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  • Essay / Nuruddin Farah's Women: A Challenge to the Somali Patriarchal System

    The plight of women and their roles in Somali society, as depicted in Nuruddin Farah's novels, are highlighted through examination of the characters women from From a Crooked Rib and Sardines. . These female characters struggled to achieve the position they were expected to achieve as women in Somali society subject to the patriarchal system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay The characteristics of each woman in From a Crooked Rib are described clearly to highlight the state and condition of women in Somali society. Ebla is the main character whose migration from one place to another took her to a higher level of imagination about people and place. At first this didn't help her, as she began to believe in people and their words. Women are not considered equal to men, which caused the female protagonists in both novels to fight for their rights. In patriarchal Islamic culture, women are considered the weaker sex. Their strength is not equal to that of men. Women can handle anything if they are subject to this situation and can survive it. Because women are beaten by men and suffocated by torture inflicted by the men of their community. Women have a negative self-image and they are forced to travel to know the tradition and culture of others and that is why these women are naive and innocent who refuse to leave their homes to explore and collaborate with the company. This allowed men to keep women at home by removing them and forcing them to do all the household chores themselves. The woman accepts herself as weak, naive, illiterate, brainless, etc. Women have more superstitious beliefs than men and the reason is that they are not educated. Her power is limited in both her father's and her husband's houses and their abuse is inevitable. Both Ebla and Medina have limited power when under the control of their husband or father. But both women unleash their abilities when they are not surrounded by their men. Sexual abuse is not the only abuse that exists in this world. But a woman can be mistreated in various ways, such as marrying her to a man without her permission, denying her education, locking her up with household activities, etc., which makes her suffer psychologically by not letting him have her way. freedom of thought. The barriers mentioned above were broken by Ebla and Medina. Genital mutilation or infibulation or female circumcision is unquestionably imposed on Somali women and has become torture rather than a customary Islamic practice. Women are forced to endure things like genital mutilation, forced polygamous marriage, and domestic violence. The circumcision process makes her feel inferior to men. Her prudence is lacking when she is little esteemed and men have no sympathy for women. Women are projected in all Somali novels as if they are used as a tool for the expansion of their clan which consists of giving birth and raising children, sleeping with them, and they are not good for any other purpose. Primarily, the tradition of oppression comes from the house of the Great Patriarch. The great patriarch can be the father or the husband. The Grand Patriarch is the head of a Muslim family in their society and has unlimited power over his family and the rules must be followed by all members of the family including his wife and.