Homeland as a choice.
While some women would flee from their oppressive societies, many prefer to return or stay in their homeland, where they hold essential social and religious connections. Finding the means for escape, Suha prepares to return to her homeland even without her husband. During this time, Suha observes the walls for the first time:
…every house had a different wall, made of marble, cement, natural stone like the stone you see in the mountains: tiles, factory-made stones, patterned and plain; there was a wall that took the form of a series of arches, so high that only the water storage tank was visible. New young branches were tied to one wall to give them support; electricity cables and telephone cables dangled from another: …show more content…
In Soueif’s “The Wedding of Zeina,” Zeina’s husband forces a cloth inside her sexual organ, pulling it out bloodied. The privacy of her pain vanishes as the husband brings out the cloth for her family to dance around it. Aisha asks Zeina if she hates her husband for what he did, yet “Zeina laughed again, easily. ‘No, of course not. He was a strong man, bless him.’” Through this event, Soueif offers two important social statements. First, through violence, a man asserts his absolute ownership over his wife. Men do not only own women’s bodies but also their very lives. Second, a society protects and promotes patriarchy through aggressive rituals that ensure women’s subjugation. Soueif underlines the inhumanity of patriarchy that normalizes and promotes violence against women. Third, by dismissing her true feelings, Zeina reluctantly accepts the social hierarchy and preserves the dominion of men over women. Soueif explores the juxtaposition between individual female complicity and the social forces that demand obedience while punishing social deviancy. Imagine if Zeina expresses indignation against these rituals? Most certainly, she will lose both her husband and social standing, or worse, her very life …show more content…
In Lebanon, which is at war, she sleeps with a sniper who impregnates her. At first, he instructs her to get an abortion but changes his mind and indicates his interest in marrying her. Connecting the promise of marriage with the end of war, she decides to keep the baby and leaves. However, the sniper might have shot her for in the end, she finds herself bloodied and dying. Lying on the ground, Zahra’s thoughts spill as well:
The pain is terrible, but I grow accustomed to it, and to the darkness. As I close my eyes for an instant, I see the stars of pain. Then there are rainbows arching across white skies. He kills me. He kills me with the bullets that lay at his elbow as he made love to me. He kills me, and the white sheets that covered me a little while ago are still crumpled from my presence. Does he kill me because I'm pregnant? Or is it because I asked him whether he was a
While some women would flee from their oppressive societies, many prefer to return or stay in their homeland, where they hold essential social and religious connections. Finding the means for escape, Suha prepares to return to her homeland even without her husband. During this time, Suha observes the walls for the first time:
…every house had a different wall, made of marble, cement, natural stone like the stone you see in the mountains: tiles, factory-made stones, patterned and plain; there was a wall that took the form of a series of arches, so high that only the water storage tank was visible. New young branches were tied to one wall to give them support; electricity cables and telephone cables dangled from another: …show more content…
In Soueif’s “The Wedding of Zeina,” Zeina’s husband forces a cloth inside her sexual organ, pulling it out bloodied. The privacy of her pain vanishes as the husband brings out the cloth for her family to dance around it. Aisha asks Zeina if she hates her husband for what he did, yet “Zeina laughed again, easily. ‘No, of course not. He was a strong man, bless him.’” Through this event, Soueif offers two important social statements. First, through violence, a man asserts his absolute ownership over his wife. Men do not only own women’s bodies but also their very lives. Second, a society protects and promotes patriarchy through aggressive rituals that ensure women’s subjugation. Soueif underlines the inhumanity of patriarchy that normalizes and promotes violence against women. Third, by dismissing her true feelings, Zeina reluctantly accepts the social hierarchy and preserves the dominion of men over women. Soueif explores the juxtaposition between individual female complicity and the social forces that demand obedience while punishing social deviancy. Imagine if Zeina expresses indignation against these rituals? Most certainly, she will lose both her husband and social standing, or worse, her very life …show more content…
In Lebanon, which is at war, she sleeps with a sniper who impregnates her. At first, he instructs her to get an abortion but changes his mind and indicates his interest in marrying her. Connecting the promise of marriage with the end of war, she decides to keep the baby and leaves. However, the sniper might have shot her for in the end, she finds herself bloodied and dying. Lying on the ground, Zahra’s thoughts spill as well:
The pain is terrible, but I grow accustomed to it, and to the darkness. As I close my eyes for an instant, I see the stars of pain. Then there are rainbows arching across white skies. He kills me. He kills me with the bullets that lay at his elbow as he made love to me. He kills me, and the white sheets that covered me a little while ago are still crumpled from my presence. Does he kill me because I'm pregnant? Or is it because I asked him whether he was a