On page 236-237, we become aware of Aisha's chance to get married. This comes as a surprise because earlier in the book, we read that their family wanted Khadijah to become married before Aisha does. Aisha's excited to finally be moving on but Khadijah isn't really excited to see her little sister, to whom she shows a bit of resentment, get married before she does. Mahfouz writes, "Khadijah did not enjoy affectionate words of comfort when defeated. She received Aisha's statement with unconcealed annoyance" (237). My question at this point is whether Khadijah should be happy for her sister instead of annoyed and jealous with her. I mean, earlier in the book, on page 144, everyone was excited for her when they thought she was potentially going to get married, but now that it's shifted to her sister, she refuses to be angry. This contrast in behavior made me think about why is it so expected for older sisters to get married first. According to this website, I know that the marrying age for females in this culture is 16 and for males it's 18, but both Aisha and Khadijah are over that age. (Egypt) So why is it so important that Khadijah be married first? According to the book, they see Khadijah not being engaged as being bad luck, which I also don't understand. I think they should be happy that she got proposed to in the first place, and not complain about the order it's done in.
Also, putting so much emphasis on seeing that Khadijah be married first, creates a strained relationship between Aisha and Khadijah. Khadijah now feels resentment towards her own sister, who doesn't deserve to be treated that way. It's not like Aisha in some way made it so that she could be married first, yet Khadijah treats her like it was somehow her fault (237). She also begins to lose faith in her family and how much did she mean to them. She starts to believe that her father no longer loves her the way he used to. She loses sight in the love that keeps their family together anyways (238).
1. Egypt. Emory, 1998. Web. 26 Feb. 2010.
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2. Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy). New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
Well, I don't know for sure why it is so crucial that Khadijah marries, but I think its do the the comment conception that the older children will get married first. More specifically relating to this novel, I think it's so important that she get married first so that she can be an example to Aisha, her younger sister. It's kind of like the whole hierarchy thing, at the top of the latter is Amina, then Khadija, and lastly Aisha who is to follow Khadija as Khadija closely followed Amina. I think the wedding of Aisha causes tension between the two sisters because Khadija develops a level of resentment for her sister. It's kind of like the relationship between two brothers growing up, no older sibling wants to follow behind their younger sibling, they want to be followed and be the example. I guess Khadija saw it as her right as an older sister to get married first. Overtime I've come to realize that Islam as a religion is a strong advocate of marriage, and being a Muslim, there is no place for celibacy like. To a Muslim, marriage is a religious duty and as a result, it is a social necessity.
ReplyDeleteWell I agree with you. I'm not really sure that there's a specific type of custom that makes it so that the older sister must get married first, but it's just natural because normally older siblings are the first to do everything. I also think because most of the people in her family see Aisha as prettier (and therefore better because the way a woman looks in this culture is very important) that it's just a bigger "slap in the face" to Khadijah that her sister also gets to get married first.
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