Aisha's beauty in relation to the Muslim culture and traditions is like a lion en closed in a cage, starved, and two feet outside the cage resides a raw steak. For Aisha to be blessed with Angelic assets, to then only have the liberties to show her physical gifts, taken away from her, by this religious-based society is only taming the beast. It is not long before Aisha begins on a fierce quest to get her blue eyes and golden hair some attention, "...greet the day by combing her hair and fixing her attire before doing the house-hold chores, as though Aisha could not bear for her beauty to be left untended for even one hour out of her whole life." (137). She does so after the men (father and brothers) have left the premises: "When the men went off to work, she wanted to be ready to to repair to the parlor and open the shutters of the window overlooking Palace Walk just the least bit. Then she would stand searching the street, while she waited anxiously and fearfully." (137). Aisha was awaiting a male body with wandering eyes, specifically though, eyes that are looking at her.
It is a great irony that Aisha was born under conditions such as: being allowed to only wear full body dresses covering every anatomical part of her beauty fullness, and not allowed to see the light of day.
1. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1990
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As in many cultures, Aisha's beauty is her main means of attaining anything she may want in the world, no? Is is ironic or is it natural that she would focus on this and neglect other parts of herself?
ReplyDeleteI found this interesting because of our discussion in class about the moon. I see you didn't go into that here, but it would be nice if you did and compare how women are hidden and the moon is exposed, sometimes.
ReplyDeleteDoes being covered up make muslim women more attractive? People always want what they can't have, is this one of those cases? Do you think Aisha's fate be different if she wasn't Muslim?