Alifa Rifaat
Alifa Rifaat is an Egyptian author of short stories. Her works pose challenges to what it means to be a Muslim women living within a traditional Muslim society. Her writing has progressed from an early romanticism, often marred by sentimentality, to a more recent sparse realism. Without the benefit of a university education-the expression of a desire to continue her education and to study art was interpreted by her family as a sign that it was time to find her a suitable husband-she possesses no competence in a foreign language. Her reading has thus been restricted to Arab writers of fiction and such foreign fiction as has been translated into Arabic; in addition she is deeply read in works of religion, in particular the Qur.an and the Hadith. Most of her married life has been spent in various parts of provincial Egypt, which provide the settings for many of her stories; apart from this her only travels outside Cairo have been two recent visits to Mecca and Medina for the purpose of performing Pilgrimage. This background gives her writing freshness and actuality. Most of her stories express, implicitly, rather than explicitly, a revolt against many of the norms and attitudes, particularly those related to woman and her place in society. Her revolt remains within a religious framework. She does not look for change for Muslim women in the models of the Christian west. She shows that men have the job of behaving towards women with kindness and generosity and that if a man.s behavior falls short of what is expected of him, the woman.s natural acceptance of her role is likely to change to contempt and rebellion. Her revolt is against certain man-made interpretations and accretions that have developed over the years and remain unquestioned by the majority of both men and women. Two subjects predominate in her stories: sex and death. Some of her works include, .The Long Night of winter,. .Distant View of a Minaret,. and Bahiyya.s Eyes.. In her works, women.s wish and right to be sexually fulfilled are openly stated.