Karlinsky 25) (Shabati 15) Taylor 384) Taha Muhammad Ali writes of a single peaceful man facing Western aggression in Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower. (Ali 15) Eliaz Cohen writes of the universal historical struggles of power and control in the Middle East in Snow
(Ali 15) Eliaz Cohen writes of the universal historical struggles of power and control in the Middle East in Snow. (Cohen NP) Each of these writers are expressing the nature of self, the body of self and the nature of political and social upheaval, as it is expressive of the self and the whole
Through the cracks in the earth,//we'll look up at you then;//under your feet//our land is being harrowed//with chains of steel,/ / and above your heads there is no sky/ / like a light-blue shirt-//but only the broad buttocks of the//murderer. (Shabtai 15) Shabatai expresses the hope and joy of reconciliation, through the eyes of a child, and the hopes as they are dashed by human conflict, steel fences and restricted worlds, where the shoulders never meet but instead remain embroiled in conflict and hostility
Men are approximately as many as women (Sluglett). Gender inequality is as much a reality in the Middle East as it is in the world (Abukhalil 2000)
It banned infanticide of newborn baby girls and other misogynist practices. Baby boys are often preferred to baby girls (Darraj)
Female infanticide is still another extreme example gender inequality (Rushfan). Modern thinkers generally agree today that the sexual oppression of women in the Middle East developed out of combined historical, socio-political and economic factors, rather than the concept of sexual in Islam (Ilkkaracan 2002)
Middle Eastern Women The Middle East is a geographical region in Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa (Sluglett 2008)
The wearing of a veil and full clothing is the chief symbol of subjugation of Middle Eastern women. In Saudi Arabia, at least, women are required to observe a dressing code, which will prevent the sexual arousal of men whom women casually meet in public (Western 2008)
I always / ask the grass of the field / about you, and the dirt paths." (Ali, 35) the only actual detail that comes at the end of the poem hints that the poet has not seen this friend in more than forty years
Moreover, no matter its subject art is always the creation of beauty. As Muhammad Ali put it, "art is worthless unless it plants a measure of splendor in people's hearts" (Lehrer), that is, art can awaken and teach emotion and beauty
I take an oath of loyalty to the table / coated with white Formica, a cup full of pens, the ashtray / I dreamed that the State had passed out of existence / and with our children / we'd settled down in the three volumes of the / dictionary."(Shabtai, 39) Also, in Our Land he dramatically deplores the ugliness of his land
Shabtai condemns Israel's role as occupier and military power, distancing himself from his country and identifying explicitly with the Palestinians ('I'm a Palestinian Jew')."(Taylor, 12) as Shabtai himself declares, through his poetry he tries to voice the embitterment he feels at the current state of things in his country, where violence and hatred have raised walls that do not allow communication between people: "When I was young and when I was in love with the land, suddenly we had a land, full of possibility, the ability to make the land beautiful, to grow up, and also to cross the borders for peace
The feminist Turkish author Elif Shafak suffered a similar fate upon the publication of her novel the Bastard of Istanbul. In the eyes of some Westerners, the condemnation of both Elif Shafak and Orhan Pamuk was bizarre -- Pamuk in particular has been praised not for bracing political satire, but for the "Ottoman otherworldliness "of his novels such as in My Name Is Red, and the way that his "magic realism" is used to subvert "the harder-edged world we all share" (Eoan-Chuan, 2006)
Thus, religion, and burgeoning religion, is at the core of Middle Eastern writing and literature, and that influence continues to this day. One historian notes, "In the case of the Qur'an, historians have demonstrated links with the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels, ancient Middle Eastern literature such as the story of Alexander the Great, the Gilgamesh legend, and the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus" (Arkoun 39)
He quotes, "My father is Islam, none else, / Though others boast of Bakr or of Tam-m. / Each of the tribes champions its pretender, / to make him out of noble stock" (Cachia 19)
A Virginia college professor notes, "Poe's little stories, 'The Imp of the Perverse' and 'The Angel of the Odd,' are effective to compare with the Islamic idea of providence. 'The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade' contains specific references from the Koran" (Goodman)
His attack on the symbolism of Islam warranted violent protests about the fear of Westernization. (Ahmed 144-146) The politics of the time were fresh from the revolutions that rid much of the region from western colonization
(Inda 1992 p23) The stories we hear from Afghanistan, Iran, and Algeria, as well as from conservative religious communities in Israel and the United States, tell of women changing their dress and returning to a home symbolically transformed into a space of purity that is the nation of this new community. (Cooke 1999 pg178) On a more political note the writing of Qassim Amin, Tahrir Al-Mar'a (The liberation of Women) discussed in Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam was published in 1899 and has become a symbol of the arguments stressed by even modern reformers
The rejection of the veil is by no means a universal feminine ideal. (Inda 1992 p23) The stories we hear from Afghanistan, Iran, and Algeria, as well as from conservative religious communities in Israel and the United States, tell of women changing their dress and returning to a home symbolically transformed into a space of purity that is the nation of this new community
The observance of her husband achieving climax makes her feel completely alien to him because she cannot share this joy with him and no longer seems to have the desire to try. (Rifaat 1983) In almost all cultures the ideal of the sacredness of sexual fulfillment makes this communication seem both startlingly conservative and a sad basis for the establishment of a healthy marriage and even a healthy society