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“In Camera” by Nawal El-Saddawi

Nawal El-Saddawi criticized social system in the Arab culture and their history of discrimination against women in her fictional story “In Camera”. Nawal El-Saadawi used a third person view to write this fictional story, also she use an outsider perspective to looked at the problems women were facing in the 1900s, She mainly focused on government oppression, limitations of women and how women were treated unequally in traditional Arab society.

In the story “In Camera” by Nawal El-Saadawi, women often played an insignificant role in traditional Arab society and were treated unequally in the political world because of their biological sex. The quotation, “No animal could sit like the way she could, if it did, what would it do with its four legs?” (1108), highlights just one of the struggles that women are faced with—degradation. Nawal El-Saddawi shows the status of women in her culture by using irony to compare women to animals, perhaps even worse than animal in some cases. In addition, she illustrated the idea that women were not supposed to get involved in the corrupt judicial system, “If she had been a man, he would not be suffering now the way she was” (1113). Leila, the main character of the story was raped by 10 different men and was badly tortured just because she made a political remark about a government official by calling him “stupid.” Even Leila’s parent were brainwashed by the beliefs of their traditional Islamic culture and believed that, “Politics is a dirty game which only ineffectual men play” (1109) women like Leila should not be part of it.

The conversation between the rapist and Leila brought out one of the most important themes of the story. One of her rapists said, “This is the way we torture you women—by depriving you of the most valuable thing you possess” (1113), followed by Leila’s angry response, “You fool! The most valuable thing I possess is not between my legs, you’re all stupid. And the most stupid among you is the one who leads you” (1113). The dialogues between Leila and the rapist showed that the role of women in the Arab culture were insignificant and often undervalued. Women’s ability to contribute in politics has been overseen in the past; morally deformed Men only looked at women as sex objects, in order to violate their “honour and dignity” (1113). The only punishment they possessed was to use sexual violence against them. Yes, they might have physically destroyed Leila’s body, but they will never conquer Leila’s heart and her desire to break the voices masked by fear of the women within the Arab culture.

Ghalib

Ghalib mainly wrote all his poems about his emotions through his aspect of life, love Romance and his desire to be isolated from the rest the world. unlike a lot of traditional men, Ghalib was quite an emotional writer, maybe mainly due to the death of his family members and the seven kids that he had with his wife. The tragic death of his family has definitely changed his aspect towards to people and as well as his definition of life. Ghalib wrote “I’ve Made My Home Next Door to You,” “It Was Essential,” and “My Tongue Begs for the Power of Speech” and other poetry through the form of ghazal, Also known as a short lyrics form of writing that contains a series of couplets with rhyme-and-repetition pattern between the lines.which appeared in his poems “It was essential” and “I’ve made my home next door to you”. Ghalib used The Sentence “for a new more days.”(line 6) repeatedly, to show how unwilling of him to let him go and how sad he felt after Arif’s death “ his adopted son”. Unique form of writing like ghazal often enhance the emotional effects in the his poems to the reader. Similar to Emily dickinson’s writing, ghalib used long dash lines to stop readers from reading at certain points of the poem. both of Their works are mostly composed in lyrics form, also they writes about loneliness in life and their unattainable love but Ghalib was simply a much more religious and emotional man compare to Emily dickinson.

In “My tongue begs for the power of speech”, it wasn’t hard to tell that ghalib was a religious man and he had a “close relationship” with god but that did not stop him from criticizing god and his religion through the lines “ Devotion is the veil,that keeps our hubris hidden, held in check; the brow that scrapes the ground,the square prayer mat, are your gift to us.” line(31-36) God held human in check and set so many rules for them, human are relying on god to solve all their problems in life too much, human lost their Self-confidence or the courage to face the problems that they have and stand up for themselves.

Another interesting thing about Ghalib’s style of writing was that he address a “ you” in almost all of his poems, for example in the poem “ it was essential” “ it was essential that you wait for me, for a few more days”(line 1-3). the word “ you” showed up quite often, because of that all his poems feels like A story from his first-person perspective and they are slightly like a conversation between him and the person he was referring to in the poem. sometimes it was his lover, sometimes it was his adopted son, or even god but no matter who it is, Ghalib is deeply emotionally attached to the people in his life, that was what makes him  an exceptional Romantic poem writer. Love plays a significant role in his life. the feeling of love not only changed the way he writes, but also it made him who he is as a writer. In “ Couplets”

Pulling that image

from my memory –

of your finger

imprinted with designs in henna –

was exactly like pulling a fingernail

from my flesh. (10)

he expressed his strong feelings for love in this poem.The image of love is all over his head and to the point where it drives him crazy. all these Painful memories of love that he experienced were more like a tattoo to him, unforgettable and most importantly it left Unerasable marks deep inside his heart.