Ali Fear Eats The Soul

An interesting theory can be inferred from the novel is that the reason for the suicides of the women Sa’eed seduced was from the social pressures that these women faced from having a relationship with a non-white man. The social pressures women face from indulging in a relationship with a non-white man, can be seen in the film Ali Fear Eats the Soul, where the main character Ali, who is a Muslim worker from a foreign country, seduces a German woman named Emmi Kurowski and she is continuously scrutinized by the people in her town for having a relationship with a Muslim. Similarities can be seen between the movie and novel because if Emmi is being scrutinized in the movie for her relationship with an immigrant then the women that Sa’eed seduced
The attack against Muslim women’s veils started in the 20th century where veiled Muslim women were depicted as sexually oppressed by powerful Muslim men and were also seen as a symbol of Islam’s resistance to modernity (Green81). Today, Muslim women are being forced to take off their veils at airports around the world and in France the veil was banned to assimilate Muslims into modern French culture to eradicate the Muslim culture (Scott20). The politics of the veil started in 1954 during the Algerian war because France’s focus was to modernize the country by getting rid of Muslim women’s veils to overcome backwardness. The French instituted “feminine solidarity” centres where it would give Muslim women emancipation so they would turn and side with the French war cause (ibid,75). During the Battle of Algiers, Muslim women would take off their veils and disguise themselves as a European woman to pass through security checkpoints and plant bombs, which shows how Muslim women were stereotyped as terrorists whereas white European women were treated normal
The effects of post-colonialism can be seen in the character Mustafa Sa’eed where he tries to reverse the colonized relationship, is stereotyped by several British women, is blamed for these women’s deaths, and is used as pawn to promote capitalism in Sudan. It’s saddening to see that these post-colonial effects and stereotypes have still been carried on to today with a prime example being the ban on Muslims by the Trump administration in the United States. Malcom X argues that the only way to fix oppression from white people is by coming together like at the Bandung conference without the white man and creating a revolution just like the French and Chinese revolutions (Message to the Grassroots). The revolutions that Malcom X referred to may be the only way to solve racism and inequality in the world