Can the Woman Remain an Angel in the House in
the Postmodern World?: Insights from Ayan Hirsi Ali’s Nomad
Jude Zeal ADEGOKE
Lecturer
Department of English and
Literary Studies,
Kogi State University,
Anyigba, Nigeria.
&
Sodiq Abubakar MUHAMMED
Department of English
University of Ibadan, Ibadan
Abstract: Society capitalises on painting the image of
the female gender as an “angel,” a means to dominate them. An exemplary Angel
is the wife of Coventry Patmore, whom he illustrates in his poem “The Angel in
the House” as a model for every Victorian woman. For women to be free from
oppression, Virginia Woolf has pointed out the fact that women should kill the
metaphoric Angel in their households, toppling these traditional stereotypes
for their own survival because the patriarchal doctrines mean no good to them.
Using qualitative research methodology, this work explores Ali’s Nomad to
determine if the woman can remain an angel in the house in the postmodern
world. The Feminist theory is adopted as a framework. Findings indicate that
women who play the stereotypical role of the angel live dependent, unfulfilled,
subjugated lives, which offer no meaning for them. Ali vehemently rejects the
notion of the angel in the house, which is a rejection of feminine gender
stereotypes and a revolt against patriarchal dominance. It is concluded that,
to end her unpalatable plight in patriarchal society, the woman must cease to
be the metaphoric “Angel in the House.” Killing the angel, as advocated by
Woolf, becomes the paramount duty of every woman who seeks freedom from
patriarchal oppression in the postmodern world, where patriarchal norms are
still considered stringent and stifling.
Keywords: Ali’s Nomad, The Angel in the House, The postmodern
world, The Woman, Virginia Woolf.
Introduction
In 1854, Coventry Patmore’s poem The Angel in the House painted the Victorian woman as the
perfect ideal – gentle, selfless, devoted to her family, and “sympathetic,
...immensely charming” (Woolf 3). He famously drew on his own wife as the model
for this so-called “angel.” Sadly, this idea became a tool, deeply rooted in
religious and cultural traditions, to silence and subjugate women. Virginia
Woolf later challenged this damaging ideal, describing the “angel” as one who
lived entirely for others, without a mind or will of her own. Woolf argued that
a woman’s true freedom could only be achieved by “killing” the angel within – a
courageous act she herself embraced.
Across
the world, many societies still cling to these rigid gender roles, often shaped
by religious and cultural beliefs that keep women in submissive positions. Alda
Facio explains that patriarchy is not just a social structure – it is a deeply
entrenched system that controls women’s lives mentally, spiritually,
politically, and economically (2). Patriarchy continues to grant men unfair
privileges while blindfolding them to the oppression women suffer. Girls face
cruel practices such as genital mutilation, forced marriages to older men, and
the constant threat of honour killings. In many homes, boys are valued above
their sisters, and women are beaten, sexually violated, and silenced, all under
the cover of tradition and religion.
Women are still expected to be that
so-called “angel” – meek, quiet, selfless, and obedient – yet this expectation
only reinforces their oppression. To be free, the woman must break away from
this role and reject the dehumanising customs that bind her. Patriarchy,
however, does not only harm women – it holds men captive too. As bell hooks
rightly puts it, feminism offers the chance for all people to live fully and
equally, building communities where domination no longer exists. “Feminism is,
in fact, for everybody” (x).
For
centuries, society has idolised the image of the angelic woman, shaped by old
traditions and religious dogma. Thankfully, women around the world are now boldly
challenging these age-old narratives. Figures like Virginia Woolf, Luce
Irigary, Buchi Emecheta, Judith Butler, Ayan Hirsi Ali among others have lent
their voices to this fight for justice and equality, challenging the
stereotypical image of the woman as the “Angel in the House”. This study
explores whether the woman can still remain ‘the Angel in the House’ in the
postmodern world, drawing insights from Ayan Hirsi Ali’s Nomad, where reality itself is now fluid and open to question.
Patmore and His Idea of the Angel in the House
The works of Coventry Patmore in the
Victorian Period in English literature reflect the totality of the Victorian
woman. They still bring to bear the stereotypical definition of the Victorian
woman. The so-called “ideal Victorian woman” was also supported by Queen
Victoria in this era, therefore, two third of the women in the Victorian
society were indoctrinated into believing and upholding the values of what
constitute a woman. Her extreme devotion to her husband, Prince Albert, and to
domestic life shows that she was the major social crusader of these stereotypes
which permeated the nineteenth century England.
This
“woman” is known as an “Angel” just as reflected in Patmore's poem which he
titled The Angel in the House. The
first publication of this poem was in the year 1854 and eventually gains
grounds through the works of other poets who support this idea. Though there
are complaints regarding the form, length, and versification of the poem, its
thematic focus still appears in today’s world. The sentimentalised ideals
explored in the poem have created a vacuum in the histories of the past,
present, and will continue in future times, if the doctrines of patriarchy are
not erased from every society.
In
writing this poem, Patmore’s wife, Emily Patmore, seems to have motivated this
writing so greatly that she made sacrifices for the accomplishment of the
project. Often times, he recounts her selflessness and this is why he holds his
wife as a model for all Victorian women. Basil Champneys recognises Patmore’s
remarks about his wife as at the period he was putting up the lengthy poem. He
opines that she took pleasure in the progress of the work, The Angel. She so
much supports the patriarchal values espoused in the poem that it “made her
joyfully consent to a life of voluntary poverty for years, involving twice
letting our house, and going into very poor but heavenly happy lodgings” (144).
Poets
such as John Ruskin shared the same idea about woman in his essay Of Queen's Gardens. He supports this
idea stating that the innate feminine nature is separate and distinct from the
masculine. His point of emphasis is that the “woman’s power is for rule not for
battle”. In this period, the word
‘Angel’ became synonymous with ‘woman’. The creation of the world of peace is
her sole role where men can take refuge from the harsh realities of the outside
world and also for the children to be cared for (Aihong 1). Simply put, her
main role is to “provide a place of renewal for men, after their rigorous
activities in the harsh, competitive public sphere” (Gorham 4).
Though
we have commented on Ruskin's position on ‘The Angel in the House’, it is
because his position is in tandem with that of Patmore, thus, it is not
disconnected from the idea we seek to explore here. In Patmore’s poem, in a
lengthy form, he describes his “Angel-wife” whom he portrays as a model for
“Victorian women”. In his words:
Man must be pleased; but him to please
Is woman's pleasure; down the gulf
Of his condoled necessities
She casts her best, she flings herself. (63)
The dedication of The Angel in the House also reflects Patmore’s recognition and
appreciation of his wife’s sacrifices and inspirations. It reads: “This poem is
inscribed to the memory of her by whom and for whom I became a poet” (1).
This
idea nurtured in the nineteenth century reflects the patriarchal nature of most
societies outside England. Women are giving the ‘angelic’ role to play to
soothe the men. She was expected to be devoted and submissive to her husband.
The Angel was passive, meek, charming, graceful, gentle, self-sacrificing,
pious, and above all – pure (Aihomg 269). Importantly, a woman is idealised to
become man’s subordinate or victim whose life and soul is entirely dependent on
man. At first, these “virtues” were that of the middle-class women but at that
point when the Queen of England took it upon herself to be dominated by her
husband, she then became a model for every other woman in that society.
Mainly,
the stereotypes which pervade the Victorian society include: “the Angel”, “the
Demon”, “the old Maid”, but the most dominant among them was the Angel
(Auerbach 63). Women become ill-prepared for the outside world because the
deprivation they encounter concerning educational matters among others have
only made them to acquire less skills and knowledge which would prepare them
for the outside world. This can be seen in the words of Deborah Gorham when she
gave her opinion on middle-class girls in the Victorian era saying that they
“were not educated in a way that would prepare them for the world of gainful
employment” (24). All this stems from the point that ‘education and employment
of women outside homes was accused of weakening the family because it deprived
them of domestic training’ (Goswami & Kumaran 68).
The
idea of the “Angel in the House” was well established through a planned process
in the sense that even the fictional narratives available for the consumption
of the Victorian Women were channeled towards idealising as well as
indoctrinating women. It became important and overtly emphasised for girls to
read novels that had a heroine that would serve as a guide to them on how to
behave and express themselves in a proper way (Rowbotham 22). The didactic
nature of those texts was purposely for teaching women the societal
expectations of them i.e. the feminine gender. Didactic fiction during this
period was “fuelled by the wish to control as far as possible, if not stifle
independent feminine desires” (Rowbotham 12). These books were also known as
“advice books”, they were written to educate girls and women on female roles.
They basically emphasise the patriarchal ideology of that era, which was simply
meant “to make them pleasant and useful companions to men and responsible
mothers to their children” (Gorham 10).
The
idea of ‘The Angel in the House’, as promoted by Patmore in his poem, affected
women economically during this period. The only knowledge which this idea
supported them to have was the knowledge that would make them tend their house
hold and totally subject them to their husbands. This does not mean that women
in the Victorian period did not work at all; rather, the jobs available to them
were menial jobs which offered low income. Domestic works which include doing
housekeeping for their employees, works in textile and clothing sectors, etc
were all what the society could offer them, and these jobs, no matter how
hectic they might be, offered low pay to them which couldn't keep them up to
the standard of men (Bland 8). Therefore, through this, the society cripples
them to becoming financially dependent beings who depend on their husbands for
survival. In order to confine them to their domestic sphere, some husbands
would give their earnings to their wives, who in turn would manage the budget
for the family (Steinbach 145).
Gilbert
and Gubar describe what Patmore’s ‘Angel’ is. They clearly present to us that
“The Angel in the House” as defined in Patmore’s poem takes woman as a
‘secondary creature which exists only to fulfill her husband rather than
herself. They recognise that this Angel possesses the ‘eternal feminine virtues
which include: modesty, gracefulness, purity, delicacy, civility, compliancy,
reticence, chastity, affability, politeness’ (23). The implication of these
characteristics as identified is simply that the Victorian woman is expected to
be godlier than human, a flawless being.
Despite
the marginalised system present in the economic, social, political, and
otherwise, there are still recognisable instances where women strive to make
ends meet in this patriarchal atmosphere. This would eventually form the basis
on which modern feminism was to be built. Though the impression we created thus
far is the ideals promoted to subject women to the ‘private sphere’.
The Angel in the House as Portrayed in
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Nomad
Ayaan, a
Somali Muslim girl, narrates her journey of escaping patriarchal traditions and
forced marriage, fleeing to Holland and later America. She collaborates on a
film critiquing Islamic traditions, but her director Theo van Gogh is
assassinated by an Islamic extremist for producing such a movie. This leaves
her facing death threats due to her apostasy. Ayaan renounces Islam and
dedicates her life to advocating women's rights. She exposes issues such as
honour killings, child marriage, and female genital mutilation in Somali
communities in the West. Despite threats to her life, she urges swift action
against radical Islam and calls for religious reform to protect women’s rights.
The idea is to provide possible solutions to counter the ill-treatment of
Muslim women worldwide.
The concept
‘the Angel in the House’ has been defined and shaped by religions, traditions,
and various societal beliefs. These angels have been reared under this unjust
system like animals, overpowered by the actions of man. These old traditions
have existed and shaped our world, such that it is becoming uninhabitable for
these ‘angels’. Literally, these angels in our homes are those girls, women, or
mothers whose role in the house has been reduced to nothing but the role of a
slave. A woman is seen as a propertied thing owned by her husband, who has paid
a ridiculous amount or performed some frivolous rituals to win his bride. A
girl in every home is that child who is subjected to domestic work at home, who
is expected to shrink herself off things which have been societally defined as
a ‘masculine thing’. She is that child whose younger brother, no matter how
small, has a say in the family compared to her own self. These are the tips of
what the ‘Angel’ in the house looks like. Under these pseudo-comfort in our
homes is where these ‘angels’ live to face the harsh consequences of
stereotyping that has overwhelmed our patriarchal society.
In the text Nomad, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has helped us to define ‘the Angel in the
House’. There are revelations in her work about the features of the Angel in
the house, the actions and their mode of relation as shaped or groomed, to a
large extent, by religious and traditional societal culture. Every society, its
religions and cultures, have constructed what the angel in the house should be.
There is no doubt that this angel in the house is nothing but a slave who
suffers from oppression, subjugation, deprivation, repressed actions, and also
made to feel ashamed for being who they are or having been created that way.
Literally, the Angel in the house is that
girl, woman, or mother whose actions are ‘stiffed’ by religion, according to
Ayaan. This excerpt further defines what Ayaan sees to be the angel in the
house:
They are reared to be submissive
robots who serve in the house as cleaners and cooks. They are required to
comply with their father's choice of a mate, and after the wedding their lives
are devoted to the sexual pleasures of their husband and to a life of
childbearing. Their education is often cut short when they are still young
girls, and thus as women they are wholly unable to prepare their own children
to become successful citizens in modern, Western societies. Their daughters
repeat the same patterns. (10)
As a girl born into an Islamic family, for
several years, she has been confined by the rigid verdicts of her religion
pertaining to what is expected of being a girl, a woman, or a mother. According
to her, the rules of Islam are the rules of Allah even if to every rational
being, such rules are purely inhuman. The definition of the roles of the sexes
as defined by her religion is horrible to females and favourable to the males.
In this sense, the angel in the house is that girl who is restricted to the
four walls of the house. These rules do not affect the male child, who is at
liberty to go out at will, to attend occasions with his father (the girls are
not allowed to go out with the father but are meant to be with the mother in
the kitchen). This is the rigid rule as defined by her religion as to what the
angel in the house should represent. The instance below further lends credence
to this:
Other than school, Quran School, and
a few visits to relatives, Haweya and I virtually never left the house. We were
struck inside, bored senseless in the hot, small flat in Mecca, and later in
the much roomier house in Ridyadh. But Mahad would dress up and go out with my
father to manly locations, such as the mosque or the souk or to some formal
Somali lunch or dinner. (45)
The reference to Mecca in this passage shows
that these rigid rules are also obtainable at the epicenter of Islam. These
young girls have little or no knowledge about the outside world. This makes
them become vulnerable victims of some casualties when they manage to leave the
four walls of their home because, “A girl’s honour was best preserved at
home...The world outside was for men” (45).
Similarly, she clarifies that the angel in
the house is that woman, mother, or girl who would strictly put on a veil
called hijab – A form of confinement
which covers every part of her body because it is said that her body can
sexually lure men to evil. In the veil they put on, only a small part is left
open or carved out. Though the eyes are also sexually deceitful, in order for
the woman, mother, or girl to see, such part is left open. She opines that the
woman is not only confined in the house but also in the outside world as she is
meant to put on a thick veil which brings discomfort to her. But she (the
woman) is the angel in the house and the angel in the house, according to her
religion, is expected to put on this veil as a weapon against sexual evil. But
the men who lord it over these angels are at liberty and are not seen putting
on such, for they are special people which the religion treats in an
exceptional way. In her text, she relays this form of confinement which is
found outside their homes after they might have managed to escape the
confinement within:
When a woman leaves the house, she
veils, another form of confinement: every centimeter of her skin from the sun.
Even out of door a veiled woman is inside all the time. The air she breathes is
stuffy; thick material presses against her eyes, her nose, and her mouth.
Everything she does is hidden and furtive. Blindfolded and reduced, erased from
public contact. (16)
In her book, Ali has revealed that Islam, her
former religion, demands total submissiveness from the ‘angel’ in the house.
They are meant to act according to the will of their husbands or fathers. No
form of disobedience is tolerated. Every word of the husband or father must
gain foothold in the family, and she is meant to strictly adhere. There should
be no form of rebellion or disobedience from her part, else, she will face the
law which the holy Quran has made for rebellious or disobedient wives. She states
that “For instance, Chapter 4, Verse 34 instructs
men to beat the women from whom they fear possible disobedience” (103).With
this excerpt, the angel in the house can be defined according to the Islamic
religion as that woman or mother who should in no way be disobedient to her
husband or if such is noticed (any possible disobedience) it is provided in the
holy book that such woman or mother should be rebuked.
As an angel in the house, you must learn to
live with polygamy according to the Islamic tradition. Ayaan reveals that the
Quran supports polygamy. The husband, if he wishes, can take up one, two,
three, or four wives, so long as he can cater for their needs and treat them
equally. But the fact remains that there can never be equality in a polygamous
home, and any attempt of bringing equality is to make mockery of oneself. The
angel (wife) is a constrained being who lives under this pseudo-comfort
provided by this unjust system (polygamy). In this kind of home, there is that
strife among the women to satisfy their husbands. A major challenge is in the
aspect of child-bearing. This is a major turbulence in such home. An angel who
wants to be placed in a revered position in the house has to give birth to male
children, even though, biologically, the production of any sex of a child is
the sole responsibility of the man. Reading through the text, Ayaan explains
that the polygamous system under which the angels live is an unjust system,
detrimental to women, as they struggle to gain power in such homes:
If security, safety and
predictability are the recipe for a healthy and happy family, then polygamy is
everything a happy family is not. It is about conflict, uncertainty and the
constant struggle for power... Perhaps, polygamy invites madness, or perhaps it
is the clash between aspiration and reality. (32)
It is expected of the young angels (girls) to
bring honour to the father. Every now
and then, the father watches over his female child, constraining her of some
engagement, determining her choice of relationship and choosing a spouse he
feels suitable for his daughter. This is a confiscated system in which these
girls live. It is vividly portrayed in the text that most young girls are
dumped in the hands of old men old enough to be called their father or, in some
occasions, their grandfather. These girls are left with no option than to give
in in such cases. They have no objective
opinions of their own, and every of their actions are determined by their
father. These unscrupulous actions of their father are done all in the name of
bringing honour to his name. Many a girl has been deprived of their career,
some have been injured from forceful intercourse with these old men, and some
suffer from repressed memories which continue to linger in their unconscious mind.
They see early child marriage as a means of curtailing unforeseen excesses of
the child. This is evident as Ayaan describes it in her text:
Child marriage is also a logical
outgrowth of the Muslim fixation on female purity: if you marry her off early,
as soon as possible after menstruation, she won't have time to damage your
reputation and devalue your goods. The reality of this can be extremely bitter:
imagine a thirteen- year old-girl transferred to the arms of an old man she has
never seen before. (164)
Therefore, as it is relayed in the text, the
concept of the angel in the house has been wholesomely defined or described
based on the experiences the novelist has narrated in her work. These ideas
have been given impetus and shaped by the Islamic religion, Somalia’s culture
which bears similarity with other cultures and religions of the world. Though
there might be some slight differences which may exist among these cultures and
religions but the similarities they come to bear can never be undermined. So,
the general overview of the angel in the house is that of a subservient woman,
mother, or girl who has no valuable place in a patriarchal society.
Relinquishing the Tag of the Angel in
the House in Ali’s Nomad
Ayaan (whose
life and times is narrated in the novel) has deviated from this traditional
notion of a girl born into a Somalian family. As portrayed in the
autobiographical novel, they are expected to be subservient, utterly unselfish,
loyal to their husbands and fathers, if she is a girl, she can be married off
by her father to an old man who is old enough to be called her father or
grandfather. They are raised as slaves who may be beaten by their husbands when
they notice any form of rebelliousness. As a young girl, she is made to feel
ashamed and hate herself for being who she is – regarded as an impure thing
during menstruation. She is expected to live fine under the imbalance
patriarchal system, if the husband wishes to take up a second, third, or fourth
wife. In all, she has no religious right to divorce her husband, not even when
married to a tyrant – she is left at the mercy of her husband who may opt for a
divorce if he wishes.
A critical study of Nomad, has revealed that the major character in the text, Ayaan,
who is the narrator has reversed living in a life controlled by religious
dogmas. Her religion expects every girl to be meek, and swallow the slightest
speech of hers which may be taken as a form of revolt. But here, Ayaan kills
the angel in the house, breaking traditional stereotypes which cause her more
harm than good. Some of her relatives who are girls have given in to this
oppression. She gives an instance about her relative Sabra who gives up herself
to live under the oppressive Islamic laws. To her (Sabra), that is what Allah
requires and she must obey the words of Allah for her not to perish on the Day
of Judgment (Al-qiyahmah). Ayaan makes it known to us thus:
Sabra had taken the contrary path.
She did not rebel. Magool had told me that Sabra was deeply religious and that
she wore a jilbab, a long black robe that covers your hair and all your body
past your ankles and wrists, but not your face...The veil deliberately marks
woman as private and restricted property, no persons, the veil sets women apart
from men and apart from the world; ... It restrains them, confines them, grooms
them for docility... It is the mark of a kind of apartheid, not the
domiciliation of a race but of a sex. (25)
This is the condition which her relative
(Sabra) lives under. She is constrained to wear a thick robe that presses her
nose and makes the air in which she breathes in stuffy. This is a form of
religious confinement which Ayaan has refused to take up. There is a huge
expectation from Muslim women which Islamic morality presents to them. However,
it is an oppressive system that marginalises the womenfolk and make them live
an uncomfortable life (what little space in their life can they call their
own?).
Ayaan has managed to escape from the world of
dogmas into the world of free ideas. Due to the objective ideas which Western
education presents, most of the Muslim girls are deprived of this formal
education. They feel this education takes the veil off their eyes. This gives
them an objective or an alternative way of viewing the world rather than the
dogmatic way presented by their religion. An instance of this is Ayaan's
relative Sabra who rejects Western education based on the contradictions it has
with her religion:
She starts a vocational course but
doesn't see it through; she begins English lessons but doesn't complete them.
She does this because if she were to finish those studies and get a diploma,
she would then find a job. But that would surely mean working outside the home;
she would be gone for hours and might have to mix with men. She might even find
herself tempted to put on makeup and participate in the social life of an
office. Such a life is too dangerous: it would attack her basic sense of who
she is... Learning the infidel language was surely sinful enough. (27)
Ayaan would have been thrown into the hands
of an old man whose age might be close to that of her grandfather. She is to be
married to a distant relative but she takes courage and rebels against such
act, which, if care was not taken, might claim her life. She elopes alone to
Holland (a free world where her objective nature can be accommodated).
Accepting these stereotypes mean that she would be tamed and confined to abide
by these values she described as unsafe. Young girls in her society are
confined by their fathers “…to their homes, banishing them from the public
sphere, or to veil them so they became invisible, to cut their genitals to
limit their sexual desires and sew them shut to make sex unbearably painful”
(116). These are the horrible experiences which these girls undergo. They may
be mutilated with an unclean razor or any sharp object. During this process,
some contract infections which may ravage the latter part of their lives, while
some sustain deep scars and wounds that may need serious medical attention and
take longer time to heal. These are done
solely to quench their sexual urges and preserve them for an old man just for
them (their fathers) to have honour attached to their names. What would have
been the life of Ayaan had it been she never rebelled against this gory system?
It could be that she might have died as a result of the harsh condition under
which she lives, or she might have sustained a deep scar which might not be
erased through her entire life. She believes that this angel cannot live in her
and have her life short-lived. Therefore, for the survival of her person, she
kills the angel (by refusing to accept these stereotypes). She believes Islam
is unjust, since it has come to incorporate such inhuman practices.
Overtime, the lives of many young girls have
been claimed for the sole aim of preserving their father’s honour. The narrator
presents a real-life incident which occurred in America. This is the case of
two young girls who have been murdered for rejecting the spouse whom their
father has forcefully compelled them to marry. These young girls have done
nothing wrong but are killed by their father under the shade of religion. The
event is narrated thus:
On New Year’s Eve 2007, in a suburb
of Dallas, an Egyptian man, Yaser Said, shot his nineteen- and seventeen-
year-old daughters in the back of his taxi. He then parked in the driveway of a
hotel and absconded, leaving their bodies in the cab. Amina, the older girl,
had been awarded a $20,000 scholarship for college; she had dreamed of becoming
a doctor. She told her friends that her dad was angry because she had refused
to marry the man whom he had chosen for her, who lived in Egypt. Her father,
who came to Americ,a in 1983, was enraged to learn that his daughters secretly
dated American boys, Taddie and Eric, whom they had met in school. (158)
Also, another occurrence is portrayed in the
text. This is the case of a father who has beaten and shot his daughter to
death for an unjustifiable reason: “In August 2007, Saudi man beat and
shot his daughter to death for going on Facebook. The event was publicised only
seven months later, when a cleric cited it as evidence that the internet was
damaging Islamic morals” (159).This evil action is termed as an ‘honour killing’
– the father does this to preserve the honor which might have been robbed of by
the daughter.
After killing the Angel in her, Ayaan grows
into that assertive woman – a woman who is not afraid of speaking against the
injustices in Islam. She claims that the religion has deprived women of their
freedom but she (who has struggled to kill the Angel in the house) has
liberated herself, from the religion which may (to a great extent) claim her
life if she gave in to the suffering which is meted out to women. Ever since
she committed this apostasy, her life has been hunted by religious extremists
just as a hunter hunts a game. Her movements are strictly guarded by security
personnel. The killing of the Angel is an act which her religion is against
because it translates into the fact that the women will be liberated from this
unjust system. They would become a free being capable of taking their own
decision. Ayaan has dedicated her life to the fight for justice and equality of
women, though, this may seem to be an expensive task, but to her, her life
means nothing if women (the Muslim women, most especially) still suffer from
the brutish laws upheld by their religion. For this sole reason, she has
dedicated herself to campaigning for the reformation of Islam which should be
in a more human form rather than taking a form that oppresses women to
utter-silence, leading to countless number of deaths of little girls and women
all in the name of ‘honour killing’.
Even in the world of freedom (America) as she
recounts, there are still traces of this radical or fundamentalist Islamic
movement which seeks to badly indoctrinate and brainwash young girls and women
into believing that the subservience of women is greatly supported and is
required of them by Allah. This means that such girls would be indoctrinated to
the extent where oppression, to them, may not be seen as oppression and every
form of injustices meted out to them will be accepted by them. This is because
they are now made to believe that Allah expects them to be loyal (which simply
mean that they ought not to revolt but stay calm and live a life of hypocrisy
even in the face of injustices). This instance is revealed in the text based on
her research about Muslim girls in American society:
There are already Muslim schools in
America where girls learn all day long to be subservient and lower their eyes,
to veil themselves to symbolize the suppression of their individual will. They
are taught to internalize male superiority and walk very softly into the mosque
by a back door. In weekend Quran school girls learn that God requires them to
obey, that they are worthless than boys and have fewer rights before God. This
happens in America too. (100)
Her research has also revealed to us about
how Muslim women are being marginalised in the American society. These women
are made to feel inferior or feel that they are valueless when it comes to
religious matter:
According to a survey by the Muslim
lobby council on American-Islamic relations, 33 percent of the mosques in
America do not permit women on their governing boards and 66 percent seclude
women behind a wall, where they can listen to the sermon through loudspeaker
but cannot see the imam speaking. (105)
The issue of genital mutilation is a topical
issue and it is also brought into the limelight in this text. Ayaan advocates
against this maltreatment of girls and women. It is vividly evident in the text
how this inhuman act also exists in the American society (which ought to have
been a place where enlightenment is expected to have conquered every dark
corner of the society). Since Ayaan has killed the Angel in the House, she has
not failed to let the world know about these happenings in the American world.
In her opinion, she avers that despite America is presented as a world of
enlightenment and liberation for both genders, Muslim girls are still
humiliated in that part of the world. For instance, the Somali families in
America still have their girls mutilated just for an irrational reason. They
have been indoctrinated with their traditional and religious practices and this
still plays out despite living in a distinguished society other than their
society where archaic traditional and religious practices are still upheld. She
presents these situations in her text for the world to see:
It is a rare Somali family that will
refrain from cutting their daughters, wherever they live. All but the most
assimilated parents want their children to marry within the Somali community,
and they believe that an "impure" girl, one whose clitoris and vagina
are intact, will not find a husband. They may perform the "lesser"
circumcision, which involves cutting only the skin of the clitoris, but most of
them will do just as our fathers (and mothers and grandmothers) have always done:
they will cut off the clitoris and cut the lips of the vagina so that it scars
shut, to create a built-in chastity belt.
They do not always need to fly back to Africa to do this. Every Somali
community has members who provide this service close to home, or who know
someone, somewhere nearby, who will. (100)
The death of the Angel in Ayaan's life means
nothing if there are still thousands of these Angels living in the lives of
young girls, women, and mothers across the world. Therefore, Ayaan has not
stopped to advocate for the justice of women and for the demolition of these
stereotypes, for if these angels (stereotypes) are permitted, there will be
millions of death tolls of young girls and women who would become victims of
this harsh condition they live under. This has made her to conclude her text
with few reasonable solutions which she sees to be useful in doing such:
The first is to ensure that Muslim
girls are free to complete their education. The second is to help them gain
ownership of their own bodies and therefore their sexuality: The third is to
make sure that Muslim women have opportunity not only to enter the work force
but also to stay in it. Also, there should be campaigns dedicated to exposing
the special circumstances and restrictions of Muslim women and the dangers they
face in the West; to educate Muslim men on the importance of women's
emancipation and education and to punish them when they use violence; to
protect Muslim women from physical harm. (12)
She also
calls on the world to:
Campaign against the values that
permit these kinds of crimes. Cultures that endorse the denial of women’s right
over their own bodies and fail to protect them from the worst kind of physical
abuse must be pressured to reform. A serious
international effort must be made to record and document violence against girls
and women, country by country, and to expose the reality of their intolerable
suffering. (164)
Through
her experiences in different countries, Ayaan now understands the root cause of
the problems of the womenfolk which she recounts in her text. She has also
recognised some steps to follow if the society truly wants the freedom of
female gender. Though, some religious extremists might seek to silence her,
Ayaan proves to be unafraid of death for this cause.
Conclusion
For very many decades, the woman’s role has
been that of the stereotypical angel in the house, subjugated by the angel’s
ascribed qualities that defy resistance proclivities. This disempowering
development has done a great disservice to the womenfolk in general. This study
has been able to capture the role played by the angel in the angel, where her
meekness, submissiveness, perseverance, fortitude, tolerance, compassionate,
contentment, fulfillment, etc are pronouncedly manifested. All these charming
traits are, unfortunately, the very bane of her liberation and emancipation in
the patriarchal world, where women virtually count for nothing, but tools for
ensuring men’s pleasure and fulfillment. Following this consciousness, the
woman has now risen to the occasion to challenge her place as the angel in the
house where her plural roles are subsumed into singularity. As evident in Ali’s
Nomad, the woman has come out plainly
to express her displeasure over her traditionally ascribed role, thereby
killing the angel in her to help her realise her great potentials as a being in
her own right. The suffocating realities of the postmodern world do not, in the
least, permit the woman to continue to be the angel in the house, hence the
relinquishing of the stereotypical tag that had tied her to subservience.
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