In this course, we have formed groups based on specific content areas of the Middle East. My group is about Women in the Middle East. In our groups, we will study literature and film pertaining to our specific subject. I recently ordered two books from this genre that I will read and analyze. I anxiously await their arrival!
I chose:
Mahi's Story by Gohar Kordi.
In her first novel, a memoir called An Iranian Childhood, Kordi told the story of her upbringing as a blind child, whose sight was lost during an illness and as a result of insufficient medical care. In this story she speaks of her negleftful family, in particular her mother, Mahi. In Mahi's Story, Kordi tells the story through her mother's eyes. Themes of this novel include rape, forced marriage, beating, and the selling of one's own daughters.
The topic of women in the Middle East has always interested me. Some of the stories you hear through the US media about the treatment of these women are simply horrid. I can't imagine being faced with some of the things these poor women must endure daily. I can't wait to actually get my hands on this book and dive into it. Although classified as fiction, this book seems to deal with a subject matter that would offer valuable information and insight into the life of Middle Eastern Women.
Women of Courage: Intimate Stories from Afghanistan by Katherine Kiviat.
This novel profiles 40 different women, of varying backgrounds, who have had to transform their lives since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. A full page picture of each woman is included. The title was spurred from a common theme throughout their stories: courage. Other themes include: women's rights to education and to work. This book tells the stories of a kind of woman that the western woman may not fully be able to understand; as for these women the simple acts of going to school, leaving the house, and getting a job takes great courage.
I chose this book for all of the different stories and perspectives that it has to offer. I have a gut feeling that this book truly has lessons to teach, which really is the point of all of this.
....More to come later, as I anxiously await the arrival of my books!!!
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I'm almost finished with The Wiles of Men by Salwa Bakr. It's short stories, and we might be able to choose a few of them or assign the entire book. Good luck with your reading!
ReplyDeleteThese sound like interesting books. I can't wait to hear what you think of them.
ReplyDeleteThese sound fascinating! I just read a short novel titled "Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery." In this short novel, the mother was very unsympathetic to her daughters, and even beat them for a childish mistake. So it was interesting to hear your comment about the mothers being insensitive to their daughters.
ReplyDeleteI think that both of these books sound so interesting...I may have to read them after you are done. I would love to learn more about what the women go through in their culture, it is so easy to take the lives that we live for granted. I will admit that until this class I never really sat down and thought about the things that I get to do and what women in other cultures do not. After reading things like that it makes you think and appreciate all that America offers to women now. It also makes me really appreciate the women who fought in our country to give women the rights we have today.
ReplyDeleteI, too, have always been interested in the topic of women in the Middle East... or really just the oppression of women in general. I think the more you explore male and female roles in many different cultures, the more the topic of oppression based on sex becomes so intruiging!
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