Women In 1001 Arabian Nights

Throughout the times women have proven to themselves as well as people around them that they can take on roles just as important as men. This paper will begin by detailing the work experience and cultural barriers of Hatshepsut, the queen that reigned in Egypt during 1479- 1458 B.C. Followed by the impact she had on gender roles and issues. Next the cultural challenges and obstacles faced by women in Saudi Arabia will be addressed. These women have had many years of restrictive traditions placed upon them and now they have the chance to get a higher-level education and become professionals in their society. Lastly, the paper will discuss the impact the women who worked in factories during World War II had on gender roles. As well as what their culture thought was meant to be all they accomplished during their lifetime.

From a plethora of many authors and compilations over many centuries comes the fourteenth century The Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern frame story during which there are as many as four implanted stories. In the outermost frame of this tale, a king who is betray by his wife vows to take a new wife each night and kill her the next morning in order to prevent further unfaithfulness. The main inner frame are stories from one of his wives which she continues each night to keep the king interested and thus postpone her death. Through these stories, the reader can examine the role of men and women in this time, specifically how women function in conjunction to men in the text. The reader may assume the men are superior while the woman are inferior, but through close reading of the text, the reader will discover that women in the text are only treated subordinately by men in the story but are revealed to the reader as the more powerful of the sexes. Authors reveal the power of women by their prowess at trickery or “women’s cunning” (The Thousand 1181), and their ability to force the actions of male counterparts. The reader can examine men’s attempt to stifle this power, which further acknowledges the women’s merit, through the excessively frequent occurring instances of men treating the women as insignificant, as well as instances when women are turned to ungulate animals, such

Stories like Sindbad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and other popular stories are very common today in the western culture. Animated movies were also made for the entertainment of kids on these popular stories. One might wonder that where these stories originated and how it came down and made place in the western culture. Although these stories are very popular in both the western culture and the eastern culture but the original literary work is not so popular in common people. Theses stories are some of the stories from the Arabic work "The Thousand and One Nights." The work of "The Thousand and One Nights" represents basically a female that is a strong and clever idol and

In The Thousand and One Nights translated by Husain Haddawy, there is an emphasis on the role women play in and how their characters affect the male view on the rights and freedom women are entitled to. The value of women in the tale vanished after King Shahzaman’s wife had committed adultery with one of his palace workers. In the East during the time of this tale, there was little to no value for women, which gave men the power to use them as sex slaves and be able to throw them away after they have been sexually fulfilled. One day, when the vizier’s daughter Shahrazad volunteers to calm the raging king by telling him many tales and distracting him from his sexual acts and killing spree. The tale of The Thousand and One Nights was believed to be misogynistic, and presented women to be adulteresses who caused the downfall of men (Blythe). This tale was written in ancient Middle-Eastern civilization where women did not have rights or freedom within their societies and were victimized to be seen as the root of all evil and that “women are not to be trusted” (609. Haddawy). This tale will be evaluated based on the traditions placed in the ancient Middle-East, the modern-day observations of how women are treated in westernized countries, and the changes perceived.

For many years, women have been oppressed and treated as property. The opinion of a woman did not matter, being obedient to her husband was all that is required. Even if they were obedient to their husbands, women were property and only for the pleaser and likening to the husband. Mariam did all the her husband required of her, however there was one thing should could not. Which was give her husband, Rasheed, a son or any child. In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini reveals the social issue of physical abuse and mental abuse by his use of imagery, diction, and dialogue.

Andrea Dworkin explains women are characterized by beauty, passivity, and innocence. She argues that fairy tales creates stereotypic roles.

The first night's story in Arabian Nights is that of the Merchant and the Demon. Told by Shahrazad, the story offers a remarkable parallel to her own situation as she faces immanent death. Thus, the story of the Merchant and the Demon is told as a parable within the frame story, presenting a poignant analogy for Shahrazad's own situation. The Merchant and the Demon is a short tale but one filled with themes such as power, guilt, justice, and moral responsibility. Through the clever analogy with her own situation, Shahrazad also explores the theme of creative problem solving in tricky situations. Moreover, the story illustrates the core differences between pre-Islamic and Islamic values in Arabian society. Because the theme of gender roles and norms are not present within the Merchant and the Demon, the story shows how sexism is simply a form of general political and social oppression.

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.

During the medieval times, women were not seen as they are today. Although in the world today there are still those who are full of misogyny, it was much more common and intense during this time period. Women during the middle ages had specific roles assigned to them in society. These roles depended on the type of women they were, whether it be a peasant, noble woman, or an evil temptress. These roles that women have served have shown up in numerous stories from the middle ages including: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife’s Lament.

In medieval literature, the role of women often represents many familiar traits and characteristics which present societies still preserve. Beauty, attractiveness, and grace almost completely exemplify the attributes of powerful women in both present and past narratives. European medieval prose often separates the characteristics of women into two distinct roles in society. Women can be portrayed as the greatest gift to mankind, revealing everything that is good, pure, and beautiful in a woman's life. On the other side of the coin, many women are compared to everything that is evil and harmful, creating a witch-like or temptress quality for the character. These two aspects of European culture and literature show that the power of

The Role of Women in The Thousand and One Nights and Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji

Views on people are all based on biases. These biases may come from the idea that the space a person or even a civilization occupies influences their perception of the world. Hence extending to their own construction and affinity to a normality that may easily ‘other’ what they do not consider their own. In the video Reel Bad Arab women were described as inferior and characterized with the role of objectification of sexual desires and entertainment. Often portrayed as belly dancers and at the beckon calling of men. The consideration of women intelligence is placed to be a subject of trickery and negative sorcery.

Men have always been and most likely are the leaders of their families. Men are always supposed to be strong and fend for themselves, and always take care of the women and the children. In this case though, things are rather switched around. In the Arabian Nights, women play a very empowering role. It seems that in most cases the women are equal to the men and play the same roles as the men in Arabian Nights. The stories in Arabian Nights give a different insight as to what was going on during this time. The women were not valued as much as they should have been, they were often punished for not being as womanly as the man would like them to be.

Whether Female antagonists within fairy tales are portrayed in a positive or negative light their roles within the stories are very important if not crucial to the development of the protagonists. Karen Rowe in “Feminist and fairy tales” explains the divide between different female antagonists. Female antagonist come in all forms, Faeries, ogresses, evil queens, and evil witches step mothers and or step sisters. For the most part these characters are often divided between good and evil, or light and dark, but what is often realized, is that there isn’t much of a combination between the two groups in which an antagonist falls in between both categories. In this essay I will lay out the thematic roles of these different types of female antagonist’s portrayed within fairy tales.

When reading Veiled Sentiments, I got the impression that the existing social hierarchy among the Awlad' Ali was based on gender, age, wisdom, and wealth, "Women are always dependent," and "…the powerful have obligations and responsibilities to protect and care for the weak. The weaker members epitomized by the helpless infant, and by extension all children. (p.80-81)" Abu- Lughod did a good job depicting the ways that the social hierarchy works, by including terminology such as wliyya, and by vividly describing situations where women, and children seemed weaker than the adult males in the community, who in most situations appeared to be the head of households. The author also goes further into the ideals of the Awlad' Ali by discussing the relations between female modesty (hasham), "natural inferiority", and sexuality. She depicts the ideal woman in the eyes of the Bedouin people, describing her as soft spoken, and "well-behaved," and with no open thoughts on sexuality. Apart from discussing the importance of hasham in a woman, Abu- Lughod points out that emotion of love and affection between men and women is a taboo. Men that show emotion towards a woman are seen to be weak and are shunned upon by their male peers, as well as women in the community. "Women claim, for instance, that "real men" control all their dependents and beat their wives when the wives do stupid things ( p.89)". In