As an American male it is difficult for me to understand certain traditions and laws in Arab countries, especially those concerning women. "The Women of Sand and Myrrh" by Hannan al-Shaylh, deals with many different stuggles of Arab people, mainly women. The story focuses on four women Suha, Tamr, Nur, and Suzanne, living in an unknown Arab country. In this country women are prohibited to drive, they can't travel without the consent of a man, they can't be seen in public without an abaya, they can't work and in general they are treated like second class citizens. Another fact we know about the country ( which remains unnamed in the book) where the narrative is set is that it's located near the coast. From reading the novel, and my knowledge I had obtained from taking the class History of Modern Middle East, and further research, I have concluded that the unknown country is Saudi Arabia. My project will explore the lives of these four women (Suha, Tamr, Nur, and Suzanne) and explain how their lives are similar to women living in present-day Saudi Arabia . .
The first character in the book is Suha. Suha was born in Lebanon. Of the four female characters Suha is definitely the most progressive of the four women. Her progressive nature frequently causes her to become irritated by all the laws and traditions which have been placed upon her. On page seven Suha says, " For Gods sake, aren't we meant to be modern women? We're educated, university graduates, but what can we do here? We're not allowed to work, not allowed to drive cars." In particular, she hates to wear the veil in public, and goes to great lengths to abandon the custom. In the market scene Suha actually pretends to be a foreigner so that she would not have to wear the abaya. However her defiant nature is somewhat suppressed over time and starts to affect her physical health, this is expressed on page 29, when Suha says, "When I confronted the man who was blocking my path, and was unable to push the stick out of the way or budge an inch, I knew that I didn't have control over my own life and was a prisoner of this stick and this group of people.
