As i was reading the short story “The Women’s Swimming Pool” by Hanan Al-Shaykh, I found it very interesting how Al-Shaykh used this “swimming pool” in a very symbolic matter. In the islamic religion women aren’t seen or treated equally to men. This led me to wonder has the islamic religion led this society to become blind to the reality of it all? This swimming pool is sort of like the light at the end of the tunnel, it meant more than just a plain old swimming pool. The freedom that women have always wanted and deserved, the equality that should have been dealt to them, the pride of being able to say we are as equal as men was waiting for them at this swimming pool. They ended up going through everything and everyone in order to locate this swimming pool that Sumayya had told her about. This reminded me of all the hard work and fighting that women had to do in our countries history in order to gain equality. Same way she had to go through a long journey to find the swimming pool so did women in the United States.
“And now here were the two of us standing at the door of the swimming pool, and she, having heard the call to prayers, had prostrated herself in prayer. She was destroying what lay in my bag, blocking the road between me and the sea.” These sentences from the text made me think about religion and rights. The Islamic religion has 5 calls to prayer a day, which meant you would have to pray that much times a day at necessary times. She didn’t know whether to join the grandmother in prayer or to go keep chasing after this swimming pool. In this situation i could tell that religion has played a big role in the fight of equality for women. Society has portrayed this concept of inequality through religion, the grandma stopped this journey to achieve the equality of women in order to pray and follow her religion. This made me wonder if maybe religion is what was pushing women back from achieving their rights. If women wouldn’t let religion or other obstacles stop them from achieving their equality, it would be achieved in all parts of the world, in all cultures and in all religions.
I agree with with you last statement that religion holds people back from exploring themselves and find happiness. Although religion works for some, like her grandmother, it didn’t work for her.
I was amazed and shocked that she didn’t flinch when her grandmother tried to put her on a guilt trip, saying “your mother, father, and grandfather would not be able to rest in piece” yet she still kept pursuing her dream, heading to the water.
I am going to disagree on the statement that religion holds women back from achieving equality. Even though at the end of the story the grandmother is praying, that is not the reason they don’t end up going in the pool. They just realize that they are different, and more traditional. They never felt welcomed in Beirut, they felt like “outsiders” from the moment they entered. Religion is a guiding force for most Muslims around the world, it helps them live their everyday lives. The fight for the equality of women has to deal with fighting prejudices and customs that have been in play for centuries.
I think ultimately the grandmother, and her decide not to go into the pool because they realize that they will never fit in. I believe after the long struggle of getting there, and after watching her grandma pray; the pool doesn’t mean that much to the girl, she knows that she can never leave her grandmother.
I agree with your ideas about the symbolic matters. not only the swimming pool, there are also lots of other objects have some kind of symbolic meanings in this story. at the beginning, she continuously described the hot weather. And they were covered in the sweat. But she and her grandmother have to use the black dress to cover every port of their body because of the religious requirement. there were no similar rules for man. At this point, the black dress was a symbol of inequality, a kind of limitation set by the religion, by the society and by the man.
The “swimming pool” is a symbol of freedom and relatively equal status. As she mentions in the beginning, “I’m thirty” (Al-shaykh, 1166). She is thirty to see the sea; she is thirty to freedom. In the end, it is very pity that she gives in to her grandmother, to the religion. This travelling is still very worthy because she has already gained the though about equality and freedom. This effect on her will be active throughout her life and never fade. “I wouldn’t be seeing the sea today, perhaps not for years, but the thought of its waters would not leave me, would not be erased from my dreams” (Al-shaykh, 1169). The sea is a symbol of an equal and free world. Even though she cannot live in such a world now, her though about it will never fade.
I agree with you that the narrator’s religion was holding her back from achieving her desires. In a sense, her grandmother was also trying to prevent her from going to the swimming pool. Yes, she did let her go but during the entire time, she kept telling her granddaughter that it was not a good idea and the consequences will be terrible if men saw her. We see her that not only was religion binding her, but also her love for her grandma. Because she loved her dearly, she decided that going to the swimming pool would not make her as happy as staying back with her grandmother.