Born in Amman, Jordan, and educated in both Jordan and England, Fadia Faqir brings her Eastern culture to the Western world, keeping focus on women’s issues. She defines the struggle of women through events, symbolism, and storytelling in her novel Pillars of Salt. Violence against women keeps women under control, and she identifies “crimes of honor” against Arab women, not men. She also makes political statements about the harms against women as the result of British colonization and the cultural patriarchy of Jordan. Faqir, however, does not depict her female characters as helpless victims, but, rather, she demonstrates womanhood in nature, giving strength and empowerment to the gender. Similar to the novel, which takes place in the 1950’s, women today face hardships, abuse, and discrimination in the Arab world, but, like Maha, women prove their power and strength every day. Through political protest, women demanded to be recognized as equals, and although the riots in the Middle East are not about women’s rights, a strong feminine presence motivates gender equality.
Using modern and cultural methods of storytelling, the novel gives a strong feminist message concerning two Arab women, Maha and Um Saab. Even the title of the novel has cultural roots. Lot's wife, a character in the Book of Genesis, turns into a pillar of salt for failing to heed the orders of the angels of deliverance while fleeing from the city of Sodom. The story of Lot takes place in the Middle East, as many of the stories in the Bible, Torah, and Quran do. Another example of Faquir’s incorporation of her culture into the novel is seen through the Story Teller who represents a male voice of the culture and is extremely antifeminist. Finally, the strongest statement of male dominance is in the fact that the two women, Maha and Um Saab, are incarcerated into a mental hospital because of the men in their lives.
One of the cultural statements made in her novel addresses the inequality of gender roles. Women are expected to be submissive housewives and mothers. If they cannot give birth, they are considered useless. As some of Harb’s friends jokingly refer to Maha’s potential infertility, “If you bought an English rifle and found out that it did not shoot, what would you do? You would throw it away and buy another” (Faqir 70). Many of the gender roles practiced in the Middle East derive from religious tests. Restriction of woman’s activities which force their roles to serve only the family and domestic matters, for instance, can be traced to the Qur’anic verse that addresses the Prophet’s wives who “abide quietly in your home” (33:33 qtd. in Osman). The Middle Eastern culture intertwines its cultural, everyday customs, to rigidly follow with values and customs found in the Quran.
There are many differences between the women of Pillars of Salt and those in the Middle East today. Because the novel is set in a small village, it hardly depicts the exponential change and development that cities experience. In the streets of many major cities such as Cairo, Egypt, women have more freedom and respect than what is depicted in the small village in Pillars of Salt, where mentalities of a close neighbor could be heavily weighted or even crippling. Great strides in the right direction have had a foundation laid by “Habib Bourguiba, the founding father of the modern Tunisian state, who outlawed polygamy, granted women equal divorce rights and legalized abortion” (“Now Is the Time”). Statistics of female literacy and education, however, indicate the massive oppression women still face in many nations.
Literacy and feminine equality varies from nation to nation. Being a woman in Yemen or a woman in Jordan are extremely different experiences from one another. In Tunisia, for example, literacy “is now over 70%, though only 27% of the labour force is female. Women make up nearly two-thirds of university students, compared with two-fifths in Egypt” (“Now Is the Time”). Life is drastically different in Tunisia than in Egypt. Even though Egypt's women may work outside the home, go to school and university for free, vote, and run in all elections, “women's literacy stands at just 58%, and only 23% of workers are women” (“Now Is the Time”).
Protest can serve as a liberating, but equally terrifying means of equality. The revolutions occurring today are fought by the citizens who want change and general reform may take place, but women are seizing these events to reform gender bias. Many dangers steer away revolutionists, and “In Egypt and Tunisia women are both hopeful and fearful about what the Arab revolutions might mean for them” (“Now Is The Time”). The protests today are not for women, but for all rights. Women protestors are harshly prosecuted. On the ninth of March, the army broke up a demonstration in Tahrir Square when they arrested scores of demonstrators, including at least 18 women. While held, they were beaten, threatened with charges of prostitution, and they were forced to submit to “virginity checks.” At first, the army denied that the checks had taken place. In May, however, a senior general admitted it had been done so that the women would not later claim that they had been raped by soldiers. ‘“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,’ he explained, ‘these were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square’” (“Now is the Time”). It is clear that many harbor resentment against the female protestors, as if taking the same stand in the streets, fighting the same fight as men, is a disgrace.
Overall, women have a huge battle to fight in the Middle East, but as it stands, they are striving to earn at least one thing: respect. With dedication and perseverance, women authors and women protestors, alongside male supporters, will achieve the goal of equality.
Works Cited
Faqir, Fadia. Pillars of Salt. Canada: Interlink Books, 2007. Print.
Now Is The Time." Economist 400.8755 (2011): 29-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment