Persian Girls Summary

Comparing “I am Nujood. age 10 and divorced” by Nujood Ali and “Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin

These two novels trace the lives of women oppressed by their patriarchal societies, and their longing, courage and eventual struggles to regain control of their lives, freedom and happiness. Both are memoirs and, set in largely Islamic contexts with Nahid in Iran, and Nujood in Yemen.

In Persian Girls, Nahid is taken away from her adoptive mother and stripped of her blissful Iranian childhood, to be taken back to her birth-family. She finds solace in her older sister Pari and together, both girls refuse traditional Muslim convention, and dream of careers in literature and on the stage. Although Nahid fulfills her aspirations in America, Pari’s
dreams are shattered when she’s forced to marry a cruel but wealthy suitor by her parents.

In “I am Nujood, Aged 10 and Divorced”, Nujood on the other hand, is forced to wed a man thrice her age who abuses her physically and emotionally, and takes her virginity at the tender age of ten. The memoir traces her distress, pain which translates into courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family, as young Nujood flees to the courthouse, pleading for a divorce. Her tale stirred change in Middle Eastern underage marriage laws, and vociferates the perils faced by child brides like her.

Although Nujood’s battle for her divorce is the focus of most of the memoir which contrasts Nahid’s purpose of penning a tribute to her sister Pari, divorces are issues most female protagonists in the text grapple with and the underlying motives that fuel the various characters are to seek refuge from abuse, escape from the grips of dominant male figures in society and ultimately freedom and happiness.
Though employing differing techniques the two texts convey similar messages in different styles, and shed light on the similar plight of the two heroines, and the culturally engraved mindsets that their family regard them with, thereby giving rise to many parallel themes between the two
texts.

A contrasting point is the major difference in style. Nahid’s style is complex, lyrical and follows the stream of consciousness. While Nujood’s style is simple, straightforward, and thus in itself horrifying. However the touch of innocence which she deals with the horror of it all, and the veil of maturity and sophistication that Nahid encloses her life in is a varied and tasteful contrast for the reader.

Both texts address the plight of women in a patriarchal society, where “male honor” is valued above a woman’s welfare, peace of mind or happiness.
This is especially emphasized in Aba(father)’s response to Nujood’s pleas for a divorce when he states “If you divorce your husband, my brothers and cousins will kill me! Sharaf, honor come first. Honor! Do you understand?” Nujood is pained by his words and unable to comprehend what the exact meaning of Honor is. Nahid’s father echoes similar ideas in an underplayed form when his face “clouds with concern”, not for his daughter Pari, but “family honor”. He questions “Imagine how we will all be stigmatized if you get a
divorce.”

To this Pari reciprocates with a very pertinent question that is at the heart of both novels, “Aren’t I entitled to some individual happiness?” This idea is immediately accorded to Western influence and “their idea of individual happiness is selfish and it has hurt their sense of family life.. What we have is superior; each person should think of the happiness as a whole” This statement cements the notion that women in patriarchal societies are expected to be submissive to their husbands and uphold the honor of their families, so that they are not “disgraced” but beyond compromising on their individual freedoms and harming themselves psychologically and physiologically.

Even more disturbingly so, the dominance of the male figure in society and in the family, has a significance on the responses of the mothers to their daughters’ plights. Nujood’s mother, Omma, laments that “That’s how life is, Nujood: all women must endure this; we have all gone through the same thing.” This statement indicates firstly, that Omma like most mothers, are powerless, and resigned to the fate of their daughters’ suffering. On a larger level it further accentuates the widespread situation of women in culturally oppressed societies.

This patriarchal system leads to an oppression of women’s creative freedoms in pursuing their interests, to a stage where women are undermined and powerless “not taught to make choices.” In reality, “Freedom is just a trophy” for most women under the Shah’s rule in Iran.” This system and the culture also seemingly bred the mindset the a woman’s sole purpose in life is to marry off and please he spouse. As Nahid describes “Sisterhood, family ties and a women’s elemental desire for a child to make her feel feminine, whole, were concepts comprehensible to everyone”. The universality of these concepts aside, the Shah dictates in an interview that “Women are important in a man’s life only if they’re beautiful and charming and femininity…” The crude reduction of a woman’s worth to the pleasure she provides in a man’s life is a concept to be condoned.

Women are further seen as merely a burden, and marrying them off at the soonest is deemed a duty done by the parents, and “one less mouth (to feed)”. They are also worth their mehrieh (money paid by man if he divorces her) and a price is fixed to each new bride. Although this is seemingly a custom of the Iranian culture that cannot be contested, it is indicative of the objectification of a woman as she enters wedlock and that this objectification is buttressed in their culture and traditions.

The most pertinent allegation of patriarchal superiority is that of a husband forcing a woman to give up her desires in their entirety, and to not resist getting pregnant. Worse still, in Nujood’s case, her husband forces himself upon her for sex at the tender age of ten “You are my wife! Now you must do what I want! Got that?” It is again mirrored in the case of Pari and her mother who are constantly pregnant as a result of their spouses desires. It is an infringement of a woman’s right to her body on many levels, and affects her negatively in a psycho-emotional manner, having to forgo her wishes and being mentally tortured by her spouse.

On the flip-side, this sense of oppression also fuels the complete contrast, and the only means to overcoming oppression – the struggle for freedom and happiness. For Nujood, faced with her family’s indifference to her plight, it is the realization that “The men, who have the last word”. On the other hand, it is Nahid’s strong-headedness and determination to prove herself in her education, while for Pari, it is at first a spirited struggle to “marry only for love” and later a sense of resignation to vicarious fulfillment through her sister’s dreams of literature. In both texts, the characterization of the brother is that of some form of inspiration or drive to the protagonists. Nahid is inspired by her brothers Parviz and Cyrus, and seeks Parviz’ help in convincing her father to educate her in America. Similarly, Nujood’s brother Farez and his free spirited nature propels her and gives her the courage to run for her life, and seek justice.

Freedom for both women, although is an underlying grounding concept differs in definition for all three women concerned. While all three are bound by cultural and religious restrictions imposed upon them by society, Nahid and Pari’s struggle is to create a life of their own choosing, to subvert stereotypes and “break the pattern” of arranged marriages. For Pari and Nujood, upon entering wedlock, freedom takes a more literal, yet sinister tone of struggling to free themselves from the stiff hold of their husbands, the abuse they suffered at their hands and their need for sexual pleasure.

Nujood approaches this with relentless and perpetual courage, brought about by a change of mindset in that she just could not “bear his meanness anymore”. A particularly endearingly powerful statement that heightens this notion is when she says “I am a simple village girl whose family had to move to the capital, and I have always obeyed the orders of my fathers and my brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.” In this moment, she has decided to stand up for herself, for her pursuit of happiness and to decide that only she can change her own fate and the fate of others, as with