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Khul-Khaal: Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (Paperback)

Khul-Khaal: Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) Cover Image
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Description


"Our people prefer boys, because a girl's life is difficult. It's difficult in every sore of family and among all nationalities. A girl's life is not like a man's life. She has no assurance of being happy in her marriage. And her main purpose in life is to marry and to have children. A girl's and a woman's lives are a trial whatever happens. I don't know why."--Om Gad

Their stories are fresh and vivid, recording the various roles of being co-wife in a polygamous marriage, the complications of divorce, the rituals of female circumcision and marriage, the loss of children, life-long hate and its source, the position of witchcraft and superstition in their daily lives, primitive health practices, and managing a family's meager resources, including the gold or silver khul-khaal anklets worn by married women.

These self-portraits are fascinating reading and a mine of information for anyone interested in understanding contemporary Egyptian life. A foreword by anthropologist Andrea Rugh and photographs by Asma el-Bakry are included.

About the Author


Nayra Atiya is a UNICEF prize-winning author and oral historian. She has translated a number of works, including the novels, Ramza and Zanouba, both by Out el Kouloub and published by Syracuse University Press.

Product Details
ISBN: 9780815601814
ISBN-10: 0815601816
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Publication Date: August 1st, 1982
Pages: 208
Language: English
Series: Contemporary Issues in the Middle East