Islam and Mrs Rais Essay

Tittle: only a woman
Author: Amel Benaboura
Text type: Short text

Feminism is a controversial topic talked abut all over the world. Women want equality for themselves and want men to recognise their talents. The short text only a woman written by Amel Benaboura is set during the ‘70s in Algeria where men had all the power and the women had no choice but to follow the rules of the muslin religion. In this text we learn about a family which is ruled by the eldest brother of who which abuses his power to control the women of his household.
The story is purely based on the Islamic religion, unlike most religions Muslims believe that women are weaker in general thus they have the right to control the household. we assume that the father is no longer present in the story thus Nabil, the eldest male of the family has gained the right to control the household. From the beginning of the story we get a glimpse on what it’s like to live in this household. Yamina is shaking as she picks up the mirror….. the swollen lips deforms her mouth. The scar on her cheek is hideous. We later found out these are the cause of Nabils actions through Ikrame Nabil hates liars! He beats them horribly from this point on Nabil is made out to be a horrible character. It is later revealed by his own mother that Nabils actions are cause by his jealousy and anger that his sister, Yamina succeeds in areas where Nabil seems to fail, it is revealed to us that Nabil is abusing his power within the household to control his sister. I find this to be a horrendous act, I strongly dislike Nabil as his actions are proclaimed to be in the name of the Islamic religion. I was angered by the fact that Nabil, not only abuses his power but on doing so, he does it out of jealousy, I can only make out that Nabil is horrible character and a horrible Muslim as his acts completely defy the Islamic religion. As year 12’s I strongly believe that we should study this text as it subtly translates back to our society. some people in our society are represented through Nabil, as they abuse their power in society. Politicians, Adults or sometimes even teen agers abuse their believes and proclaim that their actions are in the name of their beliefs or religion, much like Nabil and how he sees his actions are in the name of the Islam/Muslim. An extreme example of this is the terrorist attack that had happened in Paris while the attack was happening, the two Islamic terrorist chanted Allahu Akbar which translates to “God is the greatest” proving that this attack was in the name of God however the 13th commandment from the commandments of God state that You shall not murder. This reveals that they are abusing the rights to be Islamic and that they did it out of anger and rage much like Nabil. Nabils actions are also loosely mimicked in our school, where bullying happens just because they are in a much higher position. As year 12’s we should study this text as we can learn about abuse of power and open our eyes to how much this kind of behaviour happens, by this we can prevent ourselves from abusing our power.
A theme that is clearly represented through the text is feminism and gender equality. In the text we are introduced to Mrs Rais, she is a strong, independent woman who had to fight for her rights. At first she was looked down by Ikrame because of the fact that she is not wearing the traditional Hajib. Mrs Rais talks about her experience of being a feminism in a country that Is run by Muslims. She shares her struggles with Yamina and tries to empower Yamina and encourages her to do the same. Mrs Rais answered back and took responsibility for myself Benaboura’s use of the pronoun “I” gives a strong impression of Mrs Rais. Her constant use of “I” is empowering as we can see that she is capable of standing up for herself and taking responsibility of her own life. Most women in a Muslim-ruled country cannot say this for themselves as they are afraid of being shut down by men around them.

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