It is impossible to doubt the authenticity of each of her female protagonists as they relate their stories with an economy of emotions not usually seen in other contemporary works in the same tradition. These mostly first-person narratives are independent portraits that give the impression of a miniature painting in writing and pack so much in so few pages. 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.Īt first sight the brevity of the stories indicates lack of depth, but it did not take long to correct the initial impression as I read through the first few of the total fifteen stories in the collection.
Translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies, 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.
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 male-dominated Islamic environment. Rifaat (1930-1996) did not go to university, spoke only Arabic, and seldom traveled abroad. "More 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.
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