Liyana Badr’s A Balcony over the Fakihani, Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, and A Woman of Five Seasons, by Leila Al-Atrash :: A Balcony over the Fakihani

Liyana Badrs A Balcony over the Fakihani, Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, and A charwoman of Five Seasons, by Leila Al-AtrashIn Liyana Badrs novella, A Balcony over the Fakihani, the main character, Suad, meets and falls in love with a man named Umar, who towards the books last is killed in battle. What occurs between the meeting and the death constitutes the authors attempt to process the environment in which she grew up. Similarly, Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, and A Woman of Five Seasons, Leila Al-Atrash, decoct on and investigate womens lives in the Arab world. At the very least, three issues are at work in these books. One string explores the oppressions and the joys, the perversities and the passions of Arab women. Another composing is Arab mens behaviors and attitudes toward women. The final topic, which encompasses the other two, is the idea of literary form that is, the articulationicular slipway in which the authors represent their experiences through writing. Tak en together, these novels, in some(prenominal) shape and content, explore what it means to be a woman in an Arab, a mans, world.One early scene in A Balcony everyplace the Fakihani is emblematic of the novella as a whole, as well as of the novels of Faqir and Al-Atrash it encapsulates the authors artistic approach to the handling of their lives, the hostilities they must endure, the roles of Arab men and women, and the different ways both act within their setting. To begin, Badr artfully sets the stage in an almost journalistic fashion, parodying a newspapers objective approach in the breast of so much human tragedy May 1973tank gun and machine gun fire on Shatila camp (Badr, 45). This crafty setup is part and parcel of the way in which the author handles her topic. Only through art can she comprehend and process these events. In this respect, The sky was lit with green and violent stars, and the thunder and lightening wasnt real thunder and lightening, but bullets from machine guns and small arms. In the midst of such fighting, Suad noticed a fair hair in the middle of her head. I couldnt believe a babys hair could turn etiolate (46). Her disbelief is compounded when Im Hamdi sees the white hair and cried out and wailed. Suad, in turn, is overcome by emotion. The two women hug and cry.