The fall of a curtain...

Yasins' life was changed from this moment,

Sitting next to her was her father, not someone else. When he saw him, his heart pounded harder. His father had removed his cloak and rolled up his sleeves. He was shaking the tambourine and gazing at the performer with a face brimming joy with joy and happiness. The door was open only so long as Zanuba was in the room, one or two minutes, but during that time he witnessed an amazing sight: a secret life, a long story with many ramifications. He awoke like a person emerging a long dream, deep sleep to the convulsions of a violent earthquake. (P. 249)

This part of the paragraph is extremely powerful where Mahfouz conveys the importance of having Yasin see his fathers' other life. Yasin has never seen his father drinking, singing, playing instruments, or even being relaxed in anyway. Yasin's heart pounds hard when he sees that his father is sitting next to a woman and not only that he is the complete stranger to him. Mahfouz not only lets Yasin in on Ahmad secret it seems that he is letting the reader have a look over Yasin's shoulder. Mahfouz uses the methapor of the earthquake to show this revelation to Yasin,  "He awoke like a person from a long dream, deep sleep to the convulsions of a violent earthquake (249)" A dormant earthquake erupts without mercy when the time comes and nothing in the world can ever be hidden forever. Yasin was amazed at the sight he saw of the father he never really knew. So many things ran through Yasin's mind and he probably wanted to know about this made who smiled with such happiness.

To Catch Yasin, You Must Think Like Yasin. Feel Like Yasin

People, my post is of a sexual nature. Viewer discretion is advised. It's not my fault his sproink-a-doink-doink parts are very descriptive.
"He sighed with relief and victory, confident now that he would pluck this fruit he had patiently pursued. Lust surged inside him, the way a ravenously hungry man's mouth waters when his nose smells meat being broiled for him." (Pg. 244)
This is incredibly descriptive. He really wants us to understand this almost overpowering lust Yasin is feeling.Going through the laundry list, we see tactile used a lot, along with olfactory. We see the emotions he feels, along with the reactions these emotions elicit. His stance appeals to pathos. He really gets the emotions nailed down for you to feel. Great descriptions in this passage.
Again, sorry for the sexual nature of this post. I just put my finger down on a passage. Blame the Fates.

Dangerous Desire

"With his mouth hanging open, he advanced gently and cautiously. He was oblivious to everything except the mountain of flesh spread at his feet. To his greedy eyes this body appeared to be preparing itself to receive him. He hesitated before her legs. Then, almost unconscious of what he was doing, little by little he leaned down over her, driven by urgent internal and external stimuli. Before he knew it, he was sprawled out on top of her. He had perhaps not intended to go this far all at once. Perhaps he had not intended to indulge in some of the foreplay that ought to precede the final violent motions, but terror, and a resounding scream escaped, before his hand could stifle it. The pervasive silence was shattered and his brain was dealt a blow that brought him back to his senses. He put his hand over her mouth as he whispered anxiously and fearfully in her ear, "It's me. Yasin. It's Yasin, Umm Hanafi. Don't be afraid""(277-278).

Mahfouz reveals the outrageous behavior of one of Ahmad's children. He uses up to about a page and a half to describe the various actions of one child that lead up to the one action of desire. Yasin was craving the body of another woman but settled for what was already being offered to him at home. Yasin knew the consequences of everything he was doing but wasn't listening to anything besides that strong desire that told him to do what he would in order to quench the thirst of his lustful desire. Mahfouz uses ethos through description as done through this entire chapter or any other chapter to present the uncontrollable yet disciplined desires of the men in this culture. Yasin really presents the reader with a scene that will give a sense of how much a woman's body isn't something revealed every where and every day as it is now, and how there are many regulations to live by. Talk about temptation. It only made sense -logos- that when there is a body laid there for you, when your body and mind are craving lust, you will jump to devour what is basically handed to you. Mahfouz really sets the scene to present the thoughts and actions of Yasin as he analyzes everything although he is very drunk. Although Yasin is drunk, he finds it in himself to not take chances of getting caught and not quenching his desire and stay at home to quench it with the body that was " preparing itself to receive him"(277).

Beauty

" It's beauty that's made me so bored I'm sick. It's like a new word that dazzles you the first time. Then you keep repeating it and using it until it's no different for you than words like 'dog,' 'worm,' 'lesson,' and other commonplace expressions. It loses its novelty and appeal. You may even forget its meaning, so that it becomes strange, meaningless word you can't use." (pg. 337)
Newly wed husband clearly has doubts and doesn't believe in love. This passage reminds me of pathos, since it holds lots of description and a nice metaphor, it contributes to the reader's emotions in an odd manner. Mahfouz uses beauty as if it were something boring and uninteresting in the minds of men. This passage shows how something so intoxicating can also bring about boredom and displeasure. It's hard to believe that Yasin would say something like this, since he " inherited" his father's lustful and " midnight amusement" qualities. But it's in my mind, as well as in most, that beauty is just among the first qualities a guy sees in a woman and is enticed by its pleasant and magnificent power to extract the emotions and thoughts of men. Beauty plays a vital role in this novel as we see with Aisha, Khadija, Al-Sayyid Ahamd and Yasin, but also it poisons them. Its wonderful that Mahfouz was capable of playing with his words and causing beauty to play with the emotions of men. In doing so, Mahfouz captivates the reader into thinking that beauty is marvelous and causes a great deal of controversy upon the novel's characters and the readers. Yet, does "beauty" ever get boring and unappealing? According to Yasin and Mahfouz's metaphor he simply states it as if it were a new word. I love that combination. Learning a new word provides a pleasing effect, yet once repeated it also brings about irritation. Think of it as if it were a repeated song over the radio station, getting played multiple times within every tuned-in station. But it's difficult to understand that a married man can find his wife unattractive. It creates a feeling of pity and doubt about how a woman can endure a man that finds her uninteresting. That can be a good reason why Yasin married her. He was so dazed about her "beauty" that that word stuck to his mind and that's the only characteristic that he truly found in her upon marriage. A woman would like to get recognized by other things, but since he was at a stage of lustful and disgusting manners, he only got caught up with what was put in front of his eyes and he fell in love with the appearance of his wife, not for who she was. As a reader, one is blinded by rage and curiosity as to why Yasin is the way he is. Of course he only states it trying no to sound cruel, but it seems that living with a wife and not be able to go out and do mischief when he was single is what leads Yasin to take that course and announce his message to Fahmy.
The passage chooses a metaphorical stance and provides some description, followed by emotions. The metaphor had an impacting effect when announcing that " beauty" was unappealing and that it was a word. But not just any word. A word that only characterizes Zaynab and to which shows that words have a great effect on people. Words convey messages, but here beauty has more emphasis to the things that distract men and to how men see women. They are seen as tools, but beautiful tools, to be fair. Even words like this can provide a certain way of talking, especially in this novel. Using the word beauty provides a good effect on men's wife, but when used to say it to another woman, is very illegal. Basically, this passage shows what Yasin feels and how Fahmy rejects the idea of having a woman be talked of as if she were just a breath of air.

I Caught You Red-Handed

"Trembling with rage, al-Sayyid Ahmad began to examine Yasin's face grimly and silently, dragging out the silence. Without taking his pitiless eys off Yasin, he pointed with his han to the door, ordering him inside. Although at that moment disappearing would have been dearer to yasin than even life itself, he was paralyzed by fear and confusion. The father was outraged, and his scowl showed he was about to explode.... He rebuked him loudly,'Go upstairs you criminal...'"- Page 279

In this passage, Mahfouz uses pathos rethoric to illustrate both Ahmad's strong reply to Yasin's madness for trying to rape the house servant and Yasin's reaction to a horribe nightmare.

Mahfouz's most used method in this section is body movement. From "trembling" to "paralyzed", Mahfouz does a wonderful job in using body movement in his writing to set up the tone and mood of the scene. He shows Ahmad's anger simply by the way he stares at Yasin's. Yasin, on the other hand, shows fear through silence. That is something I found very peculiar in this scence- There is a lot of silence going on. In fact, there are only two shorts sentences of dialog. Mahfouz does this because he wants to emphasize the importance of silence in this scene. Not only does it contribute to the gloomy mood, but it shows the huge respect and fear that Yasin has for his father's mere presence.

Looking at the entire chapter, Yasin committed a deadly mistake. Obviously. But that's not the whole point of the passage. Mahfouz wants to convey to the readers how body language solely does the trick in a Muslim patriarchy. What does it signify? Fear. Respect. Authority. Power.

Afterwards, Ahmad can't hold back his tounge and uses very, very strong langauge. Calling your son a "criminal" isn't something a father does often. Mafhouz wants to show how Ahmad takes into account that Yasin defiles the family name. He probably wouldn't care less if Yasin wasn't his son, but since he is has a big problem in his hands. As soon as the word gets out, Ahmad is going to be looked upon. This is a big influence in his tantrum.

I also found it a bit ironic. Ahmad does this all the time, except it isn't rape. A clear sign of hypocrisy.

Not Me

Yasin breathed in deeply and then exhaled. He was playing with his fingers in obvious anxiety. He stammered, "Our father has a fiery temper and does not accept corrections for his opinions. I, for my part, am no longer a boy. I have become a man and an employee, as you pointed out. What I fear most is that he'll get angry and I'll lose control of myself and become angry too." (pg. 213)

The children have been trying to determine who would confront their father about bringing their mother back and as the oldest Yasin is kind of automatically the one that should take on the responsibility. He uses logos to try and find a reasonable explanation as to why he shouldn't be the one to so it. He knows that he can't just give any crappy reason so he thoughtfully tries to avoid the situation. He didn't think this true at first but when he said it he realized that is was more than just an excuse he realized it was actually true. He was afraid of how he would react. He knows that his father has a bad temper and doesn't want to put himself in a situation that would cause him to react in an inappropriate or disrespectful manner.

Looking Into Yasin

Chapter twelve in Palace Walk begins with Yasin leaving home, heading out into the real world. It is here that Naguib Mahfouz first goes into Yasin’s mind. Interestingly, the first paragraph opens with the sentences “When Yasin left the house he naturally knew where he was going, since he went there every evening. He appeared, however, to have no idea where he was heading. He was always like this when walking in the street" (70). It is in this manner that journeys often begin, with a character taking his first steps towards a goal but seeming to be hesitant. These few sentences also help to show how Yasin's life has become an unchaging rutine. Yet in this rutine, Yasin is constatnty searching for something new, more specifically a woman.

Mahfouz uses the first two pages of chapter twelve to give an insight into Yasin's mind. It is here, where Yasin is first introduced that the author chooses to give importance to him. It wouldn't make sense to include so much writing if Yasin wasn't going to be a developed character. It is here that we learn of Yasin's sex drive and how he fears his father. This further enforces the difference of the father in his house and at work, and it also allows for an easy transition into Ahmad's night adventures by creating a parallel between father and son. The fact that Yasin is the eldest son also fits well in this situation because it is usually the elder that resembles the father.

Yasin's Lust

In Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, Yasin is a character that takes after his father, Ahmad, but not in the dealings of business or being someone of high respect. Yasin takes after his father’s vices: partying and women. In the novel, we immediately see that Yasin is a lustful creature. Every time he talks about a woman, it is entirely sexual. He describes their bodies and treats them as objects, always referring to them with obscenities. When he attempts to rape Umm Hanafi, his father feels that it is best to marry him off to one of his friend’s daughters. Ahmad does this in hopes that Yasin will settle down and stop tainting his name; if he is married, he will be seen with more respect than being a single, licentious rapist.


Before his marriage, Yasin was entertaining himself with a woman named Zanuba. He was vey lustful with her and would call her whenever he was in need of pleasure. However, when he gets married to Zaynab, he comes to realize that Zanuba means nothing to him emotionally and now that he has a wife, nothing to him at all (even physically).

“When Yasin thought about his bride, a bestial tremor passed

through his body. Then he remembered the last night... with

Zanuba. He had informed her of his impeding marriage and told her

he was saying goodbye to her... Zanuba no longer meant anything to

him, nor did any other woman. He had lowered the curtain on that

side of his life forever. He might return to drinking, because he

thought his desire for that would not die, but as for women, he could

not imagine his eyes straying when he had a beauty at his disposal.

His bride was a renewable resource and a spring of water for the wild

thirst that had troubled his existence so frequently” (299).

Ahamd was right: If Yasin were given a beautiful wife, he would settle down and then have someone to submit to his lusts. Yasin and Zaynab’s marriage was proving just this until Yasin’s lusts began to resurface. There were times when she would satisfy them, “...her vivacity and desire had increased. When he would think that sleep had become a necessity after such a long period of activity, before he knew it her leg would be flung over his as if of its own accord. So he told himself, ‘How amazing...she’s the one who’s realizing my dreams for our marriage’” (308), but most of the time he was just disappointed that he had left his lustful life behind.

To Yasin: “Marriage’s external appearance was beguiling, tempting enough to die for, but inside it was so staid and sedate that a person might become indifferent of disgusted” (307). He began to lose interest in having a permanent woman at his disposal. Ahmad’s idea had failed because Zaynab was unable to satisfy Yasin’s thirst for lust. Yes, she did try to satisfy him as best she could, but Yasin wants more than one woman can give him and this is what Ahmad failed to take into account. One good thing, in Ahmad’s view, did come from Yasin’s marriage: Yasin’s honor was secured. Because he got married, his offenses of sleeping with other women are not as costly as they would be if he were single.

Work Cited
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. Toronto: First American Edition, 1991. Print.

Ahmad’s Regrets

Throughout Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Palace Walk, we see how Ahmad treats his family with detachment and harshness. Although he does feel affection for his loved ones he does not show it. He acts like this because he believes that if he shows any sign of agreement toward them, they will begin to disobey him. Because of this Ahmad appears to never be pleased with anything his family does no matter how good it is. Ahmad acts detached and indifferent towards his family until his son, Fahmy, dies and he realizes that he was always too strict with them.

The reason Ahmad acts so strict towards his family is because he is thinks that if he shows that he’s pleased with anything they do, they will immediately start disobeying him. Yesenia describes Ahmad’s thinking perfectly in her blog entry, “Disobedient”. She says, “Ahmad is a typical father who forces his entire family to be submissive to him. He is strict to the point where he manipulates the way his wife and children act. The reason why Ahmad doesn’t show affection towards his own family is because he believes that if he does then they will take advantage of him.” Because of this fear he has of losing control over his household, Ahmad is very demanding of his family. Nothing, even anything his best son, Fahmy, does, is ever good enough.

Throughout the novel we can compare and contrast how different Fahmy and Yasin are. One of those moments in which we can see how different they are is the way the way Yasin reacts versus the way Fahmy reacts when they find out the truth about their father, Al-Sayyid Ahmad. In their eyes their father had always been a proper, honorable, and pious man. However, they then find out that he has been going to parties to sing and drink and has been having affairs with various women. Yasin and Fahmy react very differently when they learn this truth. Fahmy condemns his actions and Yasin praises him. We get a glimpse of what they about their father’s actions on the third and fourth paragraphs on page 271.

The first of these paragraphs show Fahmy’s thoughts. He says, “‘My father doesn’t differ at all from Yasin except in having sunk lower…. There must be something I don’t know… My father hasn’t done anything wrong…. He can’t do anything wrong (271).’” To Fahmy his father was a true hero, so much so that when he learned this he believed it was a lie. When he finally accepted it as the truth the image he had of his father was marred. He no longer regarded him with the same respect and admiration. He believed he was even worse than Yasin. When Fahmy learned this truth he was appalled and condemned his father’s actions.

In the second of these paragraphs we see the way Yasin thinks. He says, “’He sings. So what’s wrong about singing? He gets drunk, and believe me, drinking is even better than eating. He has affairs and so did the Muslim caliphs…. Our father isn’t doing anything sinful (271).’” Yasin always held his father in the highest esteem. However, when he learned about this truth he became even admirable to him. Yasin thought it was great that his father acted the way he did. He thought that there was nothing wrong in having many affairs and objectifying women.

This contrast of what Fahmy thought versus what Yasin thought about their father’s actions is just one example that shows how Fahmy is a better son than Yasin. Everything Ahmad has taught Yasin has been to no avail. Yasin still drinks, wastes his money foolishly, has lovers, and if that weren’t enough he praises his father when he learns he does this. Fahmy on the contrary is a proper, honorable, and pious young man; everything his father always wanted his sons to be. However, does Ahmad praise him for this? No. All he ever has to say to his family are negative things. Although Fahmy was a much better son and overall person, he never received any kind of praise from his father.

Another example of how Fahmy is a much better son than Yasin is the way Yasin tried to rape Umm Hanafi. With this incident we saw what a savage animal Yasin is. His brutal sexual desires are well described here: “He was blinded by lust. What kind of lust was it? A lust kindled by a woman simply because she was a woman, not because of any of her qualities or associations. It was a lust that loved beauty but would not turn away from ugliness. In these crises, everything was equivalent. He was like a dog that eagerly devours whatever scraps it finds” (277). This is something Fahmy wouldn’t have even thought of doing.

Another incident that greatly angers Ahmad is when Yasin sleeps with his wife’s personal maid, Nur. When this occurs Ahmad is enraged but not so much at the fact that Yasin has slept with a woman that isn’t his wife; he’s more enraged because of whom that woman is. He explains why giving us examples of his own affairs

Just as he loved beauty in the abstract, he loved it in its glittering social framework. He liked to be noticed and to have a widespread reputation…. This social use of his love did not require him to sacrifice beauty, for in his circle beauty and reputation went hand in hand, like an object and its shadow. Beauty was most often the magic wand that opened the door to reputation and noteworthy status. He had been the lover of some of the most famous entertainers of his time. Not one of them had disappointed his yearning for beauty or his craving for loveliness. For these reasons he thought scornfully of Yasin’s conquests. He repeated disapprovingly, “Umm Hanafi! … Nur! … What a beast he is (391)!

With these statements Ahmad is basically saying that he disapproves of Yasin’s conquests because they weren’t beautiful, distinguished, or influential. Yasin had no criteria to choose his mistresses; when lust blinded him he would be content to lie with any woman. And this was exactly what enraged Ahmad; he didn’t like that his son was a savage willing to sleep with any woman regardless of what she looked like or who she was. Here we see how much Ahmad disapproves of Yasin’s actions.

These reproachful actions, however, aren’t reason enough for Ahmad to value what a good son Fahmy is. Like Marixa says in her blog entry “Wake-Up Call”, “Unfortunately Ahmad only realizes where he has gone wrong when he learns that Fahmy has died while at a demonstration. This is the turning point in Ahmad’s life. It becomes the wake-up call that Ahmad needs to realize that he is not the almighty and that he is human just like everyone else.” It’s at this point that Ahmad realizes that he had a great son and that all he ever did for him was point out his flaws.

After Ahmad learns about Fahmy’s death he begins experiencing what, according to “Coping with Grief and Loss” an article in Helpguide.org a trusted non-profit resource, calls common symptoms of grief. He experiences the physical symptoms of grief, shock and disbelief, and guilt. His shock is apparent when he learns the news, “Although there was an unmistakable look of belief and dismay in his eyes, the father rejected the news, shouting, “Fahmy?” (495). And after the shock comes the guilt, Ahmad begin thinking of all the things he didn’t say or do for his son. He begins thinking about the last time he saw his alive, “Consider the memory of the quarrel they had had after the Friday prayer at al-Husayn or that of their conversation that morning, when Fahmy had appealed for his affection and he had reprimanded him –– how much of his heart would they consume? How many tears would they stir up?” (497). It’s very unfortunate, but Fahmy had to die for Ahmad to realize what a great son he was.

Works Cited

"Coping with Grief and Loss: Support for Grieving and Bereavement." Helpguide.org:

Understand, Prevent and Resolve Life's Challenges. Web. 31 Mar. 2010. .

Chavez, Yesenia, “Disobedient”. [Weblog entry.] Digging Even Deeper. The Chinquapin

School: AP English Class. 24 Mar. 2010. (http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/03/disobedient.html) 27 Mar. 2010.

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.

Rodriguez, Marixa, “Wake-Up Call”. [Weblog entry.] Digging Even Deeper. The Chinquapin

School: AP English Class. 30 Mar. 2010. (http://diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com/2010/03/wake-up-call.html) 31 Mar. 2010.

Death in the End

“Death is new to me. I've never witnessed it before. I wish the end could come without it. We all die...really? I've got to resist my fears. Nowadays we hear about people dying all the time, on Ministries Street, in the schools, and at the mosque of al-Azhar...What can the families of the martyrs do? Should they spend the rest of their lives weeping? They weep and then forget. That's death”(428).

It seems that death is a very prominent theme at the end of the novel Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. In almost every situation that they get into, death is the outcome to worry about. When Ahmad was trapped by the English soldiers after leaving the neighbor's house, he worries that he would be killed by the English soldiers. In the passage above, Yasin is worried about his mother dying. It makes him ponder about dying himself. When Aisha is having issues during labor, Ahmad and Khalil worried about her and her child's death.
We see the characters that appear to the reader to be really tough and inconsiderate of people's feelings have a heart. They think about and are saddened by the idea that life for everyone else goes on after people die. The dead are soon forgotten. There existence is no longer taken into consideration after a week after their death. These two characters are Ahmad and hi son, Yasin.
Ahamd, a man well respected by his family and his community, shows that he is not an all knowing and ready-for-everything being. As Daniela puts it, “we find out that he is not a God.” When death comes to someone close to him that he cares about, we see that he does not know what to do. He does not know how to break the news to his wife. He is simply hit unexpectedly and dumbfounded, which is something that he gets a lot from Fahmy at the end of the novel. Death is not something that anyone in the family was prepared to handle.
Mahfouz brings the theme of death into the novel when Yasin finds out about his mother's sickness. Yasin, who is called a “bull” and has treated woman as they are simply object to get sex from, shows a pensive and delicate side as his father did when confronted by death. Yasin learns from and mirrors a lot of Ahmad's actions, as Marixa says, “Yasin is influenced by his dad and the things that he sees at home.” This situation where Yasin has not seen his father, or anyone else for that matter, deal with this allows the readers to see Yasin in a new light. He questions life itself. When we see Yasin in the mosque praying, he is so sure about what he is doing. He knows not to ask for repentance because he would then have to give up his ways. He isn't troubled about getting a divorce from Zaynab, or at least that is how he tries to appear. But when his mother is stricken with malaria, he doesn't know what his next move will be. Should he cry? Should he part with her on good terms or will their relationship end as it has been existing all these years? Should he get mad at her new husband? He has all these questions because of one thing death
Death at the end of the novel poses a lot of questions in many people's minds and influences their actions. More people joined the demonstrations, probably, because they heard about the people that the soldiers had killed. Death made a huge footprint in the lives of may of the Egyptians at that time.



Work Cited
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.

Rod., Marixa. "Courage & Influence." Digging Even Deeper. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. .

B., Daniela. "Hes Human After All." Digging Even Deeper. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. .

Leading a Double Life

In my opinion, nothing is more aggravating than a person who tries to portray themselves as something they are not. In Palace Walk, a lot of these men are living double lives. Take Ahmad for example. From the beginning of the book he doesn't allow his family to see what he's really up to at times and does a pretty good job at hiding it from them. He goes out and sleeps with various women who aren't his wife and still claims to be a devout muslim. Finally, Yasin catches him in the act cheating on his wife, but instead of Yasin seeing the error of his father's ways he decided to emulate him. He decides that it's okay to live a life where he sleeps with various women, goes out and spends his money and drinks, all because his father does it. We've seen Yasin since the beginning of the book as someone who has admired his father so much, and it's inevitable that he'd want to be like him in every way possible. But, when Fahmy began lying about who he was and also leading a double life, it's apparent that this must be something that their family does. Ahmad wants Fahmy to stop participating in demonstrations dealing with the English, but Fahmy is so involved with doing this that he ends up disobeying his father , which will eventually lead to his death.
The passage that showed me that they really live this kind of life is found on page 424, when Fahmy shows us just how much this family doesn't mind lying about what they need to in order to get away with certain things. Fahmy thinks, “Lying was not considered contemptible or shameful in this household. Living in their father's shadow, none of them would have been able to enjoy any peace without the protection of a lie...None of the had scruples about it...” Fahmy talks about how many things that their family has done they've lied to Ahmad about it and they don't feel any remorse about it. But, my concern is why don't they? They consider themselves to be devout, faithful muslims, yet from most of the men in the book, we see them living lives that are contrary to what they should be doing as well-practicing muslims. I did research on the way that muslims view lying to see if they were actually living the way they should. I found a website written by a man named Dr. M. Amir Ali who was a man who came to the United States to spread the word of Islam to rid people of their pre-conceived notions and stereotypes of the religion. He wrote many articles on Islamic values and did a specific section for the views of falsehood. He writes, “Allah's messenger did not hate anything as strongly as he hated falsehood. If he received information that a particular man told a lie, he used to throw away that man's respect and honor from his heart...” So if Allah's own messenger did not tolerate lies, why would a good muslim truly want to do something like that.
Works Cited
1. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
2."Falsehood." The Article Collection of M. Amir Ali, Ph.D. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .

Yasin Yasin

What is it about men having more of a reputation for cheating on their wife, than say a woman, particularly in the Muslim World? Yasin commits the most unfaithful act in Muslim culture; he cheats on his wife, with not even a single month of official marriage between the two. Deception is the enemy, the root cause to blame, that Yasin uprooted to seduce Zaghlul. But if the reason for marriage was more intrenched in pure love and commitment; if Yasin's decision to marry was stronger in purpose, than deception wouldn't of been such a potent factor in him cheating on his wife. “If love was straight foward and unchanging, that would be easy to acknowledge. But, when you take a close look at the nature of love and romance, one thing becomes clear: Love creates both happiness and heartache, opportunities and constraints, joy and sorrow.”[1] Is love to blame or Yasin (and his animal-esk lustful needs)? The predatory-like mind set is, in a larger sense, in all of us (after all, we are mammals that have sexual needs just as we have needs for a longing partner). I am not justifying Yasin's unfaithful actions, but I am considering the fact that as human beings, we have strong desires(sexual) perhaps. It is when the Love is strong, and not utterly futile, that a marriage can prosper. After all reflecting back on how the entire marriage was arranged, Yasin's options weren't so fluid; it was a rough and forced marriage influenced majorly by Ahmad.

1. http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=57&id=17251

It's NOT love

“He glanced at Zaynab. He found her examining his face with a look that seemed to say resentfully, ‘Why are you so inattentive? Why are you so glum? Doesn’t my presence cheer you up at all?’ Yasin felt her resentment in the fleeting moment their eyes met, but he did not respond to her sorrowful criticism. To the contrary, it annoyed and riled him. Yes, he disliked nothing so much as being forced to spend a whole evening with her, deprived of desire, pleasure, and the intoxication on which he relied to endure married life.
He began to look at her stealthily and wonder in amazement, ‘Isn’t she the same woman? . . . Isn’t she the one who captured my heart on our wedding night? . . . Isn’t she the one who drove me wild with passion for nights and weeks on end? . . . Why doesn’t she stir me at all? What has come over her? Why am I so restless, disgruntled, and bored, finding nothing in her beauty or culture to tempt me to postpone getting drunk?’” (378)
Naguib Mahfouz demonstrates the loss of love in a marriage in his novel, Palace Walk. Yasin and Zaynab’s relationship is clearly at a loss of love in this section of the novel. Yasin has become “bored” of his relationship and no longer looks at his wife for pleasure. But, why could this be? Could this be that Yasin has just grown tired of his wife? Could it be because he feels no connection to her? Could this be a result of an arranged marriage? Does this tend to happen in all arranged marriages? Are they an exception to the so called, “success” of arranged marriages?
Yasin and Zayanab’s marriage was a customary arranged marriage and, at first, Yasin was quite enthusiastic. But, as the novel progresses, we see that Yasin loses interest in his wife, Zayanab. On page 378, we see that he begins to question his feelings and why he no longer feels the same way for her that he once did. According to Dictionary.com, the word “lust” means, Intense or unrestrained sexual craving, an overwhelming desire or craving, a lust for power, or an intense eagerness or enthusiasm. This definition allows me to assume that the feelings that Yasin once had for his wife weren’t any sort of love feelings, but feelings of lust. The eagerness that Yasin had to marry and his raging hormones caused for him to marry someone who he wouldn’t be very happy with as time progressed. In Dee’s blog, “Yasin has gone crazy!” she explains the attitude that Yasin has towards women and how the Lust he has for them came to be.
In my research, I found that countries that practice arranged marriages have higher success rates than those countries that don’t. One thing that the author wrote was that the reason that most marriages that aren’t arranged fail is that the couple bases their decision to marry on the belief that love will conquer all and that everything will be okay just as long as they’re in love, but when push comes to shove, love isn’t everything and their marriage ends up failing (Seabastian). But, what about Yasin and Zaynab’s marriage? It was arranged and had nothing to do with love yet it is still coming apart. Could it be that Yasin just wants to be with more than one woman? Or, could it be that he wants love and not just lust? Yasin and Zaynab's marriage is an example of how arranged marriages aren’t always as successful as people make them seem. Sure, some learn how to deal with one another without being in love, but some don’t and what happens then? Is it okay for Zaynab to leave or should she stay in a marriage where she’s not happy simply because it’s the “right” thing to do in her society?

Bibliography
Dee. "Yasin has gone crazy!" 17 February 2010. diggingevendeeper.blogspot.com. 04 March 2010 .
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.
Seabastian. "Arranged Marriages - Past and Present 78." February 2010. HubPages.com. 4 March 2010 .

Foreshadowing

Picture by
D'Arcy Vallance
"He had entered the nest of matrimony with no leftover desires and heart full of good intentions..." (308). Yasin imagined marriage this way. Little did he know what lay ahead of him.

Mahfouz says:

[Yasin] saw the similarity between his father’s character and that of his own mother. Both of them were sensual and pleasure-seeking. They ignored convictions…The relationship between them had ended quickly, because a man like him could not stand a woman like her, and vice versa. In fact, married life would have been impossible for his father, if he had not happened to upon his current wife. (298)

As I read this passage, I began to think more about Yasin than about his parents. Yasin himself is a lot like his father. As Dominique Hackett mentioned on one of his blogs, people inherit certain things from their parents genetically that affect the way they act. Here I’m not talking about eye color or height; I’m talking about Yasin inheriting his father’s lustful ways, and maybe even his mothers’ ways.

I kept this passage in mind as I read, and when I started seeing the way Zaynab behaves, I wondered if Yasin could have long relationship with her. Yasin and Zaynab reminded me about Ahmad and his first wife. All four of them are pleasure-seekers in different ways, but in the end they want to enjoy the pleasures of life, Yasin with women, and Zaynab with freedom, as she lived with her father. There is definitely a similarity between Yasin’s and Zaynab’s character. “Both of them [are]...pleasure-[seekers]” (298).

If his father and hi mother couldn’t stand each other because they were similar, why should Yasin and Zaynab be able to stand each other? Later we learn that Yasin cheats on Zaynab, and she decides to leave him. She is not Amina; she will not stand the humiliation. She managed to be patient for a little bit, but “she could no bear to be patient and forgiving any longer” (386).

Yasin thinks that if a woman like Amina hadn’t appeared on his father’s path, than “married life would have been impossible for his father” (298). As I said before Yasin is so much like his father, so how could we expect Yasin to last with Zaynab if she is basically the opposite of Amina? Yasin needs a woman like Amina, someone that will be submissive and obedient.

I thought about all this points, as I learned more about how different, or liberal, Zaynab is, and came to see that Yasin and her would probably not last. I feel like the author foreshadowed the separation of Yasin and Zaynab using the passage at the beginning of this blog. It doesn’t take much effort to see how masterfully he makes it all fit in like a puzzle.

NOTE: When I found that Zaynab had left her home, I wondered how did she have the courage to do that and if she even could do that. I will not lie; I thought that in the Muslim culture you got married and never had the chance to get divorced. You either stay married or died. That’s what I assumed, but I did a little research and found that it was somewhat this way in ancient Egypt. But in modern Egypt law have been changed to make it more possible for women to get divorced if they want to.

Bibliography
1. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.
2. “Talking health to men.” 2000.Women’s Rights. March 3, 2010.
<http://library.thinkquest.org/C001142/countries/egypt.php>

New Marriage

“Don't you know that I forbid my wife to leave the even if only to visit al-Husayn? How could you have given in to the temptation to take your wife to a bawdy show and stayed there with her until after midnight? You fool, you're propelling yourself and your wife into the abyss. What demon has hold of you?”(314).

In Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, marriage in Islam is a very big theme. For majority of the novel, Mahfouz in a way teaches us that marriage is not really a connection between a man and a wife, but a requirement of society. He shows us this with the relationship between Ahmad and Amina. We never see them be what we, Americans, think of as husband and wife. He treats her as a slave. At the start of the novel, it is shoved in the readers face that this is the status of wives in Islam. On page 4, Ahmad tells Amina, “I'm a man. I'm the one who commands and forbids. I will not accept any criticism of my behavior...” Mahfouz sets the tone of how a wife is treated this early in the novel.
For majority of the novel, one would believe that the marriage is not a good thing and that women would not be happy to be married. This would especially be thought when one sees the freedom and happiness of the women in the novel who are not married, such as Amina's mother and Zanuba. In JNV's blog about divorce, we see the different ways that men feels about marriage and the way women feel about marriage. But after Aisha gets married, we, the readers, are exposed a different feeling towards marriage. In chapter 43, we see that Aisha and her husband seem very happy about marriage. It seems as if as if Aisha has freedom even though she is married. She tells her mother of the story of how she was able to keep her kohl and dress, which she was not able to do before because she “wasn't a Shawkat”(290) then. This whole conversation with Aisha surprised me because I was under the assumption that marriages in Islam was not a happy union, besides of the social standard. In Islam, the marriage is supposed to have patience, kindness, etc.(Huda)
Besides Aisha's marriage, we see that Yasin has a happy marriage at first. He adores his wife and she satisfies him. They seem to have a very peachy relationship until Yasin comes to the point that he is bored with marriage. This explains a lot about the feelings towards marriage in Islam. This may explain Ahmad's feeling towards marriage as well.
Ahmad's and Yasin's views towards marriage seem to be very similar. They both cheat on their wives with musicians, who they believe are more exciting than their own wives. This is because they can't hold out on then and disobey them, whereas these other women can because they are not their wives. They appreciate the spontaneity of these women, but they would beat their wives if they even proposed spontaneity. In the passage, Ahmad advises Yasin on what he is doing wrong with his wife. He also advises him to beat her. Thus, the reason that Yasin's marriage may be so similar to Ahmad's, besides they both have “very sensual” desires, is because Ahmad is advising him. Also, Yasin himself admires Ahmad and the way he lives his life.
I wonder if the way Yasin and Ahmad treat women and view marriage is common around Egypt or are their views specific to them? Do most Egyptian families have a relationship like Amina and Ahmad or Aisha and her husband?




Work Cited
1.Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor Books, 1991.
2.Huda. "Islamic Marriage - Married Life in Islam." About.com Islam. Web. 04 Mar. 2010. .
3.JNV. "Divorce." Digging Even Deeper. Web. 04 Mar. 2010. .

Did He Really Rape Her?

In this week's reading of Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, there an interesting revelation. It had previously been obvious that Yasin had problems controlling his sexual urges. Before, he crossed the line when thinking of how to approach Zubayda. This time, he went way beyond the limit by forcing
Nur, his wife's maid, to have sexual relations with him. He definitely has problems controlling his urges, but did he actually rape her?
The following passage seems to be half Yasin's view, and the other half seems pretty neutral. Just as an alcoholic will never admit that he is drunk, and a smoker won't give up the cigarette, Yasin finds excuses to justify his actions.

His greedy appetite overcame his hesitation. He put his hand on her waist. Then he pulled her gently toward his breast. She put up some resistance and kept him from achieving his goal. Putting his cheek next to hers, he whispered in her ear, "Come to the room."
She muttered uneasily, "Shame on you, master."
Her voice rang out in the silence in a way that disturbed him. She had not raised her voice intentionally, but it did not appear easy for her to whisper or her whisper had a resonance to it, even if less pronounced than that of her normal voice. His panic quickly deserted him, both because his lust was fully ignited and because her tone lacked the protest that her words suggested. He took her by the hand as he murmured, "Come along, sweetheart."
She did not attempt to free her hand, either because she was pleased or because she was obedient. He was lavishing kisses on her cheek and neck, swaying from the intense emotional impact, in a delirium of happiness. He began to say, "What's kept you from me all these months?"
She answered him in her normal tone of voice, lacking any ring of protest, "Shame on you, master."
Smiling, he commented, "Your objections are very attractive. Make some more."
She did resist a little when they reached the entrance to the room and said, "Shame on you, master. . . ." Then, as though to caution him, she added, "The room's full of bedbugs."
He pushed her inside, whispering with his mouth at the nape of her neck, "I'd lie among scorpions for your sake, Nur." (382)

Scarleteen says “Rape is when one person wants and pursues a sexual act on, to or inside another person who does not want to participate, and who does not fully and freely consent to take part in that act. (1) In this passage, Nur seems to fit the description pretty well. It is Yasin's twisted mind that confuses the reader. He makes the reader think that Nur is being kinky. That when she says no it means yes. If there was a history of Yasin and Nur flirting in the book it would be more believable, but there was nothing before. Mahfouz also describes Yasin as being someone so lustful that the only characteristic he looks for in a woman is that she is a woman. He will engage in intercourse with any woman no matter how ugly or old. The odds are against him. In a previous essay I had mentioned that in Islam, the woman has to satisfy her husband's sexual desires no matter what they are as long as it doesn't affect someone's health. Their religion justifies that, so there can't be any “rape” in an Islamic marriage. In a marriage! Yasin and Nur had nothing going on at all, and definitely nothing remotely close to marriage. Yasin has no excuse. He raped Nur. She didn't want to cohabitate with him and he forced her to.
Yasin still has problems with his sexual urges that he has to control at this point of the novel. Hopefully, these urges won't get him in any trouble the remainder of the novel.


Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.

"What Is Rape & What Is It Like to Be Raped? Scarleteen." Scarleteen Sex Education For The Real World. Web. 03 Mar. 2010. .

Women revolution

Through out the novel Palace Walk the author Naguib Mahfouz we see how woman are badly treated. Even though women don't like the way that they are treated they still love their country and are willing to fight for the freedom of their country. Yasin notices that women are protesting against the British and that they are fighting for their freedom like the man are.

"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.

http://heritage-key.com/egypt/egypt-and-era-discovery

Influencing Zaynab

Throughout the book, we've been faced with women who are continually being oppressed by Ahmad and not allowing them to do simple things like go outside, talk back, or anything else that other women are allowed to do. Now that Yasin is married, his wife, Zaynab, is a new addition to the house. She wasn't raised like Khadijah and Aisha, who are accustomed to the ways of women in Ahmad's house. She was allowed to go out and see the world with her father, Muhammad Iffat. She didn't have to stay cooped up in a house all the time (314). So, it's without question that her moving into this new household is going to be a challenge.
On page 353, we see how Zaynab's character is being molded into that of an “Ahmad-ite” (I like to call the women in his house Ahmad-ites). Yasin was going on about the fact that activist Sa'd was being exiled to Malta and expressing his outrage for it. Zaynab felt like his feelings weren't necessarily backed up by his actions because he was still going to go out and drink that night. She felt if this situation was as serious as Yasin was trying to make it seem, then maybe he would spend a night with her instead of going out and getting drunk. Even though she felt like this, she didn't express her feelings to Yasin. Why couldn't she express this to her husband? Would that have been disrespectful for her to tell her husband to stay in tonight and not go out and drink? I agree that for her to say that in front of the entire family would have been embarrassing, but did she really have to suppress her true feelings? The next paragraph goes,
“She did not utter a word. She was too wise to cast her icy reflections into that fiery stream. Her mother-in-law resembled her in this. Her courage rapidly evaporated when confronted by anger, no matter how trivial. For that reason, she retreated into silence and kept her intense discomfort to herself as she apprehensively followed the raging, unruly conversation (354).”
We see here that Zaynab is becoming more and more like Amina everyday and I don't feel like that's a coincidence. They are all living in the same house and Ahamd's ego won't let a woman in his house even think that she might have a little control. Ahmad's the person who is controlling her and not Yasin, which, theoretically should be his job since he is her husband.
Why is Ahmad taking over so much? Does he not trust Yasin? We have reason to believe that. When Yasin and Zaynab decide to go to Kishkish Bey, Ahmad has a serious problem with it. We already know he wouldn't allow his wife and real daughters to even go out into the outside air, and he meant no less for his daughter-in-law. According to my research, many Muslim families believe in a strong extended family culture. They believe that the best help they can get with newcomers to the family are those in the family themselves. That is, why go outside of the home for help with your family when you can just ask those who are older for help. Professor Ismail Faruqi, author of this articlem writes, “...the nuclear family consisting only of husband, wife and children does not hae the resources, the human resources, the wisdom resources, the friendly resources that the extended family brings to the scene.” This part of their cultures is probably why Ahmad butts into the decision that Yasin and Zaynab make when they go to Kishkish Bey. He feels that it's his duty as father and leader of the home, he has to speak what he feels is necessary so that the women in his home live righteously. When Yasin and Zaynab return home, Ahmad tells her off and makes her feel bad for going out with her husband. He says, “...but there are matters that I cannot be silent about without committing what I consider an unforgivable crime. One of these is for a girl like you to stay out off her house until this hours of the night (313). While I see that this is the nicest we've probably seen Ahmad, I think that this exchange between them made it really hard for Zaynab to continue to be herself. He should have talked to Yasin and allowed him to deal with this situation in a way instead of stepping in and “chastising” her himself. He even says himself, “You're her husband and master. It's up to you to make her see things the way you want” (315). So he should allow him to deal with his wife in a way he sees fit.
But Ahmad's attempted refinery of Zaynab still fell short. When Zaynab found that Yasin had had an affair with a maid, she went crazy. She started yelling and screaming and intended for Ahmad to hear her so he would run to see what was the problem with her (385). It was Zaynab's first intention to not put up with a cheating husband but other people, like her own mother, had given her advice to put up with his affairs because he'd eventually grow out of it (387). But why should she have to wait for her husband to be faithful? He should want to do that because he loves her because she definitely loves him (386).
Basically, we haven't gotten a true sense of who Zaynab really is because she's continually being influenced into being a certain way instead acting on her true emotions. Even other women, like Aisha and Khadijah, are shown more deeply and complex in the book so we can see who they are and what they're like even though they were also always under the scrutiny of their father. Zaynab, on the other hand, is being pushed this and that way in order to become the “perfect” wife for Yasin.

Works Cited 
1.Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
2.Role of the Family in the Spread of Islam. Jannah, 23 Feb. 2009. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. .

Confusing Compliments

In the Muslim culture, a man has to provide for his wife, and the woman in return has to satisfy her husband's desires, all of them which do not harm her, or others. Their customs are to hide a woman's body with clothing most of the time only exposing her eyes for her to be able to see where she is going. This is done to prevent lustful thoughts in men, and it also eliminates the probability of choosing a mate based on physical attraction. To the Muslims, this lowers the chance of a divorce because marriages are nos based on the outside, but the inside (Islam the Eternal Path to Peace). But there is something in the XY chromosomes that makes men go crazy when a foxy lady walks by them. Yasin has too much of this, and has no idea of how to handle it.
About half way through the novel, Mahfouz shows us a little of Yasin's overexcited hormones. This is what was going through his head,
'Isn't it time yet, bitch? I've melted away, Muslims. I've dissolved like a bar of soap. Nothing's left but the suds. She knows this and doesn't care to open the window. Go ahead, play the coquette, you bitch. Didn't we agree on a date? But you're right to hold back ... one of your breasts could destroy Malta. The second would drive Hindenburg out of his mind. You've got a treasure. May our Lord be gracious to me. May our Lord be gracious to me and to every poor rogue like me who can't sleep for thinking about swelling breasts, plump buttocks, and eyes enhanced by kohl. Eyes come last, because many a blind woman with a fleshy rump and full breasts is a thousand times better than a skinny, flat-chested woman with eyes decorated with kohl. You're the performer's daughter and a neighbor of al-Tarbi'a Alley. The performer has taught you to flirt, and the alley has supplied you with its secret beauty potions. If your breasts have grown full and round, it's because so many lovers have fondled them. We agreed on this date. I'm not dreaming, open the window. Open up, bitch. Open up. You're the most beautiful creature ever to arouse my passion. Holding your lip between mine ... sucking on your nipple.... I'll wait until dawn. You'll find me very docile. If you want me to be the rear end of a donkey cart that you rock back and forth on, I'll do it. If you want me to be the ass pulling the cart, I'll do that. What a mishap, Yasin! Your life is destroyed, you son of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. How the Australians gloat at your fate. Woe to me, expelled from the Ezbekiya entertainment district, a prisoner in al-Gamaliya. It's all the fault of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm launched it in Europe and I have become its victim here in al-Nahhasin. Open the window, delight of your mother. Open up, my delight...' (Mahfouz, 242)
Not much of a pick-up line, but it sure gives him a lot to talk about. When the reader takes a look at this passage the first thought that comes to mind is, “Is a woman supposed to reply positively to this?” If this isn't their first thought, it must be something along the lines of, “This is kinky.” Yasin gives Zubayda back to back backhanded compliments. He compliments the size of her breasts, but attributes it to the many men who have fondled with them. He also calls her a bitch right before calling her the most beautiful creature he has seen. Clearly, lust is a part of Yasin's life, and his religion doesn't seem to be very important to him. In the reader's eyes, Yasin might appear to be a good example of a bad Muslim.
Yasin's lustful comments to Zubayda wouldn't only confuse her during the attempt to decipher their vulgarity if she had heard them, but they also confuse the reader about his faith and his effectiveness. Yasin's XY chromosomes are way out of tune, and in order to get to any woman's heart, he is going to have to tone it down, and be aware of what he is saying.




"Marriage in Islam." Jannah.Org :: Islam the Eternal Path to Peace. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. New York: Anchor, 1990

What Makes a Man

“'You're the oldest brother. In addition to that, you're an employee-- in other words, you're really a man. You're the best one suited for this mission.”... “I, for my part, am no longer a boy. I have become a man and an employee, as you pointed out.”... “Fahmy...you're our man!”(215)

As I read this passage in Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, I though what is it that qualifies a male person in the Muslim culture to become a man. If Yasin and Fahmy are men, what qualifies them to be considered this? I thought maybe Khadija tells them that they are the men for the job because she just want to butter them up to it. But we see that she does not seriously call Kamal a man, and earlier in the novel, Yasin considers himself a boy when he asks his mother did all the deeds that he considered appalling. Thus, I questioned at what point will Kamal be considered a man in their culture and at what point did Yasin become a man from the naiive boy that he was. Is there a rite a passage in the Muslim culture?
After doing some research, I was given the answer that there is no ritual in the Muslim culture as a rite of passage. This means that there is not actual physical ceremony that a young man has to go through in order for him to officially be a man. But I did find out that in the Muslim culture there are different religious expectations of a boy than a man. As a child, boys are not required to pray and commit to all the five pillars. This is because it is felt that they really don't understand what they are saying. They would just be speaking words and doing actions that they were told to do.(Erfani) Children in the Islamic religion start getting taught to read at the age of five. As they grow into teenagers, they are expected to become a more devout Muslim.(Ahmad)
Although this seemed like it applied in the book, especially with Kamal having that class that taught him about the Quran, there seemed like there was much more in the book to being a man. There is an emphasis on being employed, as mentioned in the passage, and having finished your schooling. This sort of right of passage seemed more practical than religious because it seems that one has to be considered a responsible adult with their life planned out. If this is the case, then Fahmy may not be as much of a man as Yasin because he is not employed, but he is still going to school. But he is well on his way because he is finishing up in law school.
There is not that much of a difference in the transition from childhood to manhood in the book and in the culture that we are used to. You are a man when you are considered a responsible and respectable adult. But in the Muslim culture it is a little bit more because you are expected to be a dedicated Muslim, which is part of being respectable since the religion is such a big part in the culture.


References
1. Erfani, Ali. "Muslim rituals marking the transition from childhood to adulthood - by Ali Erfani - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

2. Ahmad, Zainib. "Muslim rituals marking the transition from childhood to adulthood - by Zainib Ahmad - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .