The Misrepresentation Of Arab Women In The Works Of Jean Sasson’s Princess And Malika Mokeddem’s The Forbidden Woman

The representation of Arab women in Western literature is of passive, exotic and voiceless. Arab Muslim women are frequently represented as veiled victims in a society dominated by male and a rigid Islamic religion. According to western discourses, Islam is inherently oppressive to women’s freedom. Malika Mokeddem’s The Forbidden Woman and Jean Sasson’s Princess reflect these western attitudes. The two authors make a clear assumption that women’s plight in the Arab world is related to Islam as a religion. However, the position of Arab Muslim women cannot be related to Islam as religion. It is necessary to have the knowledge of Islam and the surrounding cultures to understand the status of Arab Muslim women.This research analyses the image of Arab Muslim women in the two novels and explains how the relation between Islam and the plight of Arab Muslim women is established in these novels. Because of the Western misperception about Islam, Arab Muslim women are seen as victims of male dominated societies.This thesis argues that the western notion that Islam is a symbol of oppression for women is a constructed image that does not represent the experience of those who live and practice their Islam in the Arab Muslim World. These constructions have always served the colonial powers and orientalists in the past and continue to do so in the present. The aim of this thesis is to challenge the popular western stereotypes that Islam is an oppressive religion for the Arab women by analyzing the two novels and relating them to Islam to explore the position of Arab Muslim women in Islam.This thesis shall provide the convincing answers that are needed to refuse the deceptive association between Islam and the plight of the Arab Muslim women in the western literature. Mainly to correct the misconceptions and prejudices about Islam, and to put the blame of women oppression where it belongs.