Religion is the defining characteristic in the creation of Arab literature in that it affects women and men’s lives in every aspect. Some Muslim men and women use it effectively or ineffectively as a weapon, as a crutch, as an excuse, as a memory of a past life, and as the overwhelming focus of their lives. In five novels, A Woman of Five Seasons by Leila Al-Atrash, A Balcony over the Fakihani by Leila Badr, Pillars of Salt by Fadia Faqir, Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi, and In the Eye of the Sun by Adhaf Souief, Islam influences the development of the main characters’ identities, relationships, and views of society. In addition, in the five novels, Islam plays a role in terms of its effect upon social institutions such as marriage, the veil, education, slavery, marriage, and the harem, in everyday experiences, in relations between Christians and Muslims, and in perspectives of Western influence upon Arab countries. Thus, Islamic beliefs and values played an important role in the construction of women’s identities and lives.

Social Institutions:
Men are traditionally in charge of the family, running it and providing for it. Men are the ones who make all the decisions for the family because of their knowledge and wisdom. In marriages, men control the women in every aspect and, the woman suffers if anything goes wrong in the marriage. With Asya’s situation, she was the one in power, the one who caused Saif and Gerald to suffer. The same goes for Nadia because she took over her own life when Ihsan ran into some difficulty and was expulsed from Barqais by His Highness. For Maha, though, she suffered the consequences of her ventures into independence in that she was stoned when she returned to the village and thrown into the mental hospital. She was the one in charge of her house because her brother, Daffash, chose to follow a different path and because her father was too weak to control the farm. Thus, she became accustomed to doing what she wanted when she wanted. When the Imam and Daffash attempted to take away this freedom by taking away her land, she ran to the mountains but she wanted to face these men.
Egyptian society was more modern than its neighboring countries because of an increase in foreign influence. Egyptians such as Asya and her family practiced their religion such as the major festivals and holidays but it was not the determining factor of their lives. Therefore, it seemed that these individuals had a loss of religious faith and practices. Asya supposedly came from a Muslim-oriented society but she did not behave within the code of ethics and religion of other Muslim people. She should have grown up with certain Muslim ideas of how to live her life that, evidenced by the novel, her life obviously lacked. She should be ingrained with Muslim ideas and mentality but she got rid of these ideas and adopted Western ideas. Thus, she was a Muslim by name and not by religious practice even though she told herself, “You are an Arab, a Muslim.” However, based upon the novel, Asya seemed to become more religious with age through her interactions and her subsequently acquired knowledge of the application of Islam in Egyptian villages.
Maha, Nadia, and Asya were independent women who defied society’s standards and expectations. However, sometimes the men in the stories were unable to cope with having women who were strong and driven. Maha inherited her father’s land instead of her brother because she was a proper daughter who cared for her family instead of seeking Western pleasures (Daffash). The Imam and other important men in the village witnessed her father’s will but Daffash got very angry at the circumstances and asked their help to take back the land. Thus, the Imam, a holy man, reneged on his duty as a witness to Maha’s father’s will. To be precise, Islamic tradition states that the men receive the land and considers women second when dividing inheritances. Therefore, the Imam should not have allowed her father to construct the will in this manner because it was un-Islamic and it gave Maha hope that she could lead her own life. Consequently, Maha rebelled against these men and their proclamations regarding her inheritance and thus rebelled against traditions. As a result, the men stoned Maha to break her spirit and to demonstrate their male superiority.

Love and Marriage
Faris, Ihsan's friend and business associate, married Ihsan's sister, Afaf but he was not pleased with their marriage. He desired a new wife, someone who was younger and more desirable. Essentially, he went through a midlife crisis of sorts and misused Islam's creed that men can marry another wife for his own devious purposes. Technically, men can marry up to four wives as long as they are able to financially and emotionally support all of their wives. Muhammad, the Prophet, had many wives but he treated each one fairly and with equal compassion. However, Faris did not do so when he married the young girl who was actually a friend of his daughter.
Men in these novels actively engaged in extramarital affairs but the majority of them only did so when in a different country. For example, Umar's organization sent Umar to Hungary for medical care and while he was in the hospital, he met Louisa, a doctor. They did not have a physical relationship but they did have an emotional bond that resonated throughout Umar’s life. However, Umar told Su’ad about Louisa, which was unusual at least for the men in the books who had affairs. Ihsan did not tell Nadia about Angela because he was ashamed of his actions but Nadia eventually found out and she was the one who had to clean up after Ihsan and save their image.
Maha, as a Muslim woman, lived under the belief of expectation of giving birth to babies, to procreate and continue the line of her family. After several months of attempts to consecrate their marriage, Maha turned to the midwife in a last and desperate plea for help. With the support of her friends, Maha approached Hajjeh Hulala, the local midwife, to expel any evil that was residing in Maha that was causing her to be barren. Hulala was going to solve the situation by putting herbs into Maha's vagina and, if this did not solve the problem (which it did not), Hulala pierced Maha's abdomen. The general community looked down barrenness upon because a baby was God's gift to families and villagers believed that without pregnancies, God would be upset with that woman. Um Saad called herself a vessel for her husband to simply use and throw away which he did when he took another younger wife.
All Muslim women in the books were married under the banner of Islam and thus expected to procreate and continue the line of their surname. It was their duty as Muslim women to carry a child to completion and spread the word of Allah to further generations. Men because of a woman’s ability to give birth and because of a mother’s constant fight to raise their children properly respected mothers. For instance, Samir fooled his mother once at the hamman and his father publicly chided Samir since a mother is “the most sacred creature walking on two feet on God’s vast planet” and “to get to paradise, a Muslim had to pass under his mother’s feet.”
Asya, as a liberated Egyptian Muslim woman, waited to marry Saif and waited to have children. When she became pregnant, she did not like the way her body changed and thus wanted to adopt children instead of physically giving birth. She eventually lost the baby but everyone was shocked when it happened because her family and friends automatically assumed that she caused herself to miscarry through self-abortion. Abortion was un-Islamic which is why it was surprising when Umar suggested to Su’ad that Su’ad could consider one to limit their number of children. Asya’s Saif though had relationships with other women for instance a French woman and he was engaged to Didi, a Christian woman. Asya, however, was the one who pushed them to have sex but then when the moment arose she backed away and was apprehensive. During her marriage, Asya sought out birth control, which was unusual because of society’s expectations. The doctor did not give her the birth control pills and reprimanded her for considering such an absurd idea.
Um Saad, one of the characters in Pillars of Salt, unfortunately fell in love with a shopkeeper, a man from an ethnic group from the Soviet Union, a Circassian and a proper Muslim but religious beliefs was unable to overcome the difference in ethnicity. Muhammad, a shopkeeper from former Soviet Union, represents Um Saad's failed attempts at love, how she was destined to live a life that she did not choose. Despite being Muslim, Muhammad was unfit as a potential suitor and passed over as a prospective suitor, replaced by Um Saad's future husband, a butcher. This was a major deterrence for her family in that they desired her to marry someone from the same country of origin. This failed relationship could also potentially represent how city dwellers rejected Islam as the sole purpose in their lives. Her parents disapproved of the relationship and they blocked any chances that Um Saad had at happiness. A Muslim man, though, can marry a non-Muslim woman but these rights do not extend to Muslim women. Um Saad met Muhammad many years later on the streets of Amman and “when [she] caught sight of the minaret of the Grand Mosque behind him, I felt lonely and sad” because her religion had caused her pain and sadness for her entire life.
Maha, in the beginning of her marriage to Harb, was unable to become pregnant and consequently the village looked down upon her as incapable of bearing a child, one of the golden tenets of Islam. Consequently, Maha went to the midwife with Nasra to cure her of her ailment and rid her body of any evil that might inhabit it now. Hajjeh Hulala wanted to chase this evil out to please God by allowing Maha to bear a child. This was not just a belief of villagers; city-dwelling men and women considered women as solely carriers of human life.
Maha's son's name was Mubarak, the blessed one. After Harb's death, Maha was distraught and incapable of living. Her pregnancy was what allowed her to continue to live with the sole hope of giving birth to a strong man who would support her and her family. Mubarak was more than a blessing to Maha; he was a curse and plagued her with memories of him when she was in the mental hospital. When Maha first told her father that she was pregnant, he praised Allah as creator of the world and healer of injuries and said that they would call her son “blessed and son of the blessed.” Once he was born, Imam Rajab blessed Mubarak and the Imam called to prayer in Mubarak’s ear to allow Mubarak to “get used to the sound of Islam. He will grow up to become a good Muslim.”
Maha and Harb had an unusual marriage in that they married for love and cared for each other. There was an equal amount of respect in their marriage and they were compatible because they chose to marry each other rather than their parents deciding whom they were going to marry which happened to Um Saad. They had an appropriate, traditional Muslim marriage because they respected their religion and the traditions associated with Islam. This was an unusual marriage because the other marriages in the other books displayed and exhibited problems in those men and women who were unwilling to act in a traditional manner such as Nadia, Ihsan, Asya, and Saif. All characters married in the books were married under the banner of Islam however; it was up to their own discretion in how religion played a role in each of their lives.
The rape of innocent Arab women is the antithesis of marriage as defined by Islam. When Daffash raped Nasra and almost raped another woman, he used his masculinity to take away the most precious things for Muslim women, which are their honor, their virginity, and their piety. Rape takes away a woman’s ability to lead a productive life because there is no chance for a Muslim marriage. Nasra did not have any power and the village leaders relegated her to the outer parts of the village as an outcast for the rest of her life.
The major deciding factor that displayed Asya's lack of religious faith was after the first time she committed adultery. Asya calmly collected herself without a hint of resignation or of remorse over the previous events. She had just committed a major sin that would have been deserving of death (if there were four witnesses) but she just merely went to the bathroom and ruminated over the proceeding events. She mocked her religion over the issue of who would be her witness (she laughingly said the sheep, cows, and birds would be her witnesses) while she should have been happy because the Prophet had fought for men and women to have equal representation when bringing forth cases of adultery. Asya had a physical relationship with Gerald and she did not see anything wrong with her actions. The first time that she slept with him, she noticed that her face looked younger, released from its pain and now alive with feeling. Asya had expected to wake up with a feeling of dread and remorse but she woke up refreshed. She told herself,
You are only stoned to death if you are a muhasanah…No, she would not be stoned─ and anyway, where are the four witnesses? The birds, the cows two fields away? And besides, the door of repentance is always open.
These were arguments from an adulterer, a sinner, and a woman who committed the gravest sin of all. Yet, she justified her actions by saying that Saif had never treated her, never physically awakened her in that manner during their marriage.
Islam permits polygamy if a man only married four women and that man is able to equally support each woman. In Morocco, Fatima’s grandfather had more than five wives and thus was acting in an un-Islamic fashion. When questioned her views on polygamy, Asya did not provide a definite answer and it seemed that she was un-fazed by the possibility of Saif marrying another woman. Although, Chrissie was extremely upset when Fuad took another wife and the same goes for Afaf when she found out that Faris had taken another wife. There was always the chance that a man would re-marry but the women in the books provided different perspectives on this Islamic tradition ranging from support to outright condemnation.
Throughout Dreams of Trespass, 'Mother' reiterated her hopes that, sometime during Fatima's life, the nationalists would ban polygamy thus guaranteeing equal rights for all women. They wanted one man to one woman and thus the disappearance of harems. Unfortunately, the reader learns that the laws had not changed at the time of the printing of the book seeing as how polygamy was still legally accepted and a regression of the Muslim world has occurred.

Slavery
Um Saad was a slave to her family and her husband because of her circumstances. Islam, again, forbids this but she cared for her family and the house but her husband showed his gratitude by marrying a new woman. Abu Saad treated Um Saad like garbage, as nothing more than a woman who lived in his house who was at his constant disposal. Even though she had given birth to his sons thus carrying on his family's name and did everything that would merit her entrance into heaven, Abu Saad did not care for this and still had the audacity to bring a blonde, young woman into Um Saad's house.
Technically, Islam forbids slavery yet Samir Pasha had a Sudanese slave gardener. A proper Muslim looks down on slavery as a harmful practice. Yet, Islam does not directly forbid slavery since no individual has more favor and support from Allah because of race and ethnicity. Mina in Dreams of Trespass was originally a slave until freed by the French- enforced ban. As a result, many female slaves such as Mina were unable to fight for a place to live and settled into a dejected life as a drifter or as a burden on a kind family. Mina desired a place to retire to pray and to pay her respects to Mecca. She said that during her travels to Fez and Morocco, she saw just how powerful Allah was when they crossed the desert because she noticed just how insignificant her life was in comparison to nature. In addition, Fatima said that Allah must have punished the men who hurt her because Allah forbids slavery.
On the issue of djinnis and rituals, Mina wholeheartedly believed in the presence of the evil spirits in her life. She danced in public during the religious festivals because, being possessed by a djinni, she had “lost all sense of the hudud, or the frontier between good and bad, between haram and halal.” The most important time that she engaged in religious rituals to remove the djinnis was during the Mouloud festival that occurred on the anniversary of the Prophet’s birth. During this festival, many rituals took place especially black magic to overthrow the djinnis. Yet, she looked disapprovingly upon black magic because Allah had created each human as an image of Himself and changing His image would anger Allah especially on Judgment Day.

Education
Fatima and other characters in the books acquired some religious education when they were younger with the exception of Asya. Fatima went to a Koranic school that was in her neighborhood where she was ‘taught’ by Lalla Tam. Fatima’s education or lack thereof comprised of simple recitation and repetition of Quranic verses. The reasoning behind this type of memorization was that society did not expect women to have opinions and they would never be asked to explain the verses. Lalla Tam said, “you will not go far in life, if words keep going in one ear and out the other…Just learn by heart what you have written…” Fatima learned more about life and how to act in a proper fashion from Aunt Habiba and her mother than what she learned at school, being taught by Lalla Tam. All of the lessons taught by her revolved around the avoidance of hell for instance, “You would be sent directly to hell…if you arrived in the other world with debts. A good Muslim always paid her debts and kept clean accounts…” Lalla Tam’s role in Fatima’s life was to teach her the basics, to teach her an Islamized version of Western knowledge such as biology and the human body. She believed that it was necessary for women to learn about the world around them to become good Muslims. Prayer, as preached by Lalla Tam, involved concentration resulting in a connection to Allah. She emphasized the importance of prayer in a Muslim’s life that “to pray is to create the void, to forget the world for a few minutes, so you can think about God.” Therefore, Fatima was educated about life and how to avoid ignorance through either religion or life in general for Moroccan women.
Religious authorities from the Qaraouiyine Mosque incorporated nationalist beliefs into their decrees, which resulted in Fatima’s transfer from Koranic school taught by Lalla Tam to a real school. This school was a nationalist school where everything was modern such as subjects, manner of teaching, and the format of the school day. Fatima benefited from the instituted changes because she began to believe that she was intelligent, that she could become a knowledgeable woman. However, the change in education solidified Mother’s situation as a repressed woman, as a woman relegated to the harem who was unable to leave despite freedoms being granted to women in neighboring countries. She was confused about the denial of women's educational benefits and why she could only be a part of the harem when she wanted more for her life. However, she made herself happy with thoughts of her daughters having a better life than her own.

Veil (hijab)
In order to prepare them to go to the movies, all of the women in Fatima’s harem had to cover their hair and faces with the veil. Fatima’s mother was resentful of this assumption because the veil was a cumbersome burden for all women. The simple act of dressing up under the heavy veil was depressing to comprehend because they just desired to display their beauty in a Western fashion but this was impossible under the present state of Morocco. The veil that they were forced to wear consisted of a white piece of cotton that was heavy and cumbersome. Mother wanted to change the veil’s material to chiffon so that she could be freed of this burden but Father rebelled against any changes in female expectations for garb especially the transparency of the new veil. However, the nationalists changed the expected assumptions of the veil for women and thus it was the rage to wear the smaller veil. All of the women in the harem viewed the veil as a male invention and these same views spread throughout the country as nationalism became the universalistic drive against the British. With nationalism, women became liberated through their dress despite men’s objections regarding family honor and these views permitted Mother to wear her husband’s djellaba and the sheer chiffon litham.
Asya taught at the University when she returned to Egypt and she saw the changes that occurred in Egypt during her stay in England. She preferred the women who wore the entire veil and gown, who screened themselves off from the world, from the women who wore only the half veil and dressed up the other parts of their body. She saw the women as deceiving themselves of the religious requirements of how to wear the veil but she said that the religious authorities and women determine the veil. In addition, she noted that male garb changed to more traditional while some women more Western attire, exposing their bodies. In her classroom, Asya attempted to talk to a fully hooded woman, a spooky experience for her, but she was unable to do so because, as one of her students told her, a woman’s voice is ‘awra, which she knew from her religious education. She thought, “Of course, she’d always known that theoretically but she’d never come across anyone for whom it was a living truth before.”
From her experiences traveling throughout Egypt, Asya observed and mentioned that women in villages had always worn the veil unconditionally and naturally. It was always assumed that these women would wear the veil in their respective villages. In addition, these women lived their lives by God’s command and passed words of religious wisdom onto Asya, telling her that she would be given a child soon from Allah.

External and Internal Battles
All women in Arab countries endured battles with the Muslim institutions because they desired different lives from the one they were forced to lead. They fought against their environment as well as their true, internal desires.
Nadia had an internal battle within herself in her fight for freedom. She had a snake that was growing inside of her, coiled and waiting for the proper time to pounce out of her. She was of course a proper Muslim woman in the beginning of her marriage to Ihsan but, after several years, she was tired of acting 'proper' and submissive to all of his whims. She wanted to be free from the different responsibilities that are associated with being a Muslim woman. The internal snake could possibly be reminiscent of the story of Adam and Eve and the snake that tempted Eve. Eve or Nadia is the bane of every man's existence because these women are independent and fulfilled by their own efforts. Eve also is the one blamed for the downfall of humanity because she listened to the snake. Thus, Nadia eventually listened to the slithering of her internal snake and afterwards everything changed between Nadia and Ihsan. She became anything but a docile woman and her independence from Ihsan materialized in the form of the transformation of the snake into a giant.
The issue of inheriting land in Pillars of Salt demonstrated the myriad ways of how Islam and social customs are intertwined but also how men and women fight over the rights of the land. Men provide for the family by working the land and women remain in the house, raising the children, cooking, and cleaning. Unfortunately, for Maha, roles in her family were reversed but her father, Sheikh Nimer, gave her control of the land. The Imam witnessed this entire affair yet when Daffash rejected this course of action; the Imam aided Daffash and subverted the Sheikh's wishes.
As part of the changes instituted during Sadat’s reign, teachers were questioned regarding their teaching methods. Deena had to go through the same process when she applied to the University and she said that the ‘delegation’ was determining if she was going to hell. She responded to the questions by stating that she would go to hell if God did not show her the path to heaven first. Asya, also, had to endure this similar battle with the educational institution and responded in a similar manner in that she told the ‘delegation’ that she would find her own way to Paradise. It was intriguing how Asya noted that these changes altered the institutional environment of Egypt and her admiration for their actions because
they’ve sorted out some kind of answer to what’s happening all around us─ all the manifestations of the West that they see here are no good for them, for the way of life they want to hold on to, the values they feel comfortable with, even to their standard of living.
In order to Asya to return to Egypt, she had to fight against herself and her past experiences Asya returned to Egypt and became more religious, more thoughtful of her actions and her words. This change can be attributed to the change in the religious and political environment in Egypt but she also seemed to become more insightful. For example, while sitting at the funeral, she looked at Sheikh Zayid and saw that his ‘prayer-mark’ in the middle of his forehead had become deeper with increase of years. Also, she reflected upon her religious and spiritual upbringing as her family united over the death of a loved one in that the author incorporated passages from the fekki’s prayers over the funeral and Asya ruminated over her childhood and the people that she met through her work. When Asya first returned to Egypt, she met with Chrissie and they put two pieces of paper that two religious phrases printed on them. They had originally ripped the paper when Asya left and now that she had come back to Egypt, they were combined once more. One half of the paper said, ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of God’ and the other half said, ‘There is no God but God’. Therefore, it seems that Asya originally ran away from her religious roots but, as she aged, she returned to her religion and her Muslim heritage with renewed interest and intrigue.

Feminism
Fatima's mother, who remained nameless throughout the course of the book, was a feminist battling against institutions and male superiority. She considered male superiority to be "nonsense and totally anti-Muslim– 'Allah made us all equal' .” Yasmina, Fatima's grandmother and 'Mother's' mother, had similar views to 'Mother'. One of the wives in Yasmina's harem thought that she was better than Yasmina and should be treated differently than the wives in the harem. However, Yasmina had different views of how women should be distinguished. For instance, Yasmina said, "Are we Muslims or not? If we are, everyone is equal. Allah said so. His Prophet preached the same.” The same goes for the month of Ramadan when Lalla Mani dressed in traditional garb and colors and preached the necessity of repentance for everyone and following Allah's commands if they wanted to avoid hell and ultimate damnation. She directed these comments towards the liberated women "who wanted to discard the veil, dance, sing, and have fun in particular.”
The women in Fatima's harem idolized modern-age feminists who were fighting for women's rights and who were important religious figures. For instance, the Prophet's wives were the most popular figures and role models because of the relative importance and relevance of their lives upon modern women. Another important religious feminist was Zaynab Fawwaz who expressed her hatred of the veil and harems through her writing. Activists and feminists pushed their issues further in the political realm and further in the light of men and nationalists by utilizing the images of ‘Aisha and Khadija (Muhammad’s wives) in their movements. Like other female activists, these women battled against traditional, backward-looking religious authorities because they wanted freedom and equal rights concomitantly with the nationalist movement.
Women became increasingly aware of their restrictive environment when they discovered that veils and other such garb did not bound Western women. Fatima’s mother surmised that men were afraid of women but
No one really knows thy men force us to wear veils. Something to do with the difference maybe. Fear of the difference makes people behave in very strange ways. The Allemane must feel safer when they are by themselves, just like the men in the Medina who get nervous whenever women appear.
Overall, Fatima’s mother was a feminist who desired her daughters to have a better life, to be proud of their heritage and themselves, and to walk on Allah’s planet knowing they were free from restrictions. Religious authorities like the imams forbade women to expose their skin because they wanted women to hide their beauty from other men.

Everyday Experiences:
For Moroccan women and most likely women from other countries, the mosque was the central location of the town, the focus of everyone’s life. With the call to prayer and the Friday afternoon prayer gathering, men and women centered their lives on the events at the mosque. Maha’s life revolved around her religion and subsequently around the Imam, the leader of the local mosque. In Dreams of Trespass, the largest mosque was the Quaraouiyine Mosque and therefore if anything revolutionary occurred there such as support of women’s right to education it affected the entire city. This was the place for men and women to go to stay in touch with other people in their neighborhood.
Fatima's conception of life around her was simplistic and trivial in comparison to real problems in the world. She actually believed that demons existed and were searching for her, demonstrating her mindset throughout the book. For instance, she included a story pertaining to peacocks and a paradise that concentrated on humans as dangerous creatures who destroy whatever they touched especially nature. In this story, ‘the son of Adam’ created havoc until the peacock and other birds left for an island in the middle of the sea. At this island, the peacock met a duck who told it how it came to avoid the son of Adam because a voice told it to be aware of the son of Adam because of his wiles and guiles. Thus, the duck always had fear and dread of the son of Adam.
There seems to be a difference in how religion is practiced between city-dwellers and village people. For Maha, she relied heavily upon her religion to guide her along her life and the same goes for the characters in A Balcony over the Fakihani. Um Saad and Maha lived two different lives and thus had different opportunities for religion to affect how their lives progressed. In addition, cultural values and country of origin affect how one perceives the proper way to live one's life. On the opposite side were the characters in In The Eye of the Sun and A Woman of Five Seasons. In these two books, the characters did anything but act as Muslims, thus displaying the convergence of Western values with traditional, conservative values. This was a constant problem for all men and women in Arab countries because they were forced to decide which they believed in more: their parents' instilled values or the values of the occupiers, the foreigners?
The men in Dreams of Trespass depended upon their gatherings at the mosque as a way to discuss religious and political issues. Elected officials in the area interacted with members of their constituency via meetings at the Qaraouiyine Mosque, the largest in the area. Once the call to Friday afternoon prayer occurred, the five political forces in the city would convene to discuss pertinent issues. At these meetings, young men and old men converged exemplifying the convergence of tradition and modernity. Also at the mosque occurred nationalist meetings. Thus, it was what the entire city revolved around, in Fez, a very religious city, because it was “one of the centers of Islam worldwide.” All aspects of their life including Friday prayer occurred here.
Throughout Pillars of Salt, the characters used such phrases as ‘May Allah praise you’ easily incorporated into their vernacular. It was commonplace for them to speak such phrases but, if anything slipped out of their mouths that was contradictory to their religion, that was disrespectful, or was judgmental, they recanted their piercing words by simply stating, ‘By Allah's wishes...’. Fatima also utilized her faith in this manner, invoking Allah’s name when she wanted something or wanted to emphasize a particular point. It appears that all of the characters in Balcony and A Woman of Five Seasons also utilized their faith in this manner especially seeing as how a fight between religions ruled their lives. They praised Allah or asked for His aid when talking about another person or when they wanted help or guidance in times of difficulty. It was commonplace for every Muslim man and woman to praise Allah at every possible moment especially when they accomplished something to appear pious, respectful towards Allah’s deeds, and undesirable in order to go to be able to stand in front of Allah on Judgment Day. Overall, there was minimal reference to their religion and it was used more as a belief than as an active practice. However, Maha cursed her religion and everyone else's when Daffash forced her to hand him the land's certificate. By saying, ‘Curse your religion’; this exposed her lack of faith in others and her lack of faith in the village's religious leaders, the Sheikh and Imam Rajab. Throughout each of the books, the characters proclaimed their faith and praised Allah with hopes of avoiding His wrath.
The storyteller, as the character in Pillars of Salt, who told the polar opposite story of Maha as supposedly the village's perspective, constantly included verses from the Qur'an or stories that originated from Christianity or Islam. In this way, the book is filled with instances of religion and faith but faith that is reversed and convoluted. All of his stories and chapters began with reference to Allah and then proceeded to develop into the antithesis of Maha’s life story. The last chapter of the book focused upon the story of King Solomon, which expresses the close relationship between Christianity and the Qur'an at least for the storyteller. The storyteller detailed the destruction of the village, of the Hamia people, by the wrath of Allah. Allah struck the land with His mighty hand, because of the sins that the people committed. Supposedly, God was mad at people in that area because of their consistent tendency to sin from committing acts of homosexuality. These were the people of Lut and, as a result, God turned the area upside down, causing the sea to be salty. “Allah of the Muslims had destroyed the disobedient village, burnt it to dust then scattered its ashes over the Dead Sea.” The Dead Sea story that detailed how God was mad at people in Maha's village is an intriguing interpretation of the formation of the Dead Sea. It was interesting how the storyteller thought that he saw Maha’s footprints, that she was alive and well and that there was hope for her despite the events of her life and despite her forced seclusion in the mental hospital. All through the book, he told contradictory tales of Maha’s life but he ended the book with a happy note for her, believing in the possibility that she would be saved from the upcoming destruction of her village. However, the storyteller ended the book with a depressing sentence, “Soon, we shall all perish”, unexpected but goes along with the Islamic fundamentalist perspective of women’s rights and freedoms and how every Muslim must face the course and actions of their life on Judgment Day.
The characters in this book were mainly village folk, who depended upon the land to make their living. Allah was their protector, their stronghold in times of need and they turned to Him whenever they encountered any difficulty. They used their religion as a counter-balance against problems in life. Without the call to prayer from the minaret, without the traditions that originally began through Islam and were transformed into cultural customs, and without the Qur'an and Allah, their lives would have been meaningless.
Lalla Mani, a member of the conservative 'camp' in Dreams of Trespass, utilized Islam as a part of her arguments against other Muslims. She was apprehensive about many of the things that the other women in the harem wanted to do thus she would incorporate a hadith or a fatwa into her argument. Yet, younger women used Allah as justification for their statements and behavior, almost using the Qu’ran as a weapon. For instance, Lalla Mani said,
could do without the picnic...especially since as far as tradition was concerned, its origin was dubious. 'There's no record of it in the Hadith...It might even be counted as a sin on Judgment Day’.
Another instance when Lalla Mani intervened in the other women’s events was when Fatima was going to serve tea during Chama’s theater. She considered theater to be a sinful activity because it was not mentioned in the Qur’an and thus Muslims would have to answer for their sinful tea drinking on Judgment Day. The same goes for Lalla Thor, a wife of Fatima's maternal grandfather, in terms of general beliefs of how to properly behave. The issue between Lalla Thor and Yasmina, Fatima's grandmother, rested on dishwashing and Lalla Thor said this idea was against the Muslim civilization. Yasmina responded by stating that Lalla Thor should produce a fatwa from the Qaraouiyine Mosque demonstrating the ban and that Allah created everything on Earth for the use of His most precious beings, humans.
In A Woman of Five Seasons, religion and belief in Allah is pretty much non-existent. There was one exchange between Ihsan and a fedewi, the guard at the airport for His Highness that was very poignant.
Muslim countries...have always been coveted by godless people. There's been one invasion after the other. By God, Ihsan, I don't know why the Almighty doesn't destroy these people and get them off our backs! But no, brother─ their country's beautiful, blessed with rain and wealth. Whereas we acknowledge Almighty God, perform our religious duties. And look what happens─ one disaster after another!...Almighty God tests believers─ we thank Him for the blessings of patience. He tests us so we return to sound and sane thinking─ to unity─ and to know the taste of victory.
Fatima’s life was ruled by differences in sexes, in religions, and in classes. She asked Mina if she could ever escape from the imposed barriers and frontiers because she wanted to be free of the separation. Mina responded by stating that men and women do not understand each other because of a cosmic frontier. This frontier delineates the difference in power of genders in that “there are two kinds of creatures walking on Allah’s earth, the powerful on one side, and the powerless on the other.”

Christians and Muslims:
Mina succinctly described why religions were separated in Morocco into two medinas but appeared to peacefully coexist:
We know that Allah separated men from women so as to control the population and we know that Allah separated the religions, so that each group could conduct its own prayer, and invoke its own prophet.
Pillars of Salt was very similar to the other books in that each book somehow portrayed the convergence of Christianity and Islam. Either through the occupation of the Muslim lands by colonial powers or through everyday experiences, each book demonstrated the importance of the religious differences and, in some manner, the similarities. Fatima, as the main character in Dreams of Trespass, was intrigued by the concept of a harem, as a barrier between herself and the outside world, the Christians. Her father described the barrier because Allah created the divisions between Christians and Muslims for a specific purpose, to institute harmony. Christians fight against each other like Muslims and thus the two groups must be separated to respect the hudud or the frontier. Respect of the hudud entailed respect towards women because Allah wished this and to obey one's elders, all aspects of how to properly act Muslim.
There was not a clear division between the Christians and Muslims except ideologically speaking and culturally. Saif and the other characters in In The Eye of Sun seem to be affected by Christmas because Asya and Saif are always getting together at that time. Christians and Muslims were not normally allowed to intermarry except for Saif’s engagement to Didi as evidenced by the outrage of Chrissie’s family when one of her friends married a Copt. Muslim women and men were expected to marry men and women from good Muslim families. Yet, Chrissie’s brother, Taha, was allowed to date a Christian girl. Therefore, it appears that families had certain expectations for their daughters and a different set of expectations for their sons, hypocritical to say the least. Although, this seems ironic in that men continue a family’s heritage thus men would have had a higher set of rules. However, it was not always the case especially when analyzing Daffash and Ihsan.
In In The Eye of the Sun, Asya was a member of the upper class, part of the bourgeoisie and a member of a well-educated family. Her upbringing was liberal, devoid of the normal values that her friends were filled with for instance piety and modesty. Chrissie's family was also upper-middle class but her father and brother, Taha, were much stricter and conformed to traditional standards of how women should act in Egyptian society. Lateefa, as Asya’s mother, was liberated and free with her standards of her children in comparison to other Egyptian families. She was fine with Kareem, her son, dating a Christian girl but thought the girl’s parents would have problems with the relationship. She also did not perceive any major problems with Asya’s friend becoming involved with a Christian man. This style of thinking could most likely be associated with just the upper classes since her family ostracized Asya’s friend after her marriage, unwilling to talk to her because she rebelled against a traditional Muslim marriage.
Fatima's conception of the relationship between Christians and Muslims was very rudimentary. She thought the Germans were a new breed of Christians who were fighting against the French far away from Mecca. She puts everything that occurs outside of Morocco in a religious context that she can understand and comprehend. Fatima believed that if the American Christians had attacked the Asians that the Christians were going to attack the Arabs next on their conquest of the world. Since the Allemane (Germans) were Christians and Fatima believed that “Allah did not favor the Christians” because they lived in a harsh climate and thus were always looking for fights with other countries. This was evidenced by the Muslim climate and because “Allah made Islam’s territory immense and wonderfully diverse.”
The Germans had issues with the Jews just as the French and other Western countries had problems with the Muslims in Morocco. The Allemane separated the Jews from the rest of the population through restrictions of dress, which was in a similar manner to the Muslim men restricting women’s dress. Jews, though, are similar to Muslims because they devote their lives to prayer and loving their God through the construction of synagogues where the elders taught His book to the community. Except for slight differences in beliefs, Jews and Muslims shared the same religious leaders and “Jews had always lived with Arabs…and the Prophet Mohammad had liked them when he first started preaching Islam.”
Fatima had problems comprehending why the Jews and Muslims lived in separate quarters of the city and subsequently separate quarters of the world. The Prophet Mohammad originally wanted the two religions to coexist and Fatima assumed that the Jews and Muslims would always coexist in the warmer climates. She assumed incorrectly in her juxtaposition of characteristics to the entirety of the Jewish faith. Her understanding of the political situation for the Jews was somewhat hilarious seeing as how she assumed that the Jews were merely stuck in between the Christians and the Muslims. Thus, that was the reason why the Allemane persecuted them when the situation, in actuality, was much more complex ranging from ethnic and physical differences.
Father believed that without traditions and the harem, the boundary between Muslims and Christians would dissolve. Allah had created the sea between the two religions but this too had been crossed and ignored. Therefore, he foresaw the downfall of the Islamic faith if he left the harem and permitted the end of certain traditions.
Fatima’s Father explained to her why Lalla Tam was so concerned about the conquest of Spain because her family originated from that country. Lalla Tam’s family was forced from Spain because they did not pray the same way as Christians and thus Queen Isabella the Catholic. He said that the reason was religion but Aunt Habiba correctly stated, “Religion could not explain the war going on in Christendom.”
Father also believed that all of the problems of the Muslims originated from the Christian invasion. He thought that the Christians wanted to transform their decent culture into a culture that focused only upon the acquiring of materialistic goods. Christians were spreading their sickness to pious Muslim countries and that “Instead of praying to Allah, people stick dirt in their mouths.” This belief segues into the belief that the West was going to cause Muslim countries to lose their values and beliefs and consequently their traditions and culture would be lost, dead. He focused the majority of his attention upon the Americans who had come across by ship to Morocco and who were different from the Allemane and the French. The Americans were unique because they had to travel long distances in order to visit their ‘Christian cousins’ across the Atlantic Ocean.
Asya, as a relatively ‘free’ Egyptian woman who traveled to Western countries such as Italy, Greece, and England, was open-minded about religions and which religions should be practiced. During the beginning of her stay in England, Asya visited a cathedral because anybody is allowed to enter a house of God at any time and find solace from his or her problems. While there, she read passages from a Book of Common Prayer that made her think about her situation in the UK and the deplorable situations for other women. The passages quoted by Souief concentrate on the unbelievable knowledge of God concerning man’s vain actions and on the humbleness of man. In addition, she pleaded to Allah to change her marriage with Saif, “Oh God. Make it right, please, please make it right.”
Umar died an unfortunate death in A Balcony over the Fakihani, a death that resonated throughout Su’ad’s life. Her life was already ruled by the consequences of the Lebanese civil war and, with Umar’s death as a result of the bombing, the saddest part was that Umar was bringing Su’ad to visit his mother in Tunisia for the first time in 20 years. Unfortunately, though, Su’ad would have to visit Tunisia during the Adha Feast and the festivities by herself, a disheartening time for her because the Feast is one of the greatest feasts for Muslims and comes at the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Now, Umar would be known as a martyr, a man who died for the cause who devoted his life to the fight for Palestinian independence. In the Muslim faith, martyrs reach heaven where they are rewarded with bountiful treasures. Su’ad first met Umar in Jordan during the Black September at a house where all of the rebel fighters met together and convened to consider there political possibilities.

Political Situation
A Balcony over the Fakihani detailed the Lebanese civil war and its disastrous effects upon Palestinians. The poor Palestinians were pushed from one region of the world, undesirable only because the Israelis took their land from them. Ihsan knew the value of land when it too was removed from his possession when he had to immigrate to Barqais. Land establishes a person's wealth, as something substantial to depend upon and fall back on. The sentimentality of unwantedness was expressed by Lateefa and other characters in In the Eye of the Sun by stating that they supported the revolution but did not want the Palestinians to create a similar situation as Lebanon in that the Palestinians developed religious and political authority. People believed that Palestinians were lesser individuals and consequently readily discriminated against Palestinians when they attempted to find jobs or start over in a new country. For example, Asya had a Palestinian friend, Bassam, studying in the University but Tante Muneera sadly said that he would never accomplish anything with his life because of his ethnicity. Muneera exclaimed,
They should fall in love, yes, fall in love as much as they want to: with their own people. Among themselves. They shouldn’t spread their disasters over other people’s daughters.
Also, Noora, Asya’s friend, wanted to marry Bassam and she did at the expense of her relationship with her family and friends. The revolution did not directly affect them therefore, they did not feel remorse when mothers and fathers obeyed their children from interacting with Palestinian children.
In terms of the actual revolution, men fought as part of organizations that were socialist and communist-oriented. Jalal wanted to leave and Ihsan bought his way out of the group, which was surprising because it originally began as an organization of ideas and of principles but became a movement that focused upon money and the acquiring of goods. The organization began with Muslim values but became preoccupied with Western values. Umar and Ahmad, on the other hand, died for the movement, Palestinian casualties yet everyone expected death and most experienced it first-hand. The authors of A Balcony over the Fakihani and A Woman of Five Seasons took on the perspective that the revolution was hopeless, men were fighting in vain, and struggling against a force greater than their selves.
Sadat came to power after Nasser and he brought liberal views and a rise of political Islam. In order to develop better ties with the people, he gave more power to the Muslim Brotherhood, which actually reversed the situation in Egypt. It divided Egyptian society in that religious divided people and class differences and liberated people coexisted next to traditional people. This also created tension within the society and government because Nasser was secularist and Sadat was isolating the 15% of the population that was Christian. Ironically, Sadat gave too much power to the Muslim Brotherhood because they subverted his power and influence in the country.
The nationalists in Morocco advocated for more rights for women and the end of traditional customs such as seclusion and the veil. Women were involved in the fight for independence in Lebanon but not so in Morocco. Normally, the role of women was marginalized in terms of their ability to contribute to a society. But, with changes occurring in terms of perceptions of women because of modernization of societies, men began to perceive women in a new light. Thus, the nationalist and modernist movements gave women more rights and capabilities in terms of what they were allowed to do with their lives.
In A Balcony over the Fakihani, the characters’ lives were consumed and overwhelmed by the events occurring between the Christians and the Muslims in Lebanon. Each novel referenced the events occurring in Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel because these events were the determining points of Arab countries and Muslim societies. With the constant waves of expulsion from Palestine, refugees were relegated to camps that were occasionally attacked by rebels of both faiths. Yusra, a character in “A Land of Rock and Thyme” had devoted her life to fighting for Palestinian rights, and, when her child was about to be born, she exclaimed, “It would be a Palestinian, from its first moment in the world.” The Christian militia who justified their actions by saying that it was the Palestinians’ fault because they were the ones who had infiltrated the country and spread their disease attacked even the refugee camps. Palestinian men and women were moved to Jordan forming a state within a state and King Hussein of Jordan decided to take a stand by fighting against the Palestinian ‘occupation’. Therefore, the Palestinians were moved to Lebanon because they were not wanted by any other country. In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees were forced into camps but they were already perceived as changing the religious balance of power within Lebanon and as creating themselves as a political power. This consequently produced tensions between the Christian militias (Phalangists and Ahrars) and the Muslim militias culminating in a civil war. In essence, Christians attacked the Palestinians because the Palestinians were unacceptable and imposed their views and, in the end, the Muslim militia resisted and trounced the Christian militia to the extent that Syria interfered to save the Christian population.
The saddest events in Balcony were the death of Yusra’s brother and another man at the hands of a Phalangist. Phalangists were Christian militia who took it upon themselves to exterminate all Palestinians and Muslims and killed indeterminately anyone who appeared to be different from them. For instance,
They grabbed him by the shoulder. ‘For God’s sake’, he said to them. ‘Which God?’ they replied. Before I know what was happening, he’d fallen to the ground; there was revolver and a single shot to the temple…On the way one of them stopped him [Jamal, brother] and asked, ‘Lebanese or Palestinian?’ ‘Palestinian’, Jamal answered. A bullet to the head, just like that.

Western Influence:
The book, A Woman of Five Seasons, was more of an exposition of how Westernization occurred in Arab countries than a novel that focused upon Arab Muslim countries. Though, it did incorporate the Palestinian revolutionary effort into its pages with the use of Jalal as a character and his involvement in the fight. In that regard, the Palestinians were fighting against the Israelis with the aid of the Russians. Jalal was viewed as an admirable character but Nadia did not see him in the same light after he attempted to seduce her. These men and women immigrated to Barqais, leaving their former lives behind without looking behind them. Nadia and Ihsan were somewhat involved in the Palestinian fight because of Jalal and because they occasionally donated money to the organizations but they did not let the principles of the revolution rule their lives like in Balcony.
Saif smoked, drank, and had extramarital affairs only after Asya sort of broke off their marriage. He was not as bad as Daffash and Ihsan in terms of acting immorally but he did give in to the Western ideals of how to act. He too became abusive towards Asya just like Daffash was abusive towards Maha. Ihsan drank and smoked because he perceived these activities as necessary actions to increase his net worth and his acceptance in the business world. Rashid did the same thing and Ihsan saw how he had more respect than Ihsan in England. Nadia saw a different Jalal when Jalal got very drunk when they were in Greece. She realized that when alcohol infiltrates a person’s body, “it uncovers the hidden places of the mind…He bares his reality…– the face he hadn’t allowed us to see before.”
A poignant story in Pillars of Salt referenced the creation of monkeys that was a direct result of the greediness of people. The story exposed the sinfulness of greed and the result of greed for Muslim men and women which is Allah striking down his followers. In this story, a mother was baking bread and her son shat but she did not have anything to wipe him but a piece of silk that Allah sent her. However, she used the loaf of bread instead of the nice silk to wipe his bottom and hair began to grow out of his bottom. Thus, her son “turned from one of the sons of Adam into a monkey. May Allah protect us from greed and deformation.” This story expounds the different sins that are connected to greediness especially in relation to the supposed belief that Muslims are pious and conscientious about how their actions are perceived by others.
Nadia and Ihsan led immoral lives in A Woman of Five Seasons. They are greedy and concerned about worldly things when they should be worried about how to better their lives spiritually. Most likely, before they moved to Barqais they had a religious and pious life but now Ihsan constantly drank whisky and smoked at any possible moment while Nadia wears flashy clothes. Ihsan was the one who wants to show off Nadia to his fellow workers but Nadia did not protest too heavily when Ihsan presented Nadia with expensive gifts. Also, it seems as if they do not take care of their children and pawn them off onto their Asian servant. It is the duty of a Muslim man and woman to give birth to children and then raise them in the proper manner. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Ihsan and Nadia because they were worried about how to better their lives rather than their offspring's' lives. They were unconcerned with the world around them, with the wars occurring in neighboring countries, and more concerned with how to acquire more money or how to spend their free time.
The Highness was influenced by the views of the Shyoukh, who had a disparaging view of foreigners. The Shyoukh stated, “The French, the Americans, and the British are all pimps” and thus when Ihsan’s plan was foiled, this increased his outrage and anger. His Highness came to see Ihsan after the Friday prayer, the holiest time of the week, and exclaimed, “You’ve blackened my face in front of the Shyoukh, Ihsan. May God blacken yours!” Afterwards, His Highness told Ihsan to let him handle things, to explain to the Shyoukh the situation that Ihsan put them in with the French. Yet, their hatred for foreigners and for Ihsan’s secretive actions resulted in Ihsan’s expulsion from the country.
One day in 1944, King Mohammed V asked the French general for independence and the French commander reacted to this plea by crashing through the Moroccan streets, plowing people over. Moroccan men reverted to the only manner that they knew how to deal with this situation which was to recite the anxiety prayer, a single phrase, 'Ya Latif,Ya Latif...' repeated repetitively. The phrase simply meant 'O Sensitive One', a desperate attempt to implore Allah to help these innocent souls by describing Allah as the protector of unsuspicious individuals who were simply practicing their rights and their faith. The French soldiers, unused to such displays of faith and belief, shot into the crowd, killing many Muslim men. Fatima and her best friend and cousin, Samir, were so traumatized by the incident that Fatima's mother took them to a sanctuary on several Fridays, the normal day for high prayer, to allow the holy men (sharifs) put a protection ritual over the children. Also, 'Mother' placed a Koranic amulet under Fatima's pillow for an entire year until Fatima slept better. Thus, this displays a convergence of superstition with practicing of Muslim faith.
A persistent problem with Arab men and women is how to live their lives piously and with respect to their religion. With Daffash, he chose to have a more Western life, to pursue Western ideals, and to be loose. He never prayed or showed respect to his father. Yet, when his father gave the farm to Maha, he was outraged by this show of disrespect. Daffash actually expected to get the farm in his father's will solely because of his gender and their customs associated to inheritance of land.
Overall, Arab men and women had to cope with how to act and behave in a world that was being rapidly transformed into a modern, Christian-oriented world. For instance, Zin, Fatima's cousin, worked hard to establish himself as a repository of knowledge about Arab issues as well as a role model for the nationalist movement. In the schools, Moroccan men and women were taught Christian subjects i.e. science and mathematics to enable the students capable of coping in the modernized world.
The women in Dreams of Trespass highly believed in beauty treatments to make themselves appear different. They were not happy the way that they naturally were thus they used cultural traditions to create masks and treatments to appear more beautiful. Women in every country want to be different than they naturally are, desirous of different lives. Samir, though, did prove a valid point when he said, “God is the only one who creates beauty…God says that it is unlawful to change one’s physical form, so you’ll be risking hell too.” Father was upset by the beauty treatments because he thought his wife went through them to please him and invoked the name of Allah to ask her to forget about her henna treatments. However, the women would never forget about their treatments because their appearance under the veil was very important to them, more important than actually showing their skin. They wanted to know that they put in effort into their skin and see the benefits of their efforts. Yet, beauty and improving one’s beauty is always a subject that women from every society and culture can agree upon and unite.
Fatima's father perceived the West in a very specific manner, a trait that was continued by all men in his circle of friends. When the French built large and straight streets, 'Father' responded by saying that the French "squandered Allah's energy because people did not need that much bright light in a safe community.” He also told Fatima that some of the worst crimes were smoking or chewing gum because they were Western crimes imported from the Christian Americans.
Mrs. Bennis, a neighbor of Fatima’s, was expected to act in a traditional manner like all the other women in Fez. Yet, she led a double life, a life that was sometimes led in the old city where she wore the djellaba or in the Ville Nouvelle, the European city, where she was unveiled. She lived in two cultures, a sign of changing times and of the influence of the nationalists. With an increase in the influence of the West came changes in expectations of actions and behavior such as being able to speak the language and switching from cultural exchanges easily.
However, Daffash was lured into the city life and forewent any holds to the land. He wanted to be more Western, to follow the Samir and to be free of any connections to his village. It was the suave thing to be a part of the English crowd even though this crowd caused Harb's death. Ihsan also wanted a Western life, one without Islamic restrictions. Asya, too, took a different stance on her life and she drank, cursed, had extramarital affairs, and did everything but traditional customs. Lalla Mani would look upon Asya in a disparaging and critical view because she said, “When decent Muslim housewives start dreaming about dancing in obscene European cities, it is the end.” They lost their religion and traditions because Western influences overwhelmed their lives. Father feared this loss of tradition and the loss was adequately portrayed in the other books. This loss could be related to a loss of religious guidance and a lack of religious upbringing and an increase n concern with Western things.
In the Woman of Five Seasons, Nadia and Ishan were controlled by their incessant desire for material goods or Western objects. This, in of itself, is un-Islamic in the sense that greed is a deadly sin, something that should be avoided at all costs. In addition, Nadia and Ishan ignored their children, their gifts from Allah to the extent that they were background figures in the novel. Instead of raising them in the proper manner and style of Arab families, they depended heavily upon the aid of nannies and slaves imported from other countries.
The American culture intrigued Fatima and her relatives. Fatima believed that Americans greeted each other with an abbreviated form of Salam alikum by saying ‘OK’, as their way of saluting fellow Americans. Also, she believed that Allah had given blacks a separate land called Africa and was confused about why there were black Americans. Moroccans had intermarried and thus created a mix of racial colors but Americans divided their cities as if Moroccans divided their city by religion.

Conclusion:
Islam has a role in every person’s life because it affects love, marriage, politics, social institutions, one’s everyday experiences, one’s interactions with individuals from another religion, and one’s perceptions of the West. It is the defining characteristic of any society in the Middle East and thus influences every person who lives in an Arab country. For any woman of any class from any Arab country who grew up in an Islam-oriented society, Islam will always be the determining factor in their lives and will always affect every aspect of their lives.

Works Cited:

Al-Atrash, L. A Woman of Five Seasons. New York: Interlink Books, 2002.

Badr, L. A Balcony over the Fakihani. New York: Interlink Books, 2002.

Faqir, F. Pillars of Salt. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004.

Mernissi, F. Dreams of Trespass. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1995.

Souief, A. In the Eye of the Sun. New