Women In The Arabian Nights

“There was something about her, a certain strength of purpose and character, which confused him…”(Ayyoub 101). This excerpt from the short story “From Behind the Veil,” written by Dhu’l Nun Ayyoub, displays how differently people treat their beliefs. This story, along with an essay, “A Portrait of Egypt,” written by Mary Anne Weaver, discusses the topic of Egypt and how their past has developed today’s culture. Beliefs tend to portray people depending on how they go about it.

Thesis: In his book, No god but God, Reza Aslan recounts the history and teachings of Islam in order to deconstruct the barriers within interreligious comprehension.

There are many political, religious, and cultural factors that shape the lives of Islamic women many of them are completely different than factors in the lives of American women. Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions; however, Brooks argues that “Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of this once liberating faith.” The book also shows these factors have slowly been taking away women’s rights, rather than furthering them.

Another thing to note was the treatment of women among upper-class men. Even Hagg, a religious and righteous man, gave in to this behavior as he forced an acquaintance’s assistant to marry him, isolating her from her family. Then, when she became pregnant, Hagg forced her to abort the baby and kicked her out to the curb. The whole time, no one had any issues with the arrangement, and to Hagg, this was all perfectly moral as it was condoned by Islam. The portrayal of Hagg was a scathing criticism of the Egyptian political system and the upper-class scene, both of which allowed for despicable actions.

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.

Society’s view of women has changed as a result of what they have accomplish to become relevant inside a man oriented culture. Women are accused of being untrustworthy, due to their approach of going around the rules. Although this may be true, their limited possibilities push them to use their cleverness to look for alternatives that will help them reach their goals. The stories of The Arabian Nights demonstrate that when women are in control of a situation they must be trusted, as long as they act upon good will.

Contemplating the relationship between gender and power, one undoubtedly notices that tradition regards men as the holders of official office and power. Historically, men have also always been the leaders of their families, and turned to in times of trouble or need. Making generalizations is normally a weak approach to any task; in this case however, it is necessary to do so in order to illustrate how drastically opposite the situations prove in various selections from "1001 Arabian Nights." Rather than men taking critical roles of power, the women characters, especially at crucial moments in the plot, empower themselves far beyond the male figures, and, consequently,

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.

The women of Saudi Arabia have been oppressed by the men of the country for generations due to the ignorance of the people, their Islamic faith, and the government. They have no rights and they must receive permission from their husbands or fathers to work, travel, and receive medical attention. The memoir Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson, is an excellent example of the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and the literary devices of characterization and setting help to bring the oppression to life.

Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.

The world of Disney it is not necessarily magic for everyone. In Western popular culture there is an endless buffet serving stereotypical ideologies for racially marked women. The media often relies on representation of articulation of ethnic women as animalistic, inferior and outside the natural. Films tend to utilize signifiers that express race, class and gender to develop characters. For this assignment, I have chosen to critically analyze Disney’s (1992) Aladdin; this movie exemplifies the racialization of female bodies through visual illustrations that reinforce ideas of stereotypical roles of Middle Eastern that have been over-looked through the eyes of children. Aladdin; is considered a modern example of Edward Said’s concept of orientalism from a Western perspective. In this paper I will examine how Disney’s Aladdin perpetuates ideas of ‘othering’ through orientalism, over-sexualized characters and reinforces islamophobia.

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.

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

The concept of digression is explored and mastered by Shahrazad throughout the sets of stories that comprise The Arabian Nights. Unlike the stories of Jaques and his Master, in Jaques the Fatalist, where digression plays well in a journey without a specific purpose, the stories of Shahrazad and her use of digression has a clear objective. The main character of The Arabian Nights, Shahrazad, makes use of her abilities as an effective storyteller to keep her audience engaged with a perfect sense of Kairos that achieves several purposes: arousing the King´s curiosity and keep it lingering, keeping herself alive, establishing her own

This is a significant aspect of the course because the article examines the strengths and weaknesses of femininity through a cultural Muslim perspective and the reading is a prime example of how ideologies regarding race affect those involved. In class we have discussed the significances of social constructs and how assumptions are made on the basis of physical characteristics. In this situation, identity is related to gender as Muslim women are categorized as both good/respectful and rebellious/evil individuals because they are apart of a culture where they are both oppressed and liberated simultaneously.