The Arabian Nights, translated by Husain Haddawy consist of entertaining tales within a story which acquired centauries to accumulate. Some of the tales regard women as possessions, therefore leaving women to use their sexual femininity to subdue men for means of survival. The story goes on to explain how men and women had forbidden sexual relations with concubines, slaves, and lovers. Some religions and cultures accept infidelity and fornication as part of their normal sexual practices, however, in The Arabian Nights sexual practices come with harsh penalties which generate havoc and disfigurement on humans, impacting their lives and relationships.
Today some Middle Eastern countries have passed laws “criminalizing adultery which [has] resulted in punishments ranging from the imposition of fines to flogging, hanging and death by stoning” (Deen 2014). From the beginning of The Arabian Nights, women are portrayed as disloyal adulterers that practice heavily in premarital sex. In “The Story of Kings Shahrayer and Shahrazad, His Vizier’s Daughter,” is about two kings who were brothers. The older brother was named Shahrayer and Shahzaman was the name of the younger brother. Before King Shahzaman journeyed out to go visit his brother King Shahrayer, he wanted to bid his wife farewell. Upon entering the kitchen he found his wife copulating with a servant boy. Out of rage, he drove a sword into both his wife and the servant and threw them off of the palace roof stating, “I am still here and this is what she has done when I was barely outside the city. How will it be and what will happen behind my back when I go visit my brother in India? No women can be trusted” (Haddawy 5). Because Shahzaman’s image and self-confidence as a king was sh...
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... sister decapitated. Scared for his life, he fled the country. Upon his return, the young man was falsely accused of stealing the decapitated woman’s necklace. He was beaten and his right hand was amputated for thievery. Later, the young man was informed that his lover committed suicide due to her guiltiness
The Arabian Nights share folktales about the violence and consequences which arise from adultery and deviate sexual behavior. The tales gives the readers an idea of how multicultural traditions existed and survived. The corruption which exists through religions and beliefs is the reason such behaviors are still practice today.
Works Cited
The Arabian Nights.Trans. Husain Haddwy. Ed. Muhsin Mahdi. New york: W.W. Norton & Co., 1990. E Book.
Deen, Thalif. "Adultery Laws Unfairly Target Woman, U.N.Says." 9, 2014 . Inter Press Service Document. 10 April 2014
Throughout history, women were not always well regarded by men. Because of this, most societies treated their women as second class citizens. The stories from, Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, illustrate how the portrayal of women affected Muslim society in the Ninth century. Sometimes women were seen as mischievous, unfaithful temptresses. Other times they were depicted as obedient, simple minded slaves looking to please their master. With the use of charm, sex and trickery, they used the labels that they were put in, to their advantage; demonstrating that women during this century were clever, smart, and sly.
Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.
Kitab alf laylah wa-laylah (One Thousand and One Nights) is a collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales written in Arabic during the ‘Islamic Golden Age’ In English, the Tales are known as the ‘Arabian Nights’.
In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade, where the male-female ratio was 2:1, the Arab slave trade instead usually had a higher female-to-male ratio. Concubinage and reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves, though many were also imported mainly for performing household tasks. In both continents, anything a slave owns, is automatically the master’s own too, however in Arabia, a slave may be allowed to earn money to purchase his or her freedom and similarly to pay bride wealth if he was to be married, the marriage requiring the consent of the master first. If the master was to use his slave for sexual gratification, he may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife, neither can he have relations with a female slave if she is co-owned, or already married. In America, a man may have relations with a slave but it wasn’t very likely, as this was taboo and not approved of.
In the Middle East it was male-dominant, male’s had all the control in the family. Women’s rule in life was to give birth too many children to continue the family blood line and take care of them, while the men go to work and come home find something for them prepared to eat. Men were the head of the house, whatever they said, had to be obeyed. Women were limited in their rights, even in marriage they weren’t asked for their opinion, “Would you like to marry this guy?” But rather they were forced by their family members to participate in arranged marriages. In this story we see that the slave woman had no rights, this woman obeyed them without saying a word. In addition, to this she was a slave, and slaves had no rights when it came to their master’s commands. She didn’t have a choice but rather obeyed what the master said even if she didn’t agree. Women were mistreated sometimes by men. "Bring the mule’s nose-bag along with you," he added to the groom; "she has not finished her feed, I think; when we get to the palace, put the bag on her again—she can eat the rest of her fodder while I am with the caliph. “Hear and obey," said the groom "(Portland, Maine: Wheelwright, 1955, p 310-313). One can see in this quote that they placed a bag over the girl and limited to when should she eat. The woman was treated as if she was a toy, played with for a while and then placed to the side when they were
6. Clute, John , and John Grant. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, 2 ed., s.v. "Arabian fantasy." New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Mostafaei, Mohammad. "Crime of Adultery and Stoning Punishment in Iran's New Criminal Code." Universal Tolerance Organization. N.p., 1 June 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. .
Alsana faces the expectation of fulfilling her proper role as the subservient, good muslim wife; however, she subverts this tradition by actively fighting against her husband Samad and, therefore, maintaining her sovereignty. When Alsana expresses her support for her husband’s motion during a PTA meeting, the other wives look “over to her with the piteous saddened smiles they reserved for subjugated Muslim women” (Smith 110). This perception fails to take into account the conflict that occurs under the surface of their seemingly traditional marriage. Before she finally expresses support for him, “Samad pressed Alsana’s hand. She kicked him in the ankle. He stamped on her toe. She pinched his flank. He bent back her little finger and grudgingly raised her right arm while deftly elbowing him in the crotch with her left” (Smith 110). Physical violence is the hallmark of the power struggle within Samad and Alsana’s marriage; it is the manner in which Alsana expresses her defiance to the proper role that it is assumed she should take in her marriage. This physical violence is so common, in fact, that as they violently fight in their garden, their twins calmly watch, placing bets on who will win (Smith 167). This normalization of the violence further highlights how innate it is to their
In the novel She and in the stories of The Arabian Nights, both Haggard and Haddawy explore the expanding gender roles of women within the nineteenth century. At a time that focused on the New Woman Question, traditional gender roles were shifted to produce greater rights and responsibilities for women. Both Ayesha, from Haggard’s novel She, and Shahrazad, from Haddawy’s translation of The Arabian Nights, transgress the traditional roles of women as they are being portrayed as strong and educated females, unwilling to yield to men’s commands. While She (Ayesha) takes her power to the extreme (i.e. embodying the femme fatale), Shahrazad offers a counterpart to She (i.e. she is strong yet selfless and concerned with the welfare of others). Thus, from the two characters emerge the idea of a woman who does not abide by the constraints of nineteenth century gender roles and, instead, symbolizes the New Woman.
Norris, H.T. "The Arabian Nights: A Companion." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58 (1995):148-149.
The biological differences that set apart the male and female gender throughout any culture remain eminent. Men are perceived as the stronger and dominant gender; women play the role of the weaker. In each culture the expectation of the manner in which men and women behave are influenced by the ideals and customs of that culture. In most predominant cultures, the man undertakes the role as a leader, and the woman devotes her life to the husband. Throughout history, traditions and literature provide a template to the identities of various cultures. Sleeping Beauty’s classic tale of a beautiful princess takes a central precept that previous patriarchal archetypes dominated during the 17th Century. The archetypal perceptions of women resulted from conscious and unconscious literature influenced by male-dominated perspectives and social standards.
At the same time, women were repressed in their sexual feelings and were subject to their husband’s demands. If an unmarried woman had sexual relations, she would be dishonored, thrown into exile or even killed. Horrible experiments sought often to find ways of getting rid of any pleasure women would experience during intercourse.
Although “Araby” is a fairly short story, author James Joyce does a remarkable job of discussing some very deep issues within it. On the surface it appears to be a story of a boy's trip to the market to get a gift for the girl he has a crush on. Yet deeper down it is about a lonely boy who makes a pilgrimage to an eastern-styled bazaar in hopes that it will somehow alleviate his miserable life. James Joyce’s uses the boy in “Araby” to expose a story of isolation and lack of control. These themes of alienation and control are ultimately linked because it will be seen that the source of the boy's emotional distance is his lack of control over his life.
In recent modern times, the Islamic faith and culture has been scarred by bad publicity and criticism worldwide concerning terrorism, fanaticism, and the treatment of women. All these issues have existed in most religions throughout time, but the treatment of women is different in which most other cultures and religions have minimized the issues and Islam, under its attempts to also end it, has failed to create a society in which the treatment of women is equal to that of men. The treatment of women, beginning from the time when they are born, to the time of their marriage, to the moment of their death, has not been equal to that of men despite the actions taken to end the injustice.
Within most forms of literature there seems to be a representation of a double standard. Even in our societies double standards not only exist but are prevalent. In literature though double standards are sometimes not always noticeable to the reader, however in the texts that we have read double standards are not only noticeable, but are written in a way as if the author wants the reader to pick up on this. It’s fairly comprehensive how when it comes to adultery that the female characters suffer far more from their consequences than the males. Within each culture’s literature though, some might find adultery to be more acceptable based on that culture’s views. Altogether it is through the way the authors choose to depict the apparent double standard, how their own cultural morals for punishment in infidelity become reflected in the text, and how they choose to have the morals of their characters reflect on the act of adultery in itself that we are able to see how these books are able to find themselves in such a category of being “big books about bad girls.”