Women In House Of Wives And You Have Come Back

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The oppression of women is unfortunately present throughout the world’s cultures, due to a predominantly patriarchal world view. While in many parts of the world equality is starting to rise, there is still a large discrepancy in power between men and women even in the most liberal and progressive of areas. The relationship with this patriarchy that women choose to have can either be passive or active on both sides of the scale, be it for the system to continue or against its repressive beliefs. In the Arab world, there are many art pieces that seek to explore these various relationships, and analyze how women of different beliefs about this system interact. By analyzing the women of the works of The Silences of The Palace, a film by Tunisian director Mufida Tlaiti, and the plays House of Wives and You Have Come Back by Tunisian writer Fatima Gallaire, the dynamic between active and passive women and the society around them can be explored.
Mufida Tlaiti’s film The Silences of The Palace tells the story of a woman revisiting her childhood home and reliving her adolescence through a series of flashbacks as she tries to come to terms with who she is. Alia, our …show more content…

While away at college in France, Lella marries a Frenchman, and upon returning home the elder females who served her father confront her and accuse her of “betrayal”, “desertion”, and blasphemy for marrying a man not of their religion (411). The Elders kill Lella’s nurse, Nounou, and neighbor when they try to defend Lella, and beat Lella to death after she accuses them of being “dead for ages” for their constrictive beliefs (427). The play ends with the group of female Elders “bowing and kissing [a] Male Elder’s hand as they leave”, as he “nods with satisfaction” at Lella’s dead body and tells the women they have “done [their] duty”

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