Women of Sand and Myrrh is a novel written by Hanan al-Shaykh. It was originally published in 1989 as Misk al-ghazal and was published in English in 1992. The English translator is Catherine Cobham. Publishers Weekly chose Women of Sand and Myrrh as one of the 50 best books of 1992.
The storyline consists of four main characters: Suha, Tamr, Nur, and Suzanne. Different sections of the novel give the perspectives of the four women, making the book a story with four different narrators.
The story is based in a relatively modern society in the Middle East. Rather than having strong ties into the pre-20th century Middle East, it is representative of life in some of the more fundamentalist societies within the last few decades. Elements of the book are present in this society today:
- Women wearing abayas and using different infrastructure elements.
- Mandatory prayers at certain times of the day
- Patriarchal society; many view women as good for little except raising children.
- Implementation of desalinization plants (a large clue that the main setting is Saudi Arabia), airports, etc.
The novel addresses many issues in today's society and has a wide variety of themes. Main themes of the novel include differing gender roles, class distinctions, culture, religion, and materialism vs. romanticism. Themes include:
- Men vs. women
- Feminism
- Use and/or abuse of power in a relationship
- Class distinctions
- Structure of society
- Rebellion against the status quo
- Culture and religion
- Freedom vs. Confinement/Restraint
- Elements of traditional culture and their effect
- Materialism vs. Romanticism
- The sexual disadvantages and existing desires of Arab women
- Hidden Lesbianism in Arab cultures
- The Innate desire of Arab women to be treated better
Women of Sand and Myrrh was banned in many Arabic lands for strong content (sexual, political, etc.) and for a strong treatment of Arabic culture.
Famous quotes containing the words women, sand and/or myrrh:
“After decades of unappreciated drudgery, American women just don’t do housework any more—that is, beyond the minimum that is required in order to clear a path from the bedroom to the front door so they can get off to work in the mourning.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“This sand seemed to us the connecting link between land and water. It was a kind of water on which you could walk, and you could see the ripple-marks on its surface, produced by the winds, precisely like those at the bottom of a brook or lake. We had read that Mussulmans are permitted by the Koran to perform their ablutions in sand when they cannot get water, a necessary indulgence in Arabia, and we now understand the propriety of this provision.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
““Awake,
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
Heaven’s last best gift, my ever new delight,
Awake, the morning shines, and the fresh field
Calls us: we lose the prime, to mark how spring
Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrrh and what the balmy reed,
How nature paints her colors, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.””
—John Milton (1608–1674)