Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories - Softcover

Rifaat, Alifa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478611286 ISBN 13: 9781478611288

Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc, 2014

Synopsis

The African Writers Series is a wide-ranging series offering your students stories, poetry, biographical writings and essays from across Africa. It includes work from nearly 40 writers from 19 different countries. During its celebrated 45 years of publishing, the series has been a vehicle for some of the most important writers Africa has produced, such as Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

About this title

Review

?Horrible, beautiful, comforting, divine and devilish all at the same time.?-Jan Morris

About the Author

Alifa Rifaat has spent all her life in the Arab world, immersed in the traditions and culture of Islam. She was brought up in Egypt, a devout Muslim, strictly adhering to the Islamic way of life and well versed in the Qu'ran and religious teachings. Her education and a possible future career in art were curtailed when she married - her parents' alternative to university. A widow, she now lives in Cairo with her three children. Largely divorced from Western influences, speaking and writing only Arabic, Alifa Rifaat allows the reader a rare and enlightening glimpse at woman's condition in a male-dominated environment.
Her originality lies not in any overt and conventional feminist approach, but rather through her implicit criticisms of the male neglect of his Islamic obligations to women, particularly in family life and marital relationships. She challenges behaviour from within the accepted framework of her society's religion and laws. Distant View of a Minaret was first published in English in 1983, by Quartet Books. Two of the stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Edition details

• Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1478611286
• ISBN 13: 9781478611288
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 115