A Wife For My Son

This short story has to do with similar ideas as The Assassination of Light at the River's Flow. They both involve arranged marriages (by the parents). One interesting thing, though, is that Raha refused to get married to Fahid. In contrast, Fatiha was nervous (and had some second thoughts), but carried through with the marriage. Fatiha had never seen the man she was going to marry, and was worried about everything involving the marriage. 

Also, Raha and Fatiha both loved school and learning and feared that their marriages would put an end to their schooling and work. One issue that was a major part in A Wife For My Son was that the women didn't have too many rights. The men got to make the choices for the household. I know that in class today, we talked about some major parts of The Night of the Festival, and one of the customs/ traditions that we learned through the text was that the women didn't have as much of a say in any major decisions. They were supposed to do "the household jobs." 

Mr. Kaddour (in this story) said, to Madame Suissi: "Marriage is a more important thing than school for a woman!" (57). He states is very opinionated on this topic and (from reading their conversation) he doesn't really want to even consider Madame Suissi's argument. His choice is basically "set in stone." Mr. Kaddour thinks that women should get married (and not continue with schooling). Also, he doesn't think that women should work. I think that this could be a theme in the Middle Eastern short stories/ literature, because it seems to be common in a few short stories that we have read so far.

At the beginning of the story, I liked how Ghalem described the situation and what was happening at the time. It was very descriptive and was a good way to get the reader involved in the story. It almost reminded me of when we were reading and writing plays, and at the beginning of each scene it would say "At Rise" and would list some things that were going on in the scene when the curtain lifted. This situation is similar for this story, except for the information is incorporated into the text. 

Also, I feel kind of sorry for Fatiha. First of all, she found out that she has to marry some man that she has not even seen before in her life. She doesn't really know him, either. She has to stop her schooling to assume the role of a wife (by her father's standards). Fatiha is basically stripped from her freedom and youth without her having any say in it at all. I know that this happens a lot in the Middle Eastern culture, but I still don't think that it's fair. I believe that the women should have more of a say in things, because Fatiha's marriage changes her future, and that is a major decision, that should be for her to make.

The last line of the story leaves the reader with a few last thoughts. "Fatiha danced with a liveliness unleashed by her anxiety, her worry, her regrets; she danced to forget and for the moment she was free" (58). Do you think that Fatiha's anxiety returns later on? Is she just celebrating her last moments of freedom before she is married off to an unknown man? Has she accepted the fact and moved on?