Every region of the world has its own set of trials and triumphs, and if you’re going to learn about another culture, the best place to start is by listening to those who have lived it. Fiction, in many respects, is the perfect portal to take you to new times and places, but it also provides the unique opportunity to meet individual characters who give us a glimpse into the lives of people living on the other side of the world.
As there is no universal experience of womanhood, I invite you to dive into the stories of women whose experiences may be different from your own as we head into Women’s History Month. Gathered here are the works of novelists from all over the Middle East, offering a varied look at the experiences of women throughout the region. Traveling across the Middle East from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, even stretching back centuries to Persia and onward with those immigrating to western countries, these seven novels explore the lives of women with ties to Middle Eastern cultures.
Honor by Elif Shafak
Honor
by Elif Shafak
From the internationally bestselling British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak comes a powerful, multigenerational tale. It begins with the birth of two sisters, Jamila and Pembe, in a small Kurdish village in the mid-1940s. As their lives take separate paths, Pembe immigrates to England with her husband, but when he abandons their family, her eldest son becomes responsible for shielding the family from shame. The tension between maintaining their traditions and acclimating to the culture of 1970s London comes to a head when Pembe begins seeing another man, forcing her son to take drastic, devastating action to preserve the family’s honor. A gripping exploration of the immigrant experience that reveals how even the most horrifying of cultural practices endure.
Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
Song of a Captive Bird
by Jasmin Darznik
This captivating historical novel explores the life of Forugh Farrokhzad, a trailblazing poet and early advocate for women’s rights and independence in Iran. Growing up in Tehran, Forugh is instructed to be quiet and modest and to obey, but her tenacity and growing passion for poetry won’t let her voice be silenced. Despite being forced into a marriage that threatens to stifle her spirit, she manages to escape, leading a fiercely independent and controversial lifestyle as she writes about freedom, giving voice to the women of Iran. Drawing on Forugh’s letters, films and interviews in addition to her poetry, Jasmin Darznik has crafted a vivid and magnetic depiction of the brave woman who represents the birth of feminism in Iran. (Read our review here.)
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Al-Sanea
Girls of Riyadh
by Rajaa Al-Sanea
Lifting the veil on the lives of women in Saudi Arabia, the novel follows four wealthy, college-age women as they navigate the traditions of a culture with strict feminine roles amid a changing modern landscape. Although contact between men and women has always been limited in the past, especially between young single people, the growing presence of technology has presented this group with the means to step outside the expectations of the old world. Told through a series of emails written by an anonymous narrator, this daring debut novel from Rajaa Al-Sanea, which was banned in Saudi Arabia for years following its release, carves out the space between Western society and Islamic culture.
My Mother’s Pain by Fae Bidgoli
My Mother’s Pain
by Fae Bidgoli
While preparing to celebrate her daughter’s engagement, Jennifer receives an upsetting phone call that leads her to drive across the country in a dissociative state. There, in the company of a few kind strangers, she begins to divulge the years-long series of events that led to her journey. Looking at the interconnected lives of several maternal figures, the novel examines the legacy of familial pain — specifically its burden on women — brought about by shame, betrayal and conflicting cultures. Writing as a means of creating awareness of the inequalities and cultural abuse women face, especially within the Middle East, Bidgoli crafts a story that respects the difficult choices carried on the backs of women. (Read our review here.)
A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi
A House Without Windows
by Nadia Hashimi
“What good is a woman’s telling of the truth/When nothing she says will be taken as proof?” When an Afghan woman, Zeba, is accused of murdering her husband, her children swear her innocence, but Zeba is certain she will hang for the crime regardless. In jail and awaiting trial, she meets a cast of other women, all of whom are imprisoned for various reasons — pregnancy out of wedlock, avoiding cultural violence, self-defense — all of which point to one central problem: a country and broken legal system that continues to oppress women. Her only hope is Yusuf, an Afghan-born, American-raised lawyer who must fight long-standing and deeply-rooted customs to prevent her death.
Things We Left Unsaid by Zoya Pirzad
Things We Left Unsaid
by Zoya Pirzad
Clarice Ayvazian is perfectly content in her role as wife and mother, spending her days immersed in the domestic bliss her husband’s career provides their family in the Iranian suburbs. But when an eccentric Armenian family moves in across the street, that contentment begins to falter. Clarice can’t shake the feeling that life has more to offer her. A subtle exploration of feminist ideas in the years leading up to the Iranian Revolution, a time marked by women’s easy submission to male authority, Pirzad elevates the mundanity of life with her radiant prose, crafting an intimate portrait of a woman on a journey to self-discovery and true, enduring happiness.
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
The Blood of Flowers
by Anita Amirrezvani
In 17th-century Persia, modern-day Iran, the lives of one 14-year-old girl and her mother are upturned when her father suddenly dies. Now, approaching marriageable age without a dowry, she and her mother must travel to Isfahan to work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great. As her own carpet weaving skill begins to shine, her marriage prospects continue to diminish, forcing her into a temporary but controversial marriage arrangement known as “sigheh,” and she’ll have to risk everything in her quest for self-determination. With lush Persian folktales woven into this richly-imagined historical narrative, Amirrezvani creates a portrait as vibrant as the rugs at the story’s center.
My mother’s Pain talks about Jennifer Thompson who has sacrificed her life for her only daughter and now after 25 years has to make a decision that will change the course of her life.
Fae Bidgoli’s book is written with simple but elegant words that shows a mother’s search for freedom and the desire to belong— it is a second chance about a mother’s live, lost, finding herself, and finding list love.