'The social position of women is clearly shown to be subordinate in Naguib Mahfouz's 'Midaq Alley' and 'Season of Migration to the North', by Tayeb Salih.' To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Authors Avatar

‘The social position of women is clearly shown to be subordinate in Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘Midaq Alley’ and ‘Season of Migration to the North’, by Tayeb Salih.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

In this essay I plan to argue that the social position of women is clearly shown to be subordinate in ‘Midaq Alley’ and ‘Season of Migration to the North’. I will firstly examine how and why men pursue women in the two books. I shall also look at women’s status and rights in society. I shall then go on to look at marriage, as well as violence between men and women both inside and outside of marriage.

        In Midaq Alley, Salim Alwan pursues Hamida. However, he does not do this out of any sort of love but because he fears that his ‘youth and virility’ are vanishing, and wishes to prove to himself that he is still virile. He wishes to do so because his wife, who has always disapproved of his special food, is increasingly reluctant to indulge him in the active sex-life he wants. He accuses her ‘of frigidity and of being sexually exhausted’. However, Salim Alwan shows no sympathy for her ‘obvious weakness’ and does not ‘alter his passionate habits’. This demonstrates how the husband is the dominant one in a traditional marriage within the Egyptian culture, and that the wife is required to meet his needs – whatsoever she feels about them. He considers his wife’s complaining as ‘rebelliousness’ – showing that he consider himself to be the ‘master’ in their relationship – and decides to obtain himself and new wife. This proposed wife is Hamida, and he believes that marrying a young wife will prove his virility and allow him to fulfil his needs.

        In ‘Season of Migration to the North’, Mustafa’s widow, Hosna Bint Mahmoud, is forced into marrying Wad Rayyes, an elderly man, against her will. Although many of the villagers advise Wad Rayyes not to marry Hosna Bint Mahmoud, everyone in the village, apart from the narrator, supports him in his right to do so if he so wishes. Wad Rayyes, like Salim Alwan, wishes to marry Hosna Bint Mahmoud in order to prove his own youth and virility. Mahmoud justifies this in saying that: ‘women belong to men, and a man’s a man, even if he’s decrepit’. This demonstrates how, in Sudanese culture, men’s rights supersede those of women. The village supports Wad Rayyes’ right to marry her, against her will, even though they themselves believe it to be an error in his judgement. Despite Hosna Bint Mahmoud’s grievances, she remains reticent and submissive, causing very little commotion, until her tragic death at the end. This shows how the cultural expectation of the women not to complain has been ingrained in Hosna Bint Mahmoud so very deeply as she has been brought up that she cannot go against this until her final violent act.

Join now!

        In Midaq Alley, Hamida requests that Ibrahim Faraj marry her. Ibrahim Faraj treats marriage like ancient history, asking of her whether she learnt of the term from the Qur’an or at school and tells her that he has forgotten the term. Hamida takes in his views and decides that actually he is right because she doesn’t want to be tied down, confined to the house and tied to the ‘exhausting duties of wife, housekeeper and mother’. Not only do these sound as though she is repeating his excuses back to herself, but they also demonstrate that in this society she ...

This is a preview of the whole essay