An interesting portrait of Algeria in the years following its long
war of independence (1954 - 62) against France is the best feature
of this intense, argumentative story about a woman doctor's
eye-opening return to the village of her youth. The self-possessed
Sultana finds her onetime lover dead and her country afflicted by
poverty, ignorance, and economic chaos - betrayed, in effect, by
leftist "liberators" who have allowed their Muslim culture's
tradition of suppressing women to continue. Mokeddem creates other
characters of interest, including Sultana's patient Vincent, who
shares the narration with her, and two memorable children, Dalila
and Alilous, opaque, hopeful embodiments of the future for which
Sultana works and yearns - which, this passionately didactic
fiction suggests, is "forbidden" and may never come to pass.
(Kirkus Reviews)
"The Forbidden Woman" tells the story of Sultana, an Algerian woman
doctor who, after years spent living in France, returns to her
native village in order to attend the funeral of a former lover.
The clash between her origins and the Westernized life she now
leads is explored in telling detail against the backdrop of current
events in Algeria. A work that combines insight into both political
and personal matters, "The Forbidden Woman" develops a complex
portrait of a country torn between progress and prejudice, secular
life and Islamic fundamentalism.
In this passionate book, Malika Mokeddem places special emphasis
on the position of women in modern Algeria. The frequent
indignities and injustices suffered by the narrator reflect the
plight of women in a society marked by patriarchalism and religious
fundamentalism. Yet the novel also suggests that, along with
modernization, there are emerging demands for women's rights in
Algeria--demands that might well signal a vastly different future
for this tormented nation.
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