A somalian girl
the map of somalia
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Illumination
I chose to illuminate Ebla's responsibility as a woman because throughout the story she struggled with what is perceived to be the role of a woman in Somalian Culture. She didn't think it was right that women should be considered inferior to men. The folowing quote was used to explain to Ebla the reason why women should be submissive to men.
"God created woman from a crooked rib of Adam; and any one who trieth to straighten it, breaketh it."
As a woman living in a western society I feel sad that in the 20th century in some cultures the apparent physical and psycological abuse of women is considererd acceptable:
- The quote above explains Ebla's justifies the belief that women originated from men. Therefore, they are inferior. However, throughout the story and her encounters with numerous people, she questions the logic that goes into a woman's inferiority. If a woman bears a child, the motherly love is no less for a girl than for a boy. At what point in their lives, does one child become more important than the other?
- Women go through painful circumcisions so that a man can feel validated by her purity, with no regards for her well being or suffering.
- As a human being, women should be valued for what we offer as far as personality or companionship, instead of being considered as an object to be disposed of whenever they are no longer considered valuable.
Book Summary
This book is about an eighteen year old girl, Ebla, who runs away after she discovers that she has been promised to marry an older man. She escapes to a nearby village from her nomadic community. Once in the city, she soon learns that her cousin arranges for her to marry another man. So she decided to choose her own mate and flees to another city with a man she had only met five to ten days earlier. Seven days after Ebla's marriage, she finds herself alone and helpless, when her husband, Awill, got a three month business assignment in Italy. She befriends a lady named Asha in the apartment where she lives. Later she learns that her husband had an affair with an Italian woman. Asha convinces Ebla to seek revenge by marrying someone else and she marries Tiffo. Tiffo doesn't tell Ebla about his marriage of eighteen years until after they are married and Ebla is simply reduced to being his harlot. While contemplating about her life, she realized that she was powerless and decided to take control of herself and her life. First, she told Asha to stay out of her business and then she told Tiffo that she too was married and she wanted a divorce. Upon her first husbands return, she has the courage to confront him about his affair and maybe they lived happily ever after.
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