Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar articulates the story of a young man Suleiman who was growing up in Libya under the regime of Colonel Qaddafi. Suleiman, nine-year-old, is the only son in the family and his father does international business. Suleiman is a friend to Kareem whose father is their neighbor accused of being a traitor. Trouble starts when Suleiman’s father Faraj is accused of secretly being a leader in a movement that is rebelling against the government. In this novel, boundaries are drawn between good and evil, guilt and innocence, personal loss and collective tragedy and between truth and betrayal. The novel is set in Libya during the oppressive regime of Qaddafi and the manifestation of good and evil comes out in the relationships between the main…

Turning the Tables: Exploring How Perceived Female Powerlessness can be a Survival Tool or Cause Submission in a Patriarchal Society Hisham Matar’s novel In the Country of Men presents a young woman and mother, Najwa, who is surviving in a world ruled by men. Scheherazade, the protagonist of Richard F. Burton’s The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night, faces a similar predicament of trying to be successful in an intricately oppressive society. Examining the lives, choices, and actions of…

Men by Hisham Matar tells a story about a nine-year old boy, Suleiman, living within a male dominated society. The author uses various aspects of Libyan society and the gender roles within them to represent what it meant to be a man. Suleiman witnesses the power difference between male and females in a totalitarian society, and through his observations; Suleiman craves the same power. The way Suleiman perceives the male figures in his life, demonstrates how they are described in society. The…

one’s child, but also to put one’s needs after their own child to let their child be a child. A child should never have to bear the responsibility of being a parent to their own mother (or father). In In the Country of Men , by Hisham Matar, Suleiman is faces neglection from his mother and feels the absence of his existent mother’s presence. Although, najwa is a mother in a (believed to be) “structured”…

Gender roles have historically been depicted as the man being the stronger sex while females are subservient and in charge of all of taking care of men and all of their needs. Odysseus’s wife Penelope in Homer’s The Odyssey and Hisham Matar’s mother, Fawzia Tarwah in his memoir The Return are pampered wives who have to step into larger roles when their husbands are suddenly no longer present in the household. The empowering strength that each of these women has to find within themselves is…

In Hisham Matar’s Novel In The Country of Men, male dominance is heavily present in the country of Libya. Suleiman is a young boy coming of age and is influenced by the many male models in his life. Suleiman must deal with the conflict of finding his true identity in a society in which carries strict norms of masculinity. Living in a society where violence is a big factor in male power and what it means to be a male, Suleiman is taught from a very young age what he should aspire to be as he…

Libyan writer. “ aftar Baba denounced his political convictions or had them denounced in him“. For this purpose, his case in gender role is depicted dissenting .Baba is 23 years old and is also named Baba or Faraj and Bu Suleiman.to this day, Matar and his family council do not know Baba is alive or dead. In March 1990,Baba disappeared from family home in Cairo like several other Libyan dissidents. Unknown leader of secret movement against previous regime. Baba’s family forces to flee to Egypt,…

civilizations in a negative way. Western civilization is too modern, Islamics are too conservative, Latin Nations are uneducated, and so on. On the other hand, news that benefits society is being spread as well. Nations are shining and growing; learning from the current superpowers and adapting to what works, but this is not the case for all nations. Nations with corrupt government’s, force their citizens to flee because of the brutal regime these dictators force on their civilians. A real-life…