In Alifa Rifaat's short story "Another Evening at the Club", the protagonist is Samia and her husband, Abboud Bey is the antagonist. The story takes place in Egypt near the Nile River. The conflict arises when Samia loses the emerald ring that her husband gave her. The story suggests that often in our society, men have almost all the powers and make all decisions whereas women are treated like tools. The author effectively conveys this theme by her use of setting and contrast.
The author uses the setting of the story to imply that women had to comply with men because they were considered inferior creatures. Actually, the story takes place in Egypt, a narrow-minded society, where arranged marriages were common. In fact; women often married men a lot older than them because their family wanted them to marry a wealthy man. In other words, women were married to their husband in order to be their "tool". After marriage, women had no power at all because their only mission was to stay at home and take care of the children. Furthermore, sexual abuse was accepted in Egypt. For example, Abboud Bey "stood up and gave her (his servant) a sudden slap on the face" (56). Thus, in Egypt, men could hit women without any consequences and women could not say anything. In addition, even police officers could beat a woman until she spoke the truth and it was completely legal .Therefore, the use of the setting by the author is highly relevant for this story because there were a lot of gender inequality in Egypt. The author also hints that no matter in what social class a woman is in the society, she could not do anything even if she got hit by a man.
The contrasts used in "Another Evening at the Club" demonstrate that women had no power on marriage and had to obey to men. Throughout the whole story, women are being controlled by men. In addition, a woman could not do what she wanted without the consent of her father or her husband.