Importance of women

In the novel Palace Walk written by Naguib Mahfouz we are presented to an Egyptian family who practices Islam. This novel is narrated in the 1920’s meaning that Egypt was still partially in control by Great Britain. I say partially because there were signs of a revolution starting against the British. Women in Islam are to obey their husbands and always stay home unless told differently by man. Throughout the novel we see that women are also respected, loved, and appreciated. Women are willing to fight for everything that they want and that they love.
“Then, the children arrived, one after the other. In their early days in the world, though, they were tender sprouts unable to dispel her fears or reassure her. On the contrary, her fears were multiplied by her troubled soul’s concern for them and her anxiety that they might be harmed. She would hold them tight, lavish affection on them, and surround them, weather awake or asleep, with a protective shield of Qu’rans suras, amulets, charms, and incantations. True pace of mind she would not achieve until her husband returned from his evening’s entertainment” (3).
We see how at the beginning of the novel the author Naguib Mahfouz gives us all of this information in the first couple of pages. This really caught my eye because it shows that no matter how young the woman are in the Egyptian society they still have to have children at a very early age. As Javier said in his blog
“This passage really impacted me because its found on the third page of this novel. The author was able to include a lot of things in these few sentences that are fundamental to the whole understanding of the Egyptian culture and this book. Mahfouz, makes it seem as if women are married young and find themselves serving no purpose until their children are born. He makes me feel that their only purpose in the Egyptian culture is to be a care giver and provide comfort to the family” (Women).
Women have to become mothers at a young age in Egypt and they are not look down at. Man actually like the fact that they can have children because that to them is an assurance that there name will live on forever. To women in Egypt it seems natural to have kids at a young age because of the way that they quickly get that natural instinct of a mother. They learn how to take care of their children and they are also scared for their children. Many woman seem to become by natural habit a caring a loving person to the husband that they have. Even though they really don’t get to know the man that they are marrying sometimes they don’t even know how they look until they get to the marriage ceremony.
Women also take care of themselves and others. The best thing that they do is that no matter how badly they seem to be treated they still fight for their government and for the freedom of their country. Britain controlled Egypt for most of the 1920’s until finally Egypt decided to fight for their independence from Britain. This meant that Egypt was going to need everyone that was willing to fight for that country to do it. This was so important for everyone that even women were allowed to go and fight for what they believed was right.

"Beautiful women marched in protest
I went to observe their rally.
I found them proudly
Brandishing the blackness of their garments
They looked like stars,
Gleaming in a pitch-black night.
They took to the streets;
Sa'd's home was their target"
-Hafiz Ibrahim (374)
This poem shows how it is that women all over the world have fought for the freedom that they feel that they deserve. Amina heard noises first and was afraid to check because she was afraid to wake Yasin. The true is that she was afraid of being punished. As soon as she heard that loud noise and saw what was really happening she shut the blinds and left. Yasin stayed there and was the one that noticed that even women were fighting agains the british. We have to remember that this book was written before Egypt received there independence from Britain. The women in the Egyptian culture are not allowed to go outside unless they are single. This time it was an exception for women. It must have been an exception because the men knew that they needed all the help that they could get. The men know that women love their country and therefore will allow them to fight for the women want and for what man will allow. In the end of the novel Fahmy dies and that in a way softens Ahmad. We see that Ahmad doesn’t know how to break it down to Amina or Kamal and when he walks in the house he hears Kamal singing “Visit me once a year/ For it’s wrong to abandon people forever” (498). This made me think about how is it that at such a moment something like that just happens by coincidence. Ahmad was entering his house with the intentions of telling Amina and Kamal that Fahmy had just died and then he hears those words. Those lyrics at that time were probably the last thing that Ahmad was expecting to hear. We realize at the end of the novel how much Ahmad really loved Fahmy because never in the novel did I read about Ahmad crying until he found out that Fahmy had died. Ahmad is a strict father but the true is that he just cares so much about his children that he’ll do anything to just protect them. Ahmad also cares about his children being able to live a life the way that Islam says life should be live.
As we can see women play a very important role in the Egyptian life. That’s why they are cared for more when they are younger then man are. They are also protected because no father wants to let there daughter be seen outside of their house. The reason is that whoever wants to marry their daughter is doing it because they want to be related to him and only him. Without women the world would be different and not a good different. Therefore women are the most important people living on this earth.

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1965. Print.
http://heritage-key.com/egypt/egypt-and-era-discovery