A cry, a laugh, a shout, a scream all express emotions through use of the voice. These expressions share a commonality because words are not required in order to convey the communication. Although no words are used, the expressions still possess the ability to communicate a need, a desire, or simply an emotion. Words expressed through verbal or written communication also carry power to express these same emotions, as well as more specifically a need for change, an opinion, an emotion, or simply the freedom of expression.
Silencing in the Past
In the past and often still in the present, women struggled to gain the respect due for their verbal and written words. Patronizing men dismissed the intelligence of women and ignored their words. Women found themselves treated as children and marginalized in cultures and society. Although some women broke through the silence in politics, literature, and education, most women found that their voices existed only in the presence of other women.
In the early nineteenth century, more women decided to break through the silence and women’s equality movements began simultaneously all over the world. A growth in the education of women influenced these movements and women became aware of the containments patriarchal society placed on their gender.
Ways Silencing is Perpetuated in the Present
One of the ways patriarchal society perpetuates the marginalization of society exists in religion. The three main monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all find their basis in male-dominated traditions. Women receive accolades for submissiveness, chastity, and domesticity. Men find the expectation for them to claim the dominant role, lead, support, and maintain order in the home and society.
Even though a man or a whole family may not claim to be religious, the permeation of these long-term religious traditions caused the ideas to infiltrate societal norms. Thus irregardless of a person’s religious upbringing, or even if he practices a religion these divisive expectations of women and men still influence how they function in society.
Because women’s roles existed on the margins of society and their value was measured based on their relation to men, they became the silent observers whose role was to breed, care for the home, and meet the needs of the men. The equality movements began to try to change these normative roles, but even into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, women still find they struggle to gain equality with men.
Use of Literature to Break the Silence in the Arab World
One way that women strive for equality rests with their words, specifically the written word. Women continue to use essays, journals, and literature as a way to unveil the problem and to convey the need for change. Women around the world utilized this method. Through difficult religious and cultural ideologies, two women writers from the Arab world broke through the silence of the Muslim influence in order to communicate the need for a woman to use her voice.
Assia Djebar writes from an Algerian background and Hanan al-Shaykh writes from a Lebanese background. Djebar’s Women of Algiers in their Apartment (University of Virginia Press 1992) focuses on women after the Algerian War, while al-Shaykh’s The Story of Zahra (Anchor Books 1995) revolves around one woman during the Civil War in Lebanon. In each of these novels, the woman’s voice strains to be heard.
At times, the woman manages to break through the silence and this results in abuse, chastisement, or claims of her insanity. Other times, the woman remains quiet, but her body reveals the need to be heard through a physical problem. Instances occur when a woman uses her voice and a positive outcome happens for either her and/or her community.
The Positive and the Negative
Djebar and al-Shaykh use the fictional women in their novels to bring the voices out into the open in order to reveal the positive and negative reactions and results for women in a patriarchal society who choose to use or not to use their voice and the power of their words. Both writers broke through the silence even though it meant being ostracized from their communities. Djebar writes her novels in French and although al-Shaykh writes her novels in Arabic, many Arab countries have banned the publication and sale of her books.
For Further Reading about World Literatures
Using Literature as a Model for Change
Arab Women Writers
Paula Wilder - Paula is a freelance writer and speaker. She also teaches developmental reading and English at Guilford Technical Community College. She ...
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