Raha vs. Mama... Alex M.

I don't know about you guys, but I thought the story was pretty brutal. A sickening image formed in my mind when I was reading how the mother totally abused Raha and how Raha tried to kill herself. Yet, as I discussed the horrible events with my dad, i realized that atrocities like this happen every day across the world. I have read stories where a young girl is forced by her family to marry a rich fat slob, but on a totally different level. In the happy stories, the young heroin finds a way to escape into the arms of her Prince Charming and they live happily ever after. The thought of arranged marriage had little weight in my head, because the young girl always endured the marriage and found a way out. In "The Assassination of Light at the River's Flow", Raha's way out is a horrible and bloody death at the hands of her mother. In real life Islamic law is so powerful that it forces girls like Raha to share the bed of someone they do not love. In history we are learning about how women living in strict religious regimes and how they have little rights. You would think that Islamic women would embrace the West and secularism because it would give them more freedom, but as Islamic law is prevailing in many middle-eastern countries that freedom is diminishing. One more thing, but i have to say that most people would agree with me that the mother flipped out just a little too much on Raha. Yeah i know that it was your beautiful daughter that you spent so much work on. Yeah i know if your daughter refuses Fahid's hand in marriage you and your husband would look like fools in front of everyone you knew. Still, it doesn't mean that you have to be so selfish to totally erase any consideration of what your daughter wants. You must really not love your daughter to not care about her interests. And also, what's with the violence? I think there is more shame in killing your daughter than letting her not marry her match. I was very angry at the mother after i read the story and she totally changed my view of women's rights in the middle-east.