Feminist views in S. Rushdie's Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies
The purpose of this essay is to analyse S. Rushdie's Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies from feminist perspective. To fully understand the views that Rushdie exhibited, with respect to feminist approach , it's important to notice the contrast between men's expectations about women in Islamic culture and the unforeseen behaviour of Miss Rehana, claiming her freedom.
Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies is a moralistic tale about the meaning of freedom, the story centralizes interaction between Miss Rehana, a woman applying to leave her country for England, and Muhammad Ali, a trickster who offers to aid women like Rehana in their appeals for a price.
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Because of their beauty ,women are underestimated , in this case Miss Rehana,. People used to think about beauty women that they are weak and incapacitated to do the same thing that men do. This sexist theory unfortunately is still used in our days to play down the figure of women in countries like Pakistan. We believe that S. Rushdie uses this way of think to break in the end our expectation about Miss Rehana , and highlight more the independence and freedom of women. Miss Rehana is portrayed like an independent , cleaver and beautiful woman ,as we notice in “ ..the strange , big-eyed , independent girl..” (6) , “...but Miss Rehana had come on her own , and did not seem at all alarmed..” (6) and “.. veiling her beauty from the eyes of strangers..”(5). With this description S. Rushdie is warning us to take into account her final purposes .When Rehana come out to the consulate is very happy and calm, so that M. Ali and all of us (readers) think that she has accepted the deal which M. Ali did. But She didn't, Miss Rehana has failed the test .In fact , She does not want to leave her town, would rather live the life she knows than to escape to an arranged marriage. She breaks out all our expectations, and readers can not understand why a girl of her position rejects the opportunity to go to live a new life in London, that great city. She seeks her own will rather than the ways of tradition and the
“Women and Gender in Islam” by Leila Ahmed was published in 1992, at a time when research on Arab women was a young, newly emerging field of study. Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian American writer and feminist. Her text “Women and Gender in Islam” targets proclaimed feminists, both western and non-western, as the intended audience. The text is involved with the discourse of gender, the discourses of women, the discourses of feminist, and colonial and post-colonial discourses.
Aisha bint Abu Bakr was a leader, a woman, a wife, a theologian, a scholar and a political activist. She was precocious, loyal, brave and remarkably intelligent. These aspects of her humble life have allowed her to make a powerful impact on the development and expression of Islam that “no woman [has] reached”[1]. Not only did she influence the position of women in Islamic society, Islamic ethics, and the understanding and interpretation of the Qur’an, but she also modelled these qualities for the men, women and children of Islam.
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Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that provides insight into a young girl living in Iran during the hardship of war. Persepolis takes place during the childhood of Marjane Satrapi. It gives a background of the Islamic Revolution and the war in Iran. Satrapi attempts to guide herself in a corrupted world filled with propaganda. She tries to develop her own morality concerning religion, politics, and humanity. Satrapi was blessed enough to have high class status and parents who had an open mindset about the world around them. Thanks to her slightly alternative lifestyle, she is able to reconstruct gender norms that society has set by depicting the different ways women resist them. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” by Lila Abu-Lughod is an essay detailing the misconceptions surrounding the veil. Through this essay we can see how colonial feminism, the form of feminism in which western women push for a western way of living on their third world counterparts, has shined a negative light on cultures all around the world - particularly Islamic women. The essay shows how women who don’t conform to American societal structures are labeled as women who urgently require saving. Through this essay one can develop a thorough understanding of the veil itself and the many representations it holds to different entities. Although in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Satrapi
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Although they bear some superficial difference, the similarities between Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn story, "Is Islam Misogynistic?" and Anna Vanzan, "The Women of Allah: A Personal Journey Through Islamic Feminisms " are clear, both reveal issues concerning Muslim’s cultural and religion norms depriving women of their equality.
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Although Western feminism started in the 1900s, yet, it didn’t reach the Islamic world until most recently, a couple of hundred years later than the West. Despite the fact that both of the feminism movements come from totally different back grounds, and they are affected by different history and culture, still, both of them aimed for women’s best interests. Muslim women were profoundly feeling aggrieved by the discrimination they have against them. They stereotypical reputation about them in the West, and their presentation in the Western media didn’t help either. They started and supported a new fight to regain themselves the equal status they were granted by Islam centuries ago. Muslim women didn’t like to be looked at as being backward and oppressed by men in a male-dominant world. According to the feminist historian Margot Badran, “Islamic feminism is a feminist discourse and practice articulated within an Islamic paradigm. Islamic feminism, which derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur 'an, seeks rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their existence.” (Badran, 2001)