A Woman is No Man

 

Etaf Rum’s debut novel, A Woman is No Man, is a story of female oppression particularly in the Arab societies. Isra, Deya, and Sarah all experience this innate inequality for their simple crime of being born a woman. Sarah is kept from going to college, Deya is pushed towards marriage, and Isra is forced to keep having children and when they are not boys, she is beaten until she ultimately dies. None of these events would happen to a man in the same situation. The title A Woman is No Man perfectly represents this sentiment. Men and women are not equal. Just because they both have the word man in them does not mean they are the same. A woman is no man. They have different expectations and pressures. They have different obstacles and adversaries. I often talk to men who wholeheartedly believe that men have it harder in the world than women. A man told me recently that it is easier to be a woman because she does not have to work, she can just sell pictures of her naked body online, while men are expected to work and they get no appreciation. A woman is no man. Arab women are meant to be revered but instead they are policed. As seen in this book, the people around the main women control nearly every aspect of their lives. Their education is controlled, their hair and clothing are controlled, even their romantic lives are controlled. There are so few choices that the women are given the freedom to make for themselves. The book holds up a mirror to the patriarchy in the Arab world and takes a red marker to circle every nasty bit. Obviously this is not equivalent to every Arab home but the issues are prevalent enough for the story to resonate widely. (305)