Hamida in Najuib Mahfouz' Midaq Alley

1410 Words6 Pages
How Hamida’s prostitution and her consequential fall are presented as a critique of patriarchy in Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley. Patriarchy has been around in the Arab society for years. In Najuib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley, Hamida, a beautiful young ambitious woman, seeks to extricate herself from a patriarchal oppressive society. The dominant attitudes of the male characters in the novel stand as obstacles to the females throughout the story. However, a few characters do not accede to such acts and consequently accost them; Hamida is one of them. It seems that Mahfouz deliberately stressed on patriarchy in order to emphasize on the flamboyant and morally corrupt Egyptian patriarchal cultural forms taking place during the time of the British colonialism in Egypt. This, in turn, depicts a form of ignorance found within the society. Essentially, the alley’s quarantine leads to a culture of malicious and misogynistic thoughts and beliefs, and oppressive patriarchy from which Hamida fights to escape. The characterization of Hamida as an obstinate and recalcitrant character is portrayed when she turns to prostitution, which leads to her eventual downfall. The story focuses on the struggle between the characters who hope to leave the alley in search of a better life and the ones who are content with life in the alley. This is shown through the characterization of the protagonist of the novel, Hamida, who serves a purpose to critique patriarchy according to Mahfouz. Hamida is an extremely ambitious young woman who lusts after money and success. The level of ambition that she possess is instrumental to her pursue of any opportunity thrown at her in order to escape the alley. Mahfouz portrays this through Hamida’s eventual transformation into a prostitute. Hamida is led to believe that prostitution is the only route to a more prosperous life. This occurs as a result of the confined
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