Leo Africanus- First Half

            A reoccurring concept in the novel Leo Africanus is women and their role. While my classmate in another post argues that women are “developed and fleshed out as individuals,” I believe that women are portrayed as inferior to men. Throughout the novel Maalouf shows the perspective of women, while still showing their oppression. This mistreatment of women is one of the many stereotypes that feed the orientalist opinion.

            One of the many reasons that orientalism exists is the mistreatment of women. In the Western opinion, the tradition of covering a woman’s head appears backward and barbaric. This practice enslaves women because it removes their choices. For head covering to be considered a religious practice instead of an oppressive one, women need to make the decision willingly. However throughout the novel, it appears as if women cover their heads only under the influence of men. “For us, the women of Granada, freedom is a deceitful form of bondage, and slavery a subtle form of freedom” (6). Sarah sums up the struggles of women. Although a wife gets the respect of being a wife and “free” woman, she still may not remove her covering in front of her husband. “While I could never, as a wife, abandon my reserve”(6). However, as a Christian slave Warda may engage her feminine wiles and experience some freedom.

Women are faced with many obstacles in Granadan society. Women are traded as currency from fathers to their husbands. The belief is that a woman could be protected by a man, “yesterday I married my two oldest girls, aged fourteen and thirteen, so that their husbands can look after them” (61). Sarah appears to be one of the few women who exercise any freedom, which may be because she is the only woman in the absence of a man. Although women are very present in the novel, their stories are laced with an undertone of oppression.