The Female Child In Hanan Yankh's Sumakh

The female child or daughter of the family has often been a victim of hostile beliefs in many traditions, such as Indian, Islamic, and African, among other cultures across the globe. In some cases, the feminine gender is treated as an inferior sex, therefore it is subject to strict rules that demoralize it a great deal. Some of these prejudiced laws reduce the value of a woman to the point of just being a helper to her husband, while others force the female child to obey specific rules that seem somewhat “useless.” An example of a society that instills needless suffering on its women is the Islam religion that oppresses its female child through the many needless laws such as wearing the veil that the females have to follow. Hanan Al- Shaykh’s

Her grandmother represents the cultural beliefs that limit her a great deal. For instance, the old woman says, “All this trouble is that devil Sumayya’s fault” (1168). From her point of view, Sumayya has corrupted her granddaughter’s mind by telling her stories about modern things. In fact, on the way to the pool, Shi'ite and her grandmother do not get along. The grandmother keeps discouraging the granddaughter from going to the pool at all. At the end of the novel, the young girl cannot get

In an effort to find out why some Islamic traditions such as Hanan’s observation seem to deny the female child her freedom, we discover that there could be a misinterpretation of the Quran. First, the verse says, “let the believing women,” not everyone; people should have the choice to put the attire on, not be forced, as the women were in Iran. Also, the same Quran that forces the woman to wear the veil says, “Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do” (Religion). Therefore, if a woman should wear the veil,