A Womans Agony in Bahiyyas Eyes - Book Report/Review Example

 In the story, Bahiyya’s mother tells her, “When your father’s gone, he’ll be the man in the family and what he says goes…”(365). This makes Bahiyya feel how unfortunate it is for her to be a woman. Bahia also questions the absurd traditions in her society. When she was younger, she experienced female genital mutilation (FGM). According to the World Health Organization website, FGM is a procedure that intentionally causes injury to the female genitals for non-medical reasons.

Bahia mentions this experience using a metaphor as she compares her genitals to the mulberry, thus she says that the women “cut the mulberry with a razor” (368). Rifaat did not mention the term FGM to make it sound metaphoric and to illustrate the innocence of Bahiyya but she suggests that FGM can affect a woman’s sexual fulfillment as Bahiyya confesses, “I wasn’t all that happy with him…perhaps the reason was what those women did to me with the razor when I was a young girl” (367).

Rifaat may have used “perhaps” to suggest Bahiyya’s ignorance but readers may interpret it as a means to sound less assuming so as not to make the work too controversial.The story also tackles the unjust marital arrangement in the Muslim tradition. As seen in the story, Bahiyya is in love with Hamdan but is made to marry Dahshan. The inability of women to decide for marriage is still an issue among the Muslims until now. In the story, Rifaat uses the romance between Hamdan and Bahiyya to gain the sympathy of the readers, thus appeal to the emotions rather than the mind.

The story is told from the main character’s point of view. Given this, the issues are dealt with and limited to the main character’s experience. This excuses the author from generalizing, thus suggesting that the comments on the issues are all personal and should not be taken as a general appeal. The issues tackled are sensitive but the author manages to present them without causing offense to American readers. Nevertheless, it is unsure whether Muslim readers would take offense in the way the story is written but the use of metaphor to refer to the genitals is a safe way to sound literary.

Moreover, the use of flashback adds sentimentality to the story. Narrating her experiences as a young child, Bahiyya allows the readers to travel back with her, thus making the narrative more personal and appealing. Rifaat’s treatment of the subject matter of discrimination is feeble or less assuming. She uses Bahiyya’s eyes to sound less argumentative but this does not affect the sensitivity of the issue. Overall, with Rifaat’s use of the first-person point of view, metaphor, and flashback, she has presented an emotionally appealing story, which people, especially girls, both young and grown-up can reflect on.