Marriage And Prostitution In Firdaus

The correlation Firdaus draws between a wife, a prostitute, and a slave are clear. She claims that “all women are prostitutes of one kind or another” (page 99) and simply have different prices. The women who are little more than slaves are not, in fact, the prostitutes, but the wives, for they are bound irrevocably to men. A wife must cater to the whims of her husband and may not demand anything in return, lest she provoke him. In this society even a man devoted to god would beat his wife. “The precepts of religion permitted such punishment. A virtuous woman was not supposed to complain about her husband. Her duty was perfect obedience” (page 47). Alternatively a prostitute can pick and choose whom she services and may charge as much as she pleases. “I prefer to be a free prostitute, rather than an enslaved wife (page 99). Furthermore she claims “that marriage was the system built on the most cruel suffering for women” (page 94). That it is a deceptive concept that works to bind women to men and forces them to live “with menial service for life, or insults, or blows” (page 94). Alternately, for men, the marriage system is a convenience, a way in which to get a …show more content…
The two eyes are first described when she tried to recall what her mother looked like, “All I can remember are two rings of intense white around two circles of intense black. I only had to look at them for the white to become whiter and the black even blacker” (page 16). Her mother was the first emotional connection she ever made and also the first person she loses. As soon as Firdaus is old enough to take on chores for her father, her mother withdraws and she describes that loss through the changes in her eyes. The two eyes that had buoyed Firdaus against the tide “that kept pulling [her] in different directions” (page 16) had become “dull, impervious to light, like two extinguished lamps” (page