion" or to uncover all the different layers of female oppression : : presented in the five books: Pillars of Salt, A woman of Five Seasons, A : : Balcony Over Fakihani, Dreams of Trespass and In the Eye of the Sun. : : : : The Feminist Theory : : The feminist writer, Gloria Anzaldua, argues that in order for silence : : to "transform into speech, sound and words," the silence must first ‘traverse : : through our female bodies" (Making, XIII). According to Anzaldua, the female silence is richly layered and it hides : : important voices which once discovered lead to women's liberation. Many : : feminist writers would argue that women can only tell their stories when they : : listen to (and follow) their inner voices. These inner voices are not only : : singular voices of the "self" but also communal voices that connect women with : : past and future generations. Thus, if one is to explore the oppression of : : Muslim women through the work of Arab women novelists, one must keep in mind : : the multilayered complexity of women's voices, or what I call the "community of : : voices" that Arab women writers use in their texts. The community of voices is : : the group of voices that has no boundaries in time and space, and it bonds all : : women together as the victims of the same traditional oppression that is so : : imbedded in all patriarchal societies. In the "community of voices," the voice : : of one oppressed woman carries the weight of suffering of many other women, : : from many different economical backgrounds. Each character from any one : : feminist text articulates the historical and communal silence of many other : : women (if not all of them)from that particular culture. Or to be more precise, : : each Arab woman novelist, through her work, is giving a voice to oppressed : : women in the Middle east. : : Pillars of Salt : : In Pillars of Salt, Fadia Faqir tells the stories of two Jordanian women : : imprisoned in a mad house, through the use of different voices. Maha, a beduin : : woman, harshly beaten and then sent to the madhouse by her brother Daffash and : : the male leaders of the village, and Um Saad, a city woman whose husband, after : : many years of marriage, marries another woman, share their stories of abuse and : : humiliation. Both women, haunted by their pasts, tell their stories through the : : scars on their bodies and souls. : : : : Throughout the book, Maha remembers her husband Harb, "the twin of her : : soul" and his love for her (Pillars, 9). On their first night together, Maha : : recalls how she and Harb made love in the Dead Sea: : : My body shivered as he undressed me. . . he hugged me tightly. . . hand : : in hand we immersed our bodies in the warm water which : : had been heated by the blazing sun all day. . . I swam closer to my : : husband, stood up then kissed his forehead. . . my body burst with : : heat and life. (Pillars, 54) : : For Maha, Harb's love is the most important thing in her life, who gives her : : the strength to face problems that build up later in her life. Many years after : : Harb's death, Maha is still able to vividly recall memories of him. Through : : these memories, Maha feels the presence of Harb's body: "The warmth of Harb's : : hands seeped through my robe, and the dressing of my wound and comforted my : : exhausted body" (Pillars, 104). Harb's love is deeply imprinted in Maha's body. : : After Harb's death, Maha finds out that she is pregnant with his son and her : : pregnancy helps her to overcome the sadness and loneliness from Harb's death. : : Later, while in the madhouse, Maha remembers her son Mubarak and the nursing : : period and she wants to feel his little mouth sucking her breasts. For Maha, : : physical love is a necessary factor for a woman's survival. : : Um Saad's memory of her husband is very different from that of Maha's. Um : : Saad remembers how on her wedding night she was raped by her husband, Abu Saad. : : She tells Maha how Abu Saad, a professional butcher came home every evening, : : and that he "brought with him a rubber bucket full of stomachs and guts" and : : she had to clean stains from blood every day (Pillars, 122). The image of Abu : : Saad as a butcher, covered with animal blood suggests that he is not a gentle : : man but a man who cruelly beats his wife and treats her just like a piece of : : meat. . He takes from Um Saad's body what he wants: he fulfills his sexual : : hunger and he impregnates her with eight sons. Thus, unlike Maha whose body "remembers" Harb and his gentle body, Um Saad recalls how disgusted she was with Abu Saad's naked body: "Like the meat he used to sell, he was lumpy and soft. I used to close my eyes, shut my nose, and hand my body to Allah. . . Abu Saad was a fat and ugly butcher. . . (Pillars, 122-23). Having sex with Abu Saad was like a burnt offering to a cruel God, nothing more than a sacrifice that she had to physically endure as a wife who does not love her husband. : : Because she despised her husband, and hated being close to him, Um Saad : : sees her body as a source of her unhappiness. She feels like her body is a : : separate entity that somehow exists on its own with its energies destroying Um : : Saad's soul and her spirits. She feels that her body is "discarded" when Abu : : Saad "forces to open her legs" (Pillars, 109). Furthermore, whereas most : : married women enjoy being pregnant and see the pregnancy and childbirth as : : miracles of life, Um Saad dislikes changes in her body: "I hate my body, my : : sticking out navel and the baby which was sucking my insides" (Pillars, 122). : : Um Saad, who as a young woman was in love with another man, Mohammad, never had : : a chance to experience true love. For Um Saad, her only moments of happiness : : were in the kitchen: "Feeding my sons, filling their stomachs with delicious : : food was my happiest time" (Pillars, 130). : : Maha and Um Saad cannot stop talking to each other about their pasts. : : Their hearts are so burdened by injustices done to them that nothing, not even : : medication that they receive in the mental hospital can quiet their fragmented : : voices from the past. The English doctor in the madhouse, Doctor Edwards, is : : annoyed by Maha and Um Saad's talk. Like the men from Maha's village and Um : : Saad's husband, the doctor wants to break the two women's spirit, and make them : : submissive to the male will. The doctor keeps coming into Maha and Um Saad's : : room to quiet them down: "You two never stop talking. I will increase the dose" : : (Pillars, 110). When the increased dose does not help to quiet the two women, : : the doctor loses control and starts shouting at the women in English and then : : Arabic: "Shut up" (Pillars, 188). However, at the end of the novel the doctor : : succeeds in quieting Maha and Um saad. Maha depicts how Um Saad looks after one : : more electric shock: "Her face was pale as lemon. She had two bruises on her : : temples covered with a thin layer of foul-smelling paste" (Pillars, 220). : : Although Um Saad desperately wants the doctor to "wipe out" all her : : memories "with a piece of white cotton," her suffering and injustice left deep : : imprints in her soul (Pillars, 193). Maha, on the other hand holds onto her : : memories, and keeps hoping that some day soon she will be re- united with her : : son Mubarak. However, both women resist the doctor's treatment as much as they : : can. Despised, broken hearted, old and weak, Maha and Um Saad cannot "roll into : : another identity" as the men around them wanted them to. They cannot forget who : : they are and what was done to them. Faqir gives voices to Maha and Um Saad, and : : does not want the stories of their suffering to be unheard and forgotten. : : Pillars of Salt suggests the repetition and multilayer-ness of the women's : : experience. For example, Maha and Um Saad's stories represent the lives of : : other women in the book. After her father dies, Maha's house, which she legally : : inherited from her father becomes a place of gathering for all the village : : women: : : The women of the village considered my house their house and they came : : every afternoon,carrying their embroidery, spinning, weaving and : : stories. They would sip sweet tea, weave colorful rugs, and unload : : the burdens of their hearts. (Pillars, 193) : : At one of these gatherings, Maha realizes "how old and weatherbeaten" her best : : friend Nusra looked. Nusra, who was raped by Maha's brother Daffash, could : : never marry even though everyone in the village knew that she was an honest woman and that Daffash took : : her virginity without her consent. Nusra became a fool of the village, where : : she was mistreated even by the village children. At the same gathering, Maha : : learns how "Hamda's husband got married to a second wife and left their : : dwelling" (Pillars, 194). Hamda, who "used to be full of vigor and zeal looked : : like a broken stem" (Pillars, 194). Nusra and Hamda's fates are similar to that : : of Um Saad. UmSaad gets raped by her husband, Abu Saad leaves her for another : : woman, and she ends up lonely and laughed at by her own children. In contrast : : to Hamda, a young newly married woman, Jawaher, who comes to these : : gatherings "choked with happiness" reminds Maha of her short happy life as a : : married woman. Painting a picture of other women in the village, Faqir suggests : : that many women in beduin society are cruelly mistreated by their husbands. : : Their stories reflect the big picture of what has been going on in beduin : : society for generations. When women are young, they dream of getting married. : : If they have bad luck like Nusra, they become outcasts of society. If they are : : lucky, as Jawaher and Maha, they can experience some happiness in their lives : : while they are young and loved by their husbands. At last, if they are not : : young and attractive anymore to their husbands, these women remind one of Hamda : : and Um Saad who end up humiliated by their husbands and sons. Faqir also points : : out that women can survive in Jordanian society only if they are lucky enough : : to have good fathers and loving husbands. : : A Woman of Five Seasons : : Quite different from Maha and Um Saad is Nadia al-Faqih, the main female : : character from A Woman of Five Seasons. Whereas for Maha and Um Saad's : : survival, love plays an important role, Nadia does not think that a man can : : make a woman happy. While married to a rich businessman, Ihsan ibn Natour, : : Nadia is surrounded with diamonds, gold, expensive dresses and greedy people. When Nadia goes to parties, she sees how a rich woman's : : world is spiritually empty: : : All these gatherings and parties. Women, and more women, and still more : : women, weighing one another up with smiles, and all the time, behind : : it, longing to spring and pounce their prey. They flaunt their : : soft silks and their perfumes from Paris, but it can't hide the : : ugliness of those tongues. . . And all that cant and hypocrisy— : : wailing how they miss their beloved homelands far away. They chose : : to come and live abroad, didn't they? They certainly don't try to : : hide those glittering diamonds on their necks and wrists and fingers! Diamonds, : : and more diamonds, hiding backgrounds you can't be sure of half the : : time— as it mattered anyway. . . (Five Seasons, 12) : : For Nadia, who loves books and art, diamonds do not mean much. She accepts all : : her husband's presents, but with a certain amount of reservation, because she : : does not trust him. She does not want to be among the rich women whom she meets : : at the parties. The rich women at these parties do not remind one of the : : community of women in Maha's house. Whereas Maha's friends and neighbors try to : : help each other, the rich women around Nadia are jealous of each other. Nadia : : sees no real bonds between these women, only competition and "the ugliness of : : tongues." When she points out to Ishan that she does not fit among these women, : : he reminds her of her role in these competitive gatherings: "The point is to : : let them see you, make them notice you" (Five Seasons, 12). Perhaps there are : : some other wives of Barqais's upper class who come to the parties because they : : feel obligated to their husbands and not because they enjoy showing off and : : humiliating other women. However, the novel suggests that Nadia, who does not : : develop any friendships with other women, stands alone in her refusal to be : : treated as an expensive doll. Moreover, the happiness and the competition : : between the women (as described by Nadia) suggest that the women at the parties : : believe it is their role to show off how successful their husbands have become : : in Barqais. : : : : At the beginning of her marriage, Nadia is not much different from other : : married women around her who follow the traditional path of submissiveness. She : : is an obedient wife who listens to her husband's wishes. She leaves college in : : order to stay home and bear children for Ihsan. However, this lifestyle does : : not make her happy. Unable to accept Ihsan's greediness and his lack of : : interest in books and art, Nadia gradually changes, isolating herself from : : Ihsan. As she begins to search for her true identity, Nadia starts hearing the : : voices of another woman within herself, a woman whose dreams are different from : : those of Ihsan's: : : The person inside me moved. I felt it wake as Ihsan thrust me toward the : : slope. I hate to be what I'm not, to smile when I'm not happy, to : : repeat words I don't believe, to kill time in empty reception room : : talk, where there's only hypocrisy and falsehood. (Five Seasons, 35- : : 36) : : As Nadia begins to follow the inner voice, her transformation from an obedient : : wife to an independent woman becomes more evident as the novel progresses. She : : slowly gains control over her body and at the end of the book she has gained : : full control over Ihsan and his business. : : Through her personal transformation, Nadia comes to what Western feminists : : see as a "point of departure" with the "old self."This "old self" is the self : : inherited by mothers as advice to their daughters: : : I spring, don't I, from that beduin woman long ago, whose advice to her : : daughters has been passed down through generations of women? ‘Do whatever he tells you. Keep all his secrets. Let him find only the purest fragrance in you.'" (Five Seasons, 33) : : Through this passage, Nadia re-connects herself to the generations of women : : before her who followed the same traditional path of submission and : : voicelessness. One cannot help but think of Maha and all the women in Maha's : : village whose fate is in the hands of male leaders who do everything to keep : : women silent. : : : : However, Nadia refuses old traditional female "skills." She simply cannot : : accept to be a doll for Ishan; a doll which he dresses up in expensive clothes : : and shows off to his business enemies. Whenever Ihsan tries to involve Nadia in : : some of his "business schemes," Nadia feels inhabited by another person inside : : herself: : : Has he any idea, when he sees me as his "woman," of the way a great : : snake bites at me? A rebellious snake, but helpless too. It coils : : around, deep inside me. There's another person there inside me, : : sexless, a person who feels and thinks and suffers, and makes me suffer. : : A person who does not know the meaning of female and male, who rises : : above anything Ihsan ever thinks about. (Five Seasons, 35) : : Nadia' s spiritual rebellions become more frequent with each of Ihsan's : : attempts to treat her as "his" woman, "his" wife, "his" doll. Nadia, who was : : never in love with Ihsan, was unable to find the "twin of her soul" as, for : : example, Maha did when she got married to Harb. The sexless, rebellious person : : inside Nadia is angry and hungry. She is angry because she was disappointed in : : her life, and she is hungry for a spiritual friend. : : Like Um Saad, who loved one man and married another one, Nadia always : : dreamed about Ihsan's brother Jalal, with whom she felt spiritually closer. : : However, when Jalal gets drunk and reveals to her that he always loved her, : : Nadia realizes that it is too late for her to seek a spiritual friend. She : : becomes disgusted by Jalal's behavior. She realizes that each man just wanted : : to possess her like some piece of valuable property. Nadia reclaims herself and : : her body when she realizes that Jalal is not the man whom she constructed in : : her dreams: : : I'm not their woman. Not anyone's woman! I'd always supposed Jalal was : : what he seemed, that he had real power to touch my inner being, to see : : it in a sexless way and communicate with it. But to him I'm just : : female— and he's a man. I— Nadia-al Faqih— no one will be able to : : know or possess her. From this moment I possess myself. (Five Seasons, 108) : : Nadia realizes that a woman's true power lies in her self-reclamation. If a : : woman treats her body : : as her own and not as her husband's property, then she can gain full control : : over her life. However, Nadia's self-realization means isolation from all the : : important feelings that she, as a woman, never had a chance to experience: a : : mutual love and partnership. This leaves deep traces in her psyche. Not having : : had a chance to love a man of her own choice, she becomes a bitter woman. : : Perhaps one of the most revealing moments of who Nadia truly is comes when : : Ihsan's sister Afaf tells Nadia how her husband, Faris, left her for another : : woman. Instead of trying to console Afaf, who feels humiliated by her husbands : : abandonment, Nadia asks her:"Do you really love Faris that much?" (Five : : Seasons, 117). This question suggests that Nadia does not believe that there is : : true love between a husband and a wife. Surrounded by men who bought their : : wives' attention with money and gold, Nadia cannot conceive of the true, warm : : feelings between partners. When compared with women such as Maha and Um Saad, : : Nadia seems to be a cold and calculating woman. Her question to Afaf also : : reveals how she might react if Ihsan were to do the same thing to her, leaving : : her for some other woman. Nadia seems to be saying to Afaf that she should not : : care. Later in the book, after she finds out about Ihsan's affair with one of : : Rashid's women, Nadia does not react as a hurt woman. Instead, she sees her : : opportunity to gain full control over her husband. : : A Balcony Over the Fakihani : : A very different world to that of Nadia and Ihsan's is the world of : : Palestinian refugees described in A Balcony over the Fakihani.Yusra, a young : : Palestinian woman, lives in a physically unstable and dangerous world. Yusra's : : story is fragmented and it demands from the reader to be a witness to injustice : : done to Palestinian people. As Yusra tells of her difficulties to : : simply get water for her family, one cannot help but think how trivial Nadia's : : struggle for self- reclamation seems when compared to Yusra's problems. Nadia : : has a beautiful home and dresses, plenty of money and land, and Yusra— nothing, : : not even minimum control over her life. In Yusra's world, female self- : : reclamation is an abstraction and luxury. : : When Yusra talks about her life in the refugee camp, Tal al-Zatar, she : : describes a world in which nothing good could be expected. People in the camp : : are so used to pain and loss that death does not come as something unexpected, : : but rather death is a "familiar" thing (Balcony, 11). Yusra says that "there : : was nobody in al-Zatar who didn't anticipate" the death of their own family : : members (Balcony, 11). Whereas in A Woman of Five Seasons, the lives of people : : are centered around material prestige, in Badr's book, life is centered around : : physical survival. Whereas women in Barqais wait in their comfortable homes for : : expensive presents from their husbands, women in the Tal al-Zatar wait for : : death: : : Everyone expected death; no one in Tal al-Zaatar thought to live out : : their natural life. . . When father died the condolence people offered was the heartfelt wish that we ourselves should survive. Nobody knew what would happen any more. You'd be standing next to someone— and an hour later, you'd hear he was dead! (Balcony, 110) : : Yusra's fragmented experiences of her life in the camp do not go through her : : body, rather they inhabit her body. For Anazldua and other feminist writers who : : point out the "traversing" of silence, Yusra's life is an example of how : : infinitively subjective human experiences are. How does a woman like Yusra tell : : the story of her life? How does she even start? In Yusra's world, there is no : : time for grieving the dead because there is always a new death. If there is no : : time for grieving, there is no time for silence to transform to speech. Yet, : : Yusra speaks. Perhaps Badr wrote not a story , but a monologue, or a series of : : dreams by a woman whose body is unable to process the pain, and whose body carries horrible memories. : : Throughout "A land of Rock and Thyme," Yusra reminds us that her accounts : : are part of what she remembers. Yusra's accounts are interchangeable series of : : dreams, images and pictures. The book begins with a chapter called "The : : Picture." This short chapter is actually Yusra's dream, in which she is walking : : with her dead husband, Ahmed. She states how this dream overwhelms her:"My mind : : is full of the picture, and I was impatient for the photographer to finish it" : : (Balcony, 4). This sentence suggests much about the fragmented style of the : : story. Who is the photographer who has to finish the picture in her mind? : : Perhaps Israeli soldiers, for if they stop killing, the picture in Yusra's mind : : could then be finished one day and she would have a chance to grieve. : : Through her story "a land of Rock and Thyme,' Badr takes a step further : : from Anzaldua and the Western feminists and suggests that memories and stories : : are not only imprinted in the female bodies, but also in the physical : : environments. Badr names one of her chapters "Water has a Memory." In this : : short chapter, Badr tells about Yusra's everyday struggle to get water for her : : family. Many things happened in Yusra's life while she was struggling to get : : water for her brothers and sisters. One time while she was getting the water : : her father died: : : I received a shocking news: Father had been wounded soon after we left : : and had lived on for another few hours. He saw everybody else, but when : : they asked him: "Shall we send for Yusra?" he said, "let her get : : the water for her brothers and sisters." That's what really hurt : : me. If only I'd been able to see him, to talk to him— one word— while still : : alive.(Balcony,10) : : Not seeing her father for the last time deeply hurt Yusra and she will always : : remember where she was and what she was doing while her father was dying. There : : are also other memories of getting water. One day she witnessed the death of a : : man next to her who was getting water for his family: : : There were two taps where we filled up with water. Once, when I was : : standing there, I suddenly became aware of a man next to me, : : crying out: "Aah! Aah!" I looked at him and saw that he rolled over : : on the ground and died. (Balcony, 11) : : Whenever Yusra goes to the same place to get water, memories of death are : : awakened. Whenever she drinks water, she must remember the death of her father : : and a nameless man who lost his life for want of water. : : In the final chapter of her novella "a Land of Rock and Thyme," Badr : : describes how Ahmed loved taking photographs of "natural scenes." Displaced and : : always moving from one place to another, Palestinian refugees remember their : : homeland. They cannot carry their houses with them but they can carry images : : and scenes everywhere they go. Through photography, Ahmed is able to preserve : : some of his childhood memories and to create a world of hope and escape. : : In Badr's other story, "A Balcony Over the Fakihani," Su'ad, another : : displaced Palestinian woman, remembers her life in the apartment in Beirut : : where she lived for some time with her family. Through Su'ad's voice, one is : : able to picture the life of a Palestinian refugee in Fakihani. Whereas Yusra's : : story is told mostly through fragments of Yusra's memory, "A Balcony over : : Fakihani," is told by Su'ad, her husband Umar, and at the end of the story by : : their friend and neighbor, Jinan. Like the two other couples Maha and Harb, and : : Yusra and Ahmed, Su'ad and Umar love each other. Even as refugees, Su'ad and : : Umar are able to make a new life for themselves. Su'ad remembers how happy : : their first days of marriage were: : : The first week was taken up with small parties we gave in the evening. : : Lots of people would come with food and drink, and we'd sit in a big circle on the floor, swapping jokes and comments and singing the songs of Shaikh : : Imam. (Balcony, 40) : : Su'ad and Umar's parties are very different from those described by Nadia. In : : Nadia's world, there was no sense of community or belonging. Nadia had no close friends. Su'ad and Umar, on the other hand, have little money but lots of friends. Su'ad remembers May 1973, when she gave birth to her twins, Ruba and Jihad, and the Lebanese army came into the Shatila camp and began to shell it. She remembers how she had to run with her newborn babies and how her baby daughter Ruba got "a white hair in the middle of her head" (Balcony, 46). The horrors of refugee life leave deep scars in Su'ad and her daughter Ruba's bodies. : : : : Dreams of Trespass : : Fatima Mernissi, in her memoir of her childhood, Dreams of Trespass, : : depicts the lives of women within the domestic harem where Fatima herself was : : raised. Fatima recalls how difficult it was for her as a girl to understand the : : concepts of hudud, the sacred frontiers, and harem. As a child, she envisioned : : hudud as something that must be visible, so that if she crossed this barrier, : : this borderline, she would know it. When she asked her older cousin Malika to : : show her "where the hudud was actually located," she learned that hudud means : : to obey the teacher and parents (Dreams, 3). From her other cousin Samir, she : : learned that "the frontier is in the mind of the powerful" and that she cannot : : go and see the hudud because in "the landscape itself nothing changes" (Dreams, : : 2-3). From her father, Fatima learned that the hudud was created in order to : : protect women from the troubles of the outside world. As she grew up Mernissi : : could never accept the hudud as something given by God, because it did not seem : : fair to women to be imprisoned and isolated from the outside world. : : Fatima's real confusion about the hudud begins when she leaves her harem : : in the city and goes to visit her maternal grandmother, Yasmina, in the : : country. Fatima notices how women in the country have more freedom than women : : in the city. However, after noticing the first visible : : differences between the two harems, Fatima realizes that all women, both in the : : city and in the country, are oppressed but in slightly different ways. Whereas : : the harem in the country was "an open farm with no visible high walls," : : Fatima's harem in Fez was like "a fortress" (Dreams, 39). Fatima's grandmother : : Yasmina and her co-wives were able to ride horses, go fishing, and they cooked : : their meals over open fires. Women in Fez, on the other hand, were "surrounded : : by high walls" and could never leave the harem without the permission of the : : men. Fatima remembers how "all the windows in the harem in Fez opened onto the : : courtyard" and there were no windows facing the street (Dreams, 57). : : However, the physical freedom in the country did not always make Yasmina : : happy. She always had to share her husband with his other wives, and like the : : other women she had to live with a "frontier inside her head." For women in the : : country, this meant they had to follow qa'ida, or the invisible rule. "Qa'ida : : is everywhere" says Yasmina and adds that "most of the time the qa'ida is : : against women." However, Yasmina and her co-wives try to not let frontiers to : : stand in the way of their happiness. The wives try to work together at the : : farm, and they help each other as much as they can. : : In Fez, all men have only one wife, and in this sense, women in the city : : can exercise more power over their husbands. Fatima's mother, for example, does : : everything she can to improve her life in the harem. She gets up later than the : : other women and eats breakfast by herself. She also has little picnics at the : : terrace and dances and plays with her family, without interference from other : : members of the harem. : : Fatima remembers how the storytelling and dancing helped the women in the : : harem deal with imprisonment and hudud. Fatima's aunt Habiba, who left her : : husband's house and came to live : : with Fatima's family in Fez, is full of stories. Her most popular tale "which : : she narrated only on special occasion" was about "The Woman with Wings." The : : woman with the wings could fly away from the courtyard whenever she wanted to. : : Fatima recalls how this story influenced all the women in the harem: : : Every time Aunt Habiba told the story, the women in the courtyard would : : tuck their caftans into their belts, and dance away with their arms : : spread wide as if they were about to fly. Cousin Chama, who was : : seventeen, had me confused for years, because she managed to : : convince me that all women had invisible wings, and that mine would develop : : too, when I was older. (Dreams,22) : : As a child, Fatima could not understand how women could have wings and fly. : : When she goes to her Aunt Habiba and asks her how women can fly, Aunt Habiba : : explains that "anyone could develop wings:" : : It is only a matter of concentration. The wings need not be visible : : like the birds'; invisible ones are just as good, and the earlier : : you started focusing on the flight, the better. . . there are two : : prerequisites to growing wings: "the first is to feel encircled and the second : : is to believe that you can break the circle." (Dreams, 204) : : Upon revealing her secret of flying, Aunt Habiba points out how women's : : feelings of being enclosed within a limited space makes them use their : : imagination to create images and stories to hold onto. This reoccurring image : : of flying in the novel is similar to the images of flying to freedom in slavery : : literature. Slaves, who had no personal freedom and were confined to a limited : : space, survived by creating stories and songs in which they had wings and were : : flying. : : The slave-servant Mina, is another woman who teaches Fatima about freedom. : : Mina, who was kidnaped by a slave trader as a child, and later sold to Fatima's : : family, tells Fatima how she "liberates" herself through dance. Fatima, who : : wants to be able to dance like Mina notices that some women in the harem : : make "abrupt, jerky movements" unlike Mina who dances in "slow : : motion" (Dreams, 162). Mina explains to Fatima the secret to good dancing lays : : in a woman's ability to express her inner feelings: : : Some ladies are angry with their lives, and so even their dance becomes : : an expression of at. Angry women are hostages of their anger. : : They cannot escape it and set themselves free, which is indeed : : a sad fate. The worst of prisons is the self-created one. (Dreams, 162) : : Mina's life philosophy is similar to that of Aunt Habiba and Yasmina. All three : : women realize that the most important thing is to not let hudud interfere with : : their dreams and wishes. All three women use their imaginations not only to : : create a private space for themselves, but also to deal with the outside world : : of oppression. Thus, although they are not physically free, their spirits are : : free to fly to the places that they imagine. : : In the Eye of the Sun : : Ahdaf Soueif's novel, In the Eye of the Sun, is a story of a young : : Egyptian woman Asya Ulama. Although Asya comes from a privileged Cairo family : : in which she is the center of attention, Asya does not feel completely free. : : Her problems become evident when she gets married to "the love of her life," : : Saif Madi. During their first night together, Asya experiences unbearable : : physical pain and remains a virgin until her unfortunate miscarriage. : : Although the novel is mainly told by Asya herself, there are parts in the : : book in which the author enters Saif's mind and tells the story from his : : perspective. Thus, for example, Saif describes how much he and Asya wanted each : : other, but could not make love: : : . . . I felt her soften I tried her again, and again I felt her grow : : rigid and I said,"Don't you want to?" and she said , "Yes, of : : course I do," but when I pushed she cried out. I stopped and : : pulled back and after a bit her breath evened out and I tried again, and she : : cried out, but then she said, "No, do it do it please let's get it : : done," when I pushed hard she bucked under me trying to get away and : : cried that it hurt too much. . . (Eye, 258) : : After an unsuccessful first night, they tried many times to make love, without much success. Each time they try Asya grows "all frozen on him" and "sneezes" each time Saif comes near her. Finally, Saif decides to leave her alone for a while and tells Asya that he loves her enough "to live with her like a sister," and Asya becomes upset (Eyes, 302). Remembering how much she wanted to be with Saif at the beginning, she expects him to somehow make things work. In her mind, : : Asya wants Saif "to romance her, to seduce her, to make her want him" and not : : simply assume that they were going in bed together (Eye, 302). When she sees : : that Saif is not going to "seduce" her, Asya chooses not to talk to him, : : instead she begins to believe that he already knows what she wants. Thus, : : unlike a happily married couple who might try to talk and solve problems, Saif : : and Asya never talk. : : When Asya moves to England to work on her Ph.D., the couple's relationship : : does not improve. When they are not together, Asya and Saif love each other and : : cannot wait to be together. However, whenever Saif comes to visit Asya in : : England and they try to be close, Asya's pain stops them from being intimate, : : and they spend their time together fighting. On one on his visits to England, : : Saif tells Asya that Ummu Salma, the woman who comes to clean his house, tries : : to seduce him. When Asya asks him if he feels tempted to be with Ummu Salma, he : : says that Ummu Salma is "enormous" and then jokingly adds: "if you can't lift : : it, don't screw it" (Eyes, 419). One cannot help but wonder why is he telling : : this story to his wife. Perhaps he is trying to make her jeaolus, or make her : : realize how attractive he is to other women. On another occasion, Saif tells : : Asya that if she ever has a lover he expects her to "at least have decency not : : to tell him" about it. He also lets her go with his friend Mario, and lets : : Mario visit Asya when he is not in England. All these incidents between Asya : : and Saif suggest how much both of them took their relationship for granted. : : They did nothing to become closer, instead it seems that, without realizing it, they did everything to destroy their marriage. : : How much Asya and Saif have grown apart is probably most evident when they : : meet in a hotel in London, just before Asya's decision to spend the night with : : an Englishman, Gerald Stone. When Asya asks Saif if he wants her to stay with : : him in London until he finishes his meeting, Saif tells her to do what she : : wants. However, Asya wants to hear from him that he wants her to stay. For : : Saif, who is immersed in his work, Asya's cry for attention is irritating and : : he tells her that her "demands" on his time and his emotions have : : become "intolerable" (Eyes, 507). When Saif decides to leave her to go to his : : meeting, Asya recognizes that Saif really does not care what she does: : : He stands and looks at her. In his look she sees a solid refusal to be : : surprised, to be reconciled— even to be angry; a refusal to have anything to do with the melodrama she is creating. (Eyes, : : 508) : : For many months and years to come, Asya admits that this image of Saif leaving : : her never left her. When she remembers the way Saif left her in the hotel, she : : feels as though something could have been done to stop her adultery. She knows : : that this last meeting of theirs was somehow the reason for her fall: : : This image will be used to mark the beginning of her descent— of all : : their descent— into what she was later to call ‘the bad bit.'At the : : moment, of course, she feels it is the end; she believes she has : : reached alone— the nadir— the pure distillation of misery, weakness : : and humiliation. (Eyes, 508) : : Perhaps at this "revelatory" moment, Asya finally realizes that she is not the : : only one to be blamed for the problems in her marriage. She sees that Saif has : : his own faults and that by pushing her away, the gap between them only widens : : even more. : : Later in the book when Asya decides to spend the night with Gerald Smith, : : she does not think about Saif. On that crucial night, Saif is very distant from her, and she can only ask herself "why not" try something different: : : And why not? Thinks Asya, as she rises and walks the five steps and : : sinks to the floor between Gerald Stone's denim knees. Why not? Why not ‘baby' and ‘babe' and ‘honey' and ‘sugar'? 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 on her neck, never to feel a man's hands on her breasts, on her waist, on her tummy. . . (Eyes, 539) : : Asya completely forgets Saif and all his attempts to make love with her. All : : she wants is to try something different, to find out how it is to be admired in : : a different way. This opposition between ‘sweetie' and ‘princess' on one hand, : : and ‘baby,' ‘babe' and ‘honey' on the other hand, not only points out the : : differences between Saif and Gerald's characters, but also reveals the : : conflicting emotions hidden in Asya's body. One part of her wants to be ‘baby' : : and another part still wants to remain ‘princess.' : : However, in order to understand Asya's struggle for freedom, one must : : recognize that she is a product of her environment. She is an upper class, rich : : Egyptian woman who wants to be both: Egyptian and English; married and free; : : have an Egyptian husband but an English lover. Thus, her search for freedom : : may never be completely over, because it is not always possible to have : : everything one dreams about. : : Conclusions : : Although Fadia Fqir, Leila Atrash, Liyana Badr, Fatima Mernissi, and Ahdaf : : Soueif might not always consider themselves feminists, their work is about Arab : : women and their personal struggles for self-definition. All the female : : characters discussed in this paper speak not only about their personal experiences but also reflect the many other voices of those women whose stories could never be heard for many different reasons. To break the silence, to speak for themselves and to educate the world about injustice and to bring about equality between the sexes is what inspires these authors to write. All their characters speak through the first person narration which in the feminist discourse is an elemental requirement for liberation. "To speak the self is to make oneself a warrior" says Audre Lorde, a black feminist writer. The "I"-ness in feminist discourse continually reasserts the belief that the personal is political— one of the basic principles of feminist consciousness. Speaking, putting the "self" into words exposes the writers, making themselves and their issues visible in the societies that want to keep women silent. Thus, the community of voices that these five arab women novelists create is a community of new emerging feminist voices that will always refuse to surrender. : : Bibliography: : : Anzaldua, Gloria. Making Faces, Making Soul. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1990. : : Atrash, Leila. A Woman of Five Seasons. New York: Interlink Publishing, 2002. : : Badr, Liyana. A Balcony Over Fakihani. New York: Interlink Publishing, 2002. : : Faqir, Fadia. Pillars of Salt. New York: Interlink Publishing, 1997. : : Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass. Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1994. : : Perreault, Jeanne. Writing Selves. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, : : 1995. : : Soueif, Ahdaf. In the Eyes of the Sun. New York: Anchor Books, 2000.

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