That's Aicha My New Wife Analysis

Throughout his novel, Houellebecq presents polygyny, teen marriage and arranged unions as common among Muslims. For instance, while in a train to Paris, Francois notices a middle aged Muslim man accompanied by two young women. He immediately assumes that they are two sister wives of this significantly older man: “There were two young girls facing him, barely out of their teens -- his wives, clearly” (183). This episode clearly highlights the hero’s prejudice with regard to Muslims. Indeed, there is no clear evidence that this stranger is married to those women. They could be his daughters or his nieces. Yet, because he is wearing a Djellaba and appears to have recent Arabian ancestry, Francois concludes that he must certainly practice polygyny,

Indeed, Rediger, a respected scholar, nonchalantly introduces his second wife, an adolescent, to the hero after the latter inadvertently runs into her: “That’s Aicha, my new wife. She’ll be very embarrassed that you saw her without her veil [...] She just turned fifteen” (198). Rediger’s unconcerned tone suggests that he believes his marital situation to be completely legitimate and devoid from perversion. Yet, those customs go against many of the notions which became social norms in Western Europe and the United States following the 1960s Sexual Revolution. Indeed, the freedom to choose one’s partner based on romantic feelings as well as the right for women to seek sexual pleasure, have multiple partners or remain single constituted the core of the revendications of this youth-led social movement. In France, it culminated with the May 1968 student protests which incorporated those demands amidst calls for more socio-economic equity. Thus, the legalization of polygyny and teen marriage under the Ben Abbes government embodies the death of modern France, which was heavily marked by May