Achieve Distant View Of A Minaret And Other Stories Crafted By Alifa Rifaat EPub

convincingly than any other woman writing in Arabic today, Alifa Rifaat lifts the vil on what it means to be a women living within a traditional Muslim society.
" So states the translator's foreword to this collection of the Egyptian author's best short stories, Rifaatdid not go to university, spoke only Arabic, and seldom traveled abroad, This virtual immunity from Western influence lends a special authenticity to her direct yet sincere accounts of death, sexual fulfillment, the lives of women in purdah, and the frustrations of everyday life in a maledominated Islamic environment.


Translated from the Arabic by Denys JohnsonDavies, the collection admits the reader into a hidden private world, regulated by the call of the mosque, but often full of profound anguish and personal isolation.
Badriyya's despariting anger at her deceitful husband, for example, or the hauntingly melancholy of "At the Time of the Jasmine," are treated with a sensitivity to the discipline and order of Islam.
The collection of stories in this book is amazing, Found some gems I remember from a high school set book Half a Day and Other Stories and somewhere else,

Highly recommended! I'm really glad I didn't let the ridiculously orientalist tone of the blurb and translator's foreword dissuade me from reading this very interesting collection of short stories.
Now I really want to read the stories in the original Arabic, A peek in the window of womens' lives from a culture I must admit not understanding, Still their stories, are many womens', . .

This is a thin book of clear, honestthe book begins with a woman bored and embittered by her husband, . . in the middle of intercourse, concise, relateable but mostly sad short short stories written by an arab woman untainted by western influence, according to the back cover, Important book imo.

I absolutely loved this collection of short stories, It was feminist in a geomodernist sense the Egyptian women within the stories believe in feminism of their own sort, not Western modernism, The mix of stories show the diversity among the women and their beliefs, It's fantastic and definitely made me second guess my judgments of women in other cultures, Aching. Egyptian women, whole lives or just moments, in two, five pages, Another hidden treasure from forkedroadpress from Egyptian writer more artist, actually alifarifaat in this stunningly beautifully written series of shortstories that for me, deeply disturbed for its realism, Islamic society through the lens of these tales was is unforgiving and harsh towards women in its communities, revealed in happenstance rhetoric as not only chattel for their men but as desperately lonely souls, siloed even in the company of other women.
Very hard for me to read throught to the end, given how foreign its lifeconcepts were to MY schema, ing short story collections is always difficult, even when it's a collection by a single author, because content and quality can vary so much between stories, ing this particular collection was even more, . . not difficult, exactly, but perhaps unusual, because this is a work in translation, As a reader I tend to shy away from translated works because they almost always don't cross over naturally the words seem stiff and distant and I have no way of knowing whether this is the fault of the translator or a different style of writing.


The case of this book was a little different, since it has been translated from its original Arabic, a language I am fluent in, The stories are all about Egyptians, and so I came into this book with familiarity and understanding, I wonder, though, if I may have enjoyed this more had I read it in the original Arabic,

Anyway, the stories in this collection are less stories than vignettes, most of them depressing and hopeless, Rifaat writes about miserable women and awful men, While her stories ring true, it became wearying to read one vignette after another about a woman who hates her life, Since these vignettes were so short, it was also difficult to really identify with any of the characters, since there was so little time to get to know them.


My favorite story in the collection was surprise, surprise the only story with a speculative element, In "My World of the Unknown" a woman seemingly begins a love affair with a female djinn who is in the guise of a snake, It's a very strange story without a conclusive ending, but I liked its plot and its potential,

All the other stories were very realistic and downtoearth, It seems like a book that was written by an Egyptian for other Egyptians, though, as I'm not really sure how accessible these stories are to nonEgyptians or nonArabs in general.
They are raw and gritty and personal in a very culturally specific way, and I can see the casual Western reader feeling offput and alienated by their content,

I wouldn't say I enjoyed the stories in this book, but I did enjoy reading it, if only for the familiarity, I always enjoy reading books set in Egypt or about Egypt, but I probably wouldn't have finished a book like this otherwise, Heartbreakingly honest about the inner person, sexuality, death, family dynamics and daily living of traditional Muslim women, It's hard to comprehend that the author does not have any formal literary training and in fact lived a very cloistered life,

Some might find her boundaries of sex and sexuality offputting because of her obviously religious background but in my opinion, I find her discussion of these subjects very refreshing and still relatable to all women whether they're religious or not.
Amazing. I found one or two stories a bit obvious, but besides that this collection really moved me, I had to stop reading a few times to catch my breath, I don't usually read short stories, but these were wonderful and I'm glad to have experienced them, Short, succinct stories that are entirely heartbreaking on their own and inspiring in the collective,
One of the finest short story collection I've read in recent times, Alifa Rifaat takes you into the world of the's Egyptian woman with excellence, This collection of short stories, told mostly through the point of view of old and sometimes lonelyEgyptian women is a timeless example of the similarity in the experience of women across cultures.


For a society such as hers, it is surprising how Alifa describes acts such as lesbianism and zoophilia in positive at least, noncondemning tones,

This is my first experience with North African writing, and it has whetted my appetite for more,

Full review sitelink comalif A truly excellent collection of short stories, Skip the translators introduction: apparently brown women still need white men to introduce them and attest to their authenticity for the Western gaze, an Orientalist intermediary if there ever was one.
The readings of these texts that juxtapose them with more Western feminist perspectives also miss the point, Rifaat is deeply concerned with womens circumscribed roles in her society, She simply does not believe that working for wages, embracing the secular individual over a religious community, and sex with many partners will be particularly liberating, These are actually common themes among many different strains of womens feminisms even in the West they just do not line up with the white Second Wave Feminism that has somehow become a metonym for the movement.
Alifa Rifaats collection ofshort stories in sitelinkDistant View of a Minaret and Other Stories is a quiet, subtle, and delicately nuanced collection of mostly firstperson narratives that take place in Egypt.
The stories are short, but what they lose in length they more than make up for in depth and penetrating insight, Rifaat has an uncanny ability to elevate ordinary acts of daily life into the level of ritual,

With few exceptions, the firstperson narratives are in the voices of women at different stages in life, For example, in “Distant View of a Minaret” we meet a married woman whose husband makes her feel ashamed for seeking sexual fulfillment, “Bahiyaas Eyes” is in the voice of an aging woman with failing eyesight who wants to feast her eyes on her daughter one last time before completely losing her vision.
In “An Incident at the Ghobashi Household,” a mother protects her daughter by pretending her daughters illegitimate child is her own, In “Just Another Day,” peace descends upon a woman as she is invited to enter the Gardens of Paradise

while her body is being prepared for burial,

The strength of these stories lies in the poignant and perceptive manner in which Rifaat handles lifes disappointments, situations, oppressions, and challenges, Several of the stories depict wives struggling to come to terms with their husbands prolific infidelities, Although many of the women recognize the injustice perpetrated against them, they do not rage against a patriarchal system that oppresses, discriminates, and marginalizes them, They do not seek divorce or retaliate against their husbands infidelities by committing adultery, Instead, they exercise an agency that manifests itself in a different form, They are practicing Muslims who derive sustenance from their Islamic faith,

What is impressive about these stories is the feminist consciousness that emerges, It is not a Western style feminism, Instead, the women operate within the precepts of their Islamic faith, Their stories are punctuated by the muezzins call to prayer, As each woman makes her prostrations in prayer, a peace and calmness descends upon her, enabling her to better handle lifes challenges and accept her fate with poise and equanimity.
Her thoughts are peppered with references to God and His mercy, In “The Kite”, for example, a poor, uneducated widow who followed her husbands lead in prayer because she never learned to memorize verses from the Quran finds herself unable to perform prayers after his death.
But she does what she can, She remembers to thank God for His generosity by performing a simple and tender gesture of raising her hand to her lips repeatedly to give thanks,

Through her depiction of women as conscious agents who find refuge in their faith, Rifaat quietly exposes the double standard and systemic injustices characteristic of a patriarchal society.
Eastern and/or Islamic feminists demand justice but seek it on their own terms, Their methods may be more effective than strident rebellion, which can be alienating, Many nonWestern women resent the paternalistic attitude of some Western feminists who seek to impose their worldview and methodology for addressing injustice while simultaneously discrediting the world view of feminists from Eastern and/or Islamic countries.


Alifa Rifaat exposes injustice with subtlety, sensitivity, and poignancy, She shows us how some women of the Islamic faith confront injustice, We dont have to agree with their methods of coping with challenges, but we should at a minimum respect the right of all women to exercise agency by choosing their own paths for dealing with oppression.


Highly recommended. .