A Woman is No Man, by Etaf Rum

Palestinian-American Etaf Rum’s debut novel tackles complex questions of women’s status in traditional Arab culture. 

The year is 1990; the place, occupied Palestine. A teenage girl named Isra finds herself being visited by male suitors. Her parents are keen to marry her off, for girls are a burden, almost a curse on an Arab family. Isra finally agrees to marry Adam, who lives with his family in New York. Isra must face a new life, living with Adam's parents, the culturally traditional Fareeda and Khaled. 

Her first job, once set up in the dismal basement of her in-laws, is to produce a son. Life becomes increasingly stressful as Isra, to her family’s disapproval and later outright hostility, gives birth to daughter after daughter, four in all. Not only is Isra isolated, forbidden to leave the house alone for fear of what the local Arab community might think, but she is also the victim of domestic violence. What makes the violence even more heinous is the fact that Fareeda and Khaled calmly accept the fact that their son, Adam, beats his wife, all under their own roof. Fareeda even gives Isra make-up lessons on how to cover the purple bruises.

A second timeline jumps ahead eighteen years, to 2018. Isra and Adam, we learn, have died in a car crash. Fareeda and Khaled are now looking after the four daughters, a task they have performed for the last decade. The eldest daughter, Deya, finds herself in the typical predicament of a young Arab woman. The pressure is on her to find a husband, get married and become a submissive wife. Deya resists and rebels against Fareeda's constant interventions, but fears she hasn't the courage to follow her own convictions, defy her grandparents and go to university.

Things reach a climax as the interweaving timelines reveal that Fareeda and Khaled have kept many secrets from Deya and her sisters. When Deya meets Fareeda's only daughter, Sarah, who ran away from home as a teenager, bringing shame upon the family, she learns a shocking truth about her parents’ marriage. 

A Woman is No Man is a brave, honest novel that addresses serious issues of domestic violence, the status of women, the difficulties of living between two cultures and the trauma of having to leave your place of birth due to war and military occupation. Etaf Rum has written a compelling narrative, building up a harrowing portrait of a deeply unhappy family that at the same time reveals a rigidly conservative culture that is appalling for women, and not much better for men. 

While it would be easy to make this a black and white story of good women and evil men, Etaf Rum takes a nuanced approach, explaining but not condoning the violent trap so many women find themselves in. Even some of the novel's worst characters – Fareeda, whose treatment of Isra is often callous; Adam, who constantly beats his wife – are sympathetically drawn. We are given back stories – often devastating -  to help understand their behaviour.

This is a first novel by Etaf Rum, and a few small caveats must be mentioned. The dialogue can be lacklustre and pedestrian, and there are characters that lack definition. Sometimes alternating between the timelines of Isra and Deya, it's easy to forget where you are: both mother and daughter can appear almost identical. But these are small complaints in a novel that is extraordinarily brave in pulling back the veil on the hidden world of domestic violence and misery. Despite occasional clumsiness, A Woman is No Man is constantly absorbing.

An important book that breaks taboos.

A Woman is No Man, by Etaf Rum. Published by HarperCollins. RRP: $32.99

An Unsafe Haven, by Nada Awar Jarrar

Staff review by Chris Saliba

Nada Awar Jarrar’s An Unsafe Haven tackles the humanitarian crisis in Syria and beyond with grace and sensitivity. 

Hannah is a journalist living in Beirut with her American husband. She writes about the refugee and humanitarian crisis that is happening across the Middle East. It's emotionally draining work and she often finds it difficult to disengage from the heart-breaking stories she reports on. There are also tensions in Hannah's relationship with her husband, Peter. They've made an agreement that they will stay in Lebanon as Hannah could never leave her native country. She has too many strong ties there – work, family and a humanitarian commitment to the region. Peter is generally accepting of this, but sometimes he becomes frustrated with all the problems that go along with living in the Middle East – the fraught political situation, the different culture and the demands of the people. Peter is trained as a doctor, but can't work in his profession due to laws precluding foreigners from working as doctors.

Anas is an artist from Syria. He has come to Beirut to launch an exhibition there and is staying with Hannah and Peter. He has serious problems of his own. His German wife, Brigitte, whom he had left in Syria while he travelled into neighbouring Lebanon, has suddenly up and left, taking their two children back to her native Germany. There is much angst over Brigitte's decision to do this, but sympathy as well: who wouldn't want to take their children out of Syria when it's so dangerous?

One day while Hannah and Peter are out, they witness an incident where a Syrian refugee, a young boy, is almost run over by a car on a busy street. They help the boy and soon meet his mother, Fatima. She has had to leave Syria in a hurry and is now looking for the rest of her family. Hannah and Peter take Fatima and her son back to their apartment so they can look after the boy (taking him to a hospital is too risky, due to their illegal refugee status). When Anas meets Fatima, a fellow Syrian, they have much in common. He soon becomes involved trying to help Fatima, with tragic results.

Nada Awar Jarrar is a Lebanese novelist. An Unsafe Haven is her fourth book. Written in a gentle, quiet tone, her novel explores the lives of people living on a terrible political faultline and the difficult choices they are often forced to make. It about living with violence and the possibility of sudden death, but trying to lead a normal life nonetheless. Nada Awar Jarrar's writing humanises a complex subject and puts the reader in touch with people we normally see on the news as the 'collateral damage' of war. She shows us their struggles, loves and hopes and how similar we all are when race and nationality are stripped away.

An Unsafe Haven, by Nada Awar Jarrar. Published by HarperCollins. ISBN: 9780008165024 RRP: $29.99 

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