Nobody can deny the fact we live in the world of inequality. Though many political leaders state that one day everybody will be equal it is not so. We just can’t change the nature, because we all are born different. We come from different social layers and have different state of health. What is more, there has always been inequality between men and women. Some people think that this is true only for a time when man was a hunter and all a woman could do was to give birth to children. But even nowadays the theme of male dominance is extremely topical. It may not seem true for European countries and America, but as for eastern countries it remains crucial.
In Season of Migration to the North by Al-Tayeb Salih and in Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz male dominance is one of the main ideas. In these books the tragic destiny of women in Eastern world is considered. The idea that unites both novels is that women are helpless in the world of men’s power, and sexes’ equality is nothing more than a myth created by men.
Women […] who wish to live in freedom can only look backward in anger and look forward in despair. Many of these women are so rooted in their confining society that they placidly accept their degraded situation, their being servants of males. Quite a few do not mind their enslavement, perhaps they even cherish it. (Gordon 57).
Tayeb Salih is one of the most respected writers in contemporary Arabic world, and may be he is the most widely-known writer from Sudan. Since 1950s he lived mainly in Europe and only sometimes visited Sudan. But all his works are related to Arabic world. In his Season of Migration to the North the protagonist is a man. We can see the women’s life through men’s eyes.
Season of Migration to the North is the story of Mustafa Sa’eed, a talented young man from Sudan, who goes to study in Cairo and after that in London. There he hunts women but in the end he falls in love with one. Their marriage wasn’t a success. It was consummated by violence. The reader can see that Mustafa doesn’t feel any pity for the poor woman he killed:” Everything which happened before my meeting her was a premonition; everything I did after I killed her was an apology, not for killing her, but for the lie that was my life” (81). So what he cares of is his life, but not the life of the woman he cruelly broke. He feels that he can decide everything by himself. Why? His power is in his masculinity! “When we were at the climax of the tragedy she cried out weakly, “No. No.” This will be of no help to you now. The critical moment when it was in your power to refrain from taking the first step has been lost” (65). After a prison sentence he goes back to Sudan and moves to a village on the Nile. There he marries again and has children. Eventually he disappears mysteriously. After Mustafa’s death his widow is forced into a new marriage, so mail dominance and violence persist.
We can observe the same situation in Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz. What is common for both novels is that woman is unable to change anything about her miserable living. Midaq Alley shows the reader the very heart of Arab society. It presents the story of some neighbours living in the same alley who desperately try to respond to the threat and the promise of Western modernization:” In short order, we are plunged into the reality of Kirsha’s coffeeshop, where antiquity is being assaulted in all directions” (Mahfouz 12). Actually four parallel episodes are described in the story, and none of the characters is successful in try to ascend their status. The mail protagonist of the novel is Hamida. She likes a young barber, Abbas, though she rejects his proposal to marry him. In her try to gain wealth she is tempted by a wealthy businessman. But it brings happiness to neither of them. She attempts to escape the web of impoverished living she is doomed to through prostitution. This is the fate of hundreds thousand women all over the world, especially in the countries of third world. She really tried to choose better of two evils. As for Hamida’s beautiful young daughter many men liked her. So she was engaged to several men. But after that she was flattered by handsome and rich pimp Ibraham Faraj. She becomes an exotic dancer and eventually a prostitute.
What is different about the theme of male domination in both novels is the attitude of women to it. In Season of Migration to the North women are depicted merely as victims of male cruelty. But in Midaq Alley women try to change at least anything in their lives. But of course this desperate try isn’t a success.
In conclusion I should like to say that it is obvious that the problem of men dominating women still exists. Of course it is much more topical for Orient then for Europe or America. Only some of Oriental women are honoured by men. But honour doesn’t mean respect. Men do not consider women as someone to share one’s thoughts, emotions and plans. They do not treat women as equals. When it comes to honouring a woman, it is only about the role women play in the family. In many countries violence in families persists, and women cannot speak about it aloud. So books like these may help to overcome the problem of male domination all over the world.
Works cited
Gordon, Haim. Naguib Mahfouz’s Egypt: Existential Themes in His Writings. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley. United Kingdom: Anchor Books, 1995.
Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. Penguin Books Ltd, 1997.