Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village
Guests of the Sheik
1. You are Fatima, a middle-aged, middle-class woman in El Nahra, Iraq in 1954. You have met an American woman for the first time in your life, and have come to know her pretty well. But you just cannot understand how she can be happy living according to the American customs she has described to you. Construct Fatima’s argument for why the customs of Iraq, especially as they relate to gender roles and gender relationships, are vastly superior to those of the United States.
It is difficult for Fatima to comprehend the American way of living especially from a woman’s perspective. She sincerely believes that her way is better. For an Arabic woman, particularly in the rural Iraq in 1950’s, marriage is the only goal and accomplishment. The husband takes care of a woman and her children, so she doesn’t need to work outside of the house. In return, she will be a hard-working devoted mother and wife, a good cook and housekeeper, and a quiet, obedient companion to her husband (p. 56). She also wouldn’t even imagine “a horrible fate” of being married to a stranger and “sent to live away from the family” (p.158). In this culture, the ideal husband would be a father’s brother’s son: someone she would know since her childhood.
Then, there is a question of veiling herself. In this society woman’s sexuality is considered a danger to herself and a whole community. So, abaya is seen not as an enforced item, but as a protection. It also helps to preserve family honor. The woman’s fidelity doesn’t only determine her own fate, but affects the whole family. Her siblings might not be able to get married; even business might get affected and the family will become outcasts.
Then, Fatima doesn’t understand why a man cannot take several wives in the American society. According to her view, if a man decides to marry another woman, instead of divorcing the first wife he will just marry the second one as well, still providing for the first wife and her children
1. You are Fatima, a middle-aged, middle-class woman in El Nahra, Iraq in 1954. You have met an American woman for the first time in your life, and have come to know her pretty well. But you just cannot understand how she can be happy living according to the American customs she has described to you. Construct Fatima’s argument for why the customs of Iraq, especially as they relate to gender roles and gender relationships, are vastly superior to those of the United States.
It is difficult for Fatima to comprehend the American way of living especially from a woman’s perspective. She sincerely believes that her way is better. For an Arabic woman, particularly in the rural Iraq in 1950’s, marriage is the only goal and accomplishment. The husband takes care of a woman and her children, so she doesn’t need to work outside of the house. In return, she will be a hard-working devoted mother and wife, a good cook and housekeeper, and a quiet, obedient companion to her husband (p. 56). She also wouldn’t even imagine “a horrible fate” of being married to a stranger and “sent to live away from the family” (p.158). In this culture, the ideal husband would be a father’s brother’s son: someone she would know since her childhood.
Then, there is a question of veiling herself. In this society woman’s sexuality is considered a danger to herself and a whole community. So, abaya is seen not as an enforced item, but as a protection. It also helps to preserve family honor. The woman’s fidelity doesn’t only determine her own fate, but affects the whole family. Her siblings might not be able to get married; even business might get affected and the family will become outcasts.
Then, Fatima doesn’t understand why a man cannot take several wives in the American society. According to her view, if a man decides to marry another woman, instead of divorcing the first wife he will just marry the second one as well, still providing for the first wife and her children