Woman (Animals)

In my previous blog, I talked about how Aisha and the rest of the family really feared Ahmad rather than loved him. When Ahmad is considering his daughter's, Aisha, marriage, he denies the request. This really hurts Aisha emotional, but still she looks past her emotions to forgive her father. Why? Following this the narrator refers to Aisha as a “ wild animal”, when talking about her feelings. He says, “They fell back impotently like a wild animal stopped by its trainer, whom it loves and fears” (160-161). This really stuck out to me, because even though women are abused and mistreated throughout the book it is the first time they are referred to as tamed animals. Meaning the men have gained complete control over the women through fear. Further along in the book, Yasin also refers to women as being a domestic animal.

What more does any woman want than a home of her own and sexual gratification? Nothing! Women are just another kind of domestic animal, and must be treated like one. Yes, other pets are not allowed to intrude into our private lives. They stay home until we're free to play with them. For me, being a husband who is faithful to his marriage would be death. (338)

When Yasin is talking about his marriage and how he perceives his wife and women in general, he says a woman doesn't want anything more than a home and sexual pleasure. Is this true? Do woman throughout the book just want pleasure and a place to stay, or is it just what he wants? To me, it is simply what Yasin wants and craves. We have seen his sexual desires when he examines woman in the store and when he tries to have sexual intercourse with the maid, in which he successfully rapes one of the maids further into the book. He also shows no desire to leave his father's house. Then again what more can we expect, he is fairly young and has strong sexual desires, but in many cases he has gone to far.
He also says, “Women are just another kind of domestic animal, and must be treated like one. Yes, other pets are not allowed to intrude into our private lives. They stay home until we're free to play with them” (338). Her refers to them as a domestic animal. Domestication is a process in which a animal is selected to be taken under the rule of a human. Yasin is saying that men in his culture have taken over woman and woman must obey an order from a man at any circumstance. Based on the Iran Chamber Society website, in the religion of Islam, the majority of people see woman as a creature for men and his service. We see this with Amina and the way she is submissive to Ahmad. Based on this novel, we can suggest that woman are there serve the man and to do house duties. The Iran Chamber Society also says that throughout history, women have been used by men as sexual objects. Yasin is a perfect example on how men see woman only as a sexual object. His father Ahmad, basically arranges his marriage because of his sexual urges. Woman also stay at home the majority of the time, waiting for the men of the house to return, so they can serve the men or as Yasin says “until we're free to play with them”(338).
This is the second time in the novel, women are referred to as animals, and from examples they almost relate to animals. Whenever the man says sit or to shut up, they do exactly what is being asked. Women throughout the novel have been manipulated. Men have developed a mind control over women ,and to the Islamic culture there is no wrong doing when men mistreat women because that is exactly how they were brought up. For example, according to the website of World Art Erotica, wife beating has happen so often that housewives see it as a part of marriage of life. The way men degrade women has become a part of their culture.

The Love Lost Among the Disrespect

In our in class discussion, we focused a lot on how women are disrespected in the book. We placed much emphasis on how the male figures such as Mr. Ahmad and Yasin are disrespectful with their words and behavior. But I think that in the middle of all the “disrespect,” as we judge it to be, Naguib Mahfouz has placed Kamal, a character that to a certain sense still holds innocence and much love in his heart, in the book to show that there’s another side to the story. There’s a love side. The life of women isn’t only waking up early and serving the men; their lives aren’t all about being disrespected by males because, as the author shows through Kamal, there’s much love for women. Here I’m not talking about a lustful love, but a tender and sincere love from a son.

We get this sense of love for the women from Kamal when the author writes:

The truth was that [Kamal] loved the women’s company with all his heart and did not want to be separated from them even when he was working. Seeing them gave him a pleasure nothing else could equal. He loved his mother more than anything in the world. He could not imagine existing without her even for a moment. Khadija played the role of a second mother in his life... Aisha…loved him deeply, and he reciprocated her love totally. (65)

Through this quote we can see that women are loved so much. Mahfouz makes sure to show that Kamal has such a strong love, not just for his mother, but also for his sisters. Kamal holds a strong affection for these women because they are important in his life.

In class, we touched on how women are submissive and sometimes are degraded by men, but we missed to see really how important women are. Through the quote I mentioned above, I feel like we see women in a different way. Women are very special and essential in the life of males. Kamal loves his mother more than anything else in the world, which makes us see that it’s a pretty strong love. The author says, “He could not imagine existing without her even for a moment” (65). Here we see clearly the importance of women. His mother is so essential to his life that Kamal doesn’t see himself without her. He needs her to live, and that is a very strong statement about the significance of the role women hold in this society. It changes to a certain extent the negative way I thought all males treated women in the book, and the way I viewed the role of women. Women are more than just submissive human beings who should follow commands. They are the heart of men because without women, men can’t live.

I ask you all to rethink the role of women in this book. Is their role just cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the house, or is there a more important role that, we as outsider, can’t understand yet? What is really the significance of women in a males’ life? I think women are essential to men, but what do you think?