4/2/2019 A Woman is No Man – Middle East Monitor

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A Woman is No Man

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01US lawmaker
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triggers
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Book Etaf Rum
does not…
Author(s) :
Published

March 2019
Date :
Publisher :
02Egypt’s
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Mubarak: If
Harper Hardcover Syria
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346 pages pages ISBN-13 : would have…
978-0062699763
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‘No to
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As voices continue to emerge within the tradition of purchased

world’s most
Anglo-Arab ctions, one constant within these expensive
narratives is the conversation surrounding the painting is
‘lost’
negotiation of identities between one’s traditional
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4/2/2019 A Woman is No Man – Middle East Monitor

culture vis-à-vis a Western one. Etaf Rum’s debut

isÚNoOPINION
novel “A WomanNEWS Man”Ú diverges
Ú FEATURES
REVIEWS from Ú PUBLICATIONS
Ú MULTIMEDIA
Ú
traditional representations of identity struggle by
providing readers a gendered perspective. The
novel follows the lives of three generations of
women within the same family. It begins with Isra in LATEST NEWS
1990 Birzeit who as a 17-year-old woman in
April 2, 2019 New
Palestine prefers reading books to entertaining exhibition
discussions of marriage and suitors. One day, a showcases
everything that’s
family of Palestinian-Americans comes to her home
‘Made in Gaza’
to ask for her hand and it is here that the reader is
introduced to her future husband; Adam Ra’ad, of April 2, 2019
Khashoggi’s
Ramla via Brooklyn, New York. As if in an instant, children expected
Isra nds herself immigrating to a new country to receive millions
in ‘blood money’
equipped with her own version of the American
dream; the hope of nding love and freedom. April 2, 2019
Likud admits to
It becomes apparent early on in the novel that Isra’s illegally funding
right-wing
life would be de ned by a sort of domestic captivity. campaign ahead
Her days are cyclical and she is unable to of Israel…
experience anything beyond the four walls of her
April 2, 2019
basement or the kitchen where her demanding Malaysia
mother-in-law, Fareeda, expects her to spend her condemns Israel
aggression
days working with her hand in hand. Isra’s life is against Gaza
reduced to bearing children, cleaning, and cooking protesters

an array of Palestinian cuisine. Much to the chagrin April 2, 2019 PA

of her mother-in-law, all of Isra and Adam’s children opens
are girls, placing further pressure on the couple to investigation into
death of Gazan in
carry on the family name in the US, which although West Bank…
is their new home remains foreign and intimidating.
From this unhappiness, an explotative relationship
in which Adam beats Isra is borne, further LATEST VIDEOS
deepening the vicious cycle of abuse and domestic
con nement that dominates the passages of this
novel. In the wake of her trauma, Isra reads to cope

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4/2/2019 A Woman is No Man – Middle East Monitor

with her pain and becomes silent rarely using her News

voice. Ú Ú Ú Ú
NEWSOPINIONREVIEWSFEATURESPUBLICATIONSMULTIMEDIA
THE ROAD TO Ú Ú
KNESSET: LIKUD
PARTY
Among the strengths of Rum’s debut is the manner #ISRAELEX19
in which she is able to weave the three perspectives Benjamin Netanyahu
(Bibi) is Israel’s current
of the women whose experiences occupy her prime minister who is
pages. The narrative shifts back and forth between seeking his fth term
in o ce. If he wins,...
Isra, Fareeda, and Isra’s rst-born daughter, Deya.
Like her mother, Deya struggles with the ennui of The 5th
BBC Arabic
the domestic life. She is unable to shake o the Festival
pressure and su ocating nature of Fareeda’s screens
Arab
demands and expectations, who despite the many world’s
tragedies that have befallen her family, still best lms…

wholeheartedly believes that a woman’s place is at Palestinians

home and her destiny is to marry and become a commemorate
Land Day
mother. In response to this, all the women in this
novel, except for Fareeda, are strikingly similar in Remembering
the Great
their voracious appetite for books as a means of March of
mental escape. All the men are similar in their Return

inability to see beyond their role as nancial

Othman
providers and as patriarchs of the family structure. Rami

‘I wanted to introduce Palestinian culture to the

UK’

The outlier in this narrative is Deya, who in contrast

to her grandmother and mother, is outspoken,
daring and longs for a life lled with options. She
represents the rst or second generation born to
traditional immigrant communities in the US and
elsewhere, a generation that struggles to fully
accept gender roles in a hyper-traditional context.
As such, “A Woman is No Man” is among few novels
of its kind and could serve as a timely intervention
at a time when the public debate surrounding
domestic abuse and sexual harassment is at an all-
time high in the global media. In addition, Rum

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subliminally suggests that the occupation and

Ú OPINION
NEWS
violence that dominates Ú REVIEWS
many Ú FEATURES
Ú PUBLICATIONS
a Palestinian Ú MULTIMEDIA
Ú
experience is in itself the demon that doubly
oppresses both men and women, as they have little
power and agency other than to re-enforce and
comply with hyper-traditionalism.

Where Rum’s debut falls short, however, is in its use

of absolutist language and over-generalisation of a
diasporic community facing many struggles. In her
attempt to portray the anxiety and cyclical nature of
domestic con nement, Rum has produced a novel
in which a singular message inundates the works’
300-some pages, which as its title suggests; that a
woman is not privy to the same freedoms as a man.
This is apparent in the book’s opening lines, a
declaration from Deya’s perspective:

č
I was born without a voice, one cold,
overcast day in Brooklyn, New York.
No one ever spoke of my condition. I
did not know I was mute until years
later, when I opened my mouth to ask
for what I wanted and realized no one
could hear me. Where I come from,
voicelessness is the condition of my
gender.

While Rum has stated in her interviews that her

primary struggle in writing this novel was betraying
a code of silence within her community, one that
has struggled in the wake of anti-Palestinian
sentiments and rising Islamophobia, she felt that it
was important to represent the struggles of women

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4/2/2019 A Woman is No Man – Middle East Monitor

undergoing this particular experience. As such, Rum

Ú OPINION
NEWS
could have dismissed Ú REVIEWS
this fear Ú FEATURES
altogether Ú PUBLICATIONS
had she Ú MULTIMEDIA
Ú
made the distinction that this novel represents a
Palestinian/American experience, one that she and
others have witnessed or experienced, rather than
a superlative Palestinian/American experience.

Representing Palestine: Media and Journalism in

Australia since World War I

To suggest that a woman does not have a voice in

Arab society, which Rum does at many points
throughout the novel, wholly ignores the tradition
of story-telling as a means of historical preservation
and survival that the Palestinian diaspora has come
to be known for, a tradition that both men and
women enjoy. Furthermore, since the dissent into
exile now enters its fourth generation, many
Palestinians value the pursuit of education and
intellectual freedom above all else. Just as in any
(immigrant) community, while there are those who
remain beholden to a limited interpretation of
traditions, there are also a large number of men
and even more women from within those
communities who are enjoying their meteoric rise
to the top of the social ladder, whether through
their acceptance into the Ivy League or through
their innovative contributions to society.

Rum’s representation remains an important one,

however, it unfortunately plays into the trope of
con ating one immigrant experience with all
immigrant experiences in their many
manifestations, rather than to emphasise that it is a
representation of one family and one community in
this vast world of struggles and lived experiences.
The issue of women’s freedom and agency is a

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4/2/2019 A Woman is No Man – Middle East Monitor

global one and not a predicament that is exclusive

Ú OPINION
to Arab cultures,NEWS
broadly Ú REVIEWS
speaking.ÚThe Ú PUBLICATIONS
FEATURES
West’s Ú MULTIMEDIA
Ú
obsession with using one person of colour’s
experience or image as the poster child that acts as
the sum determinant of a collective’s understanding
of that culture also remains a universal challenge. It
is high time that we all focus on distinction and the
nuance of linguistic registers in our mutual
exchange of information. All in all, Rum’s debut
presents readers with a heartbreaking story, having
many wondering what she will bring forth to her
readership in the next iteration.

Categories Asia & Americas Middle East Palestine

Review - Books Reviews US

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