The Voice of a Woman: A Life Journey. An Islamic Feminist Reading of The Book of Fate

Abstract

The Book of Fate is a novel that spans over fifty years of the life of the protagonist, Massoumeh, an Iranian girl/woman from a middle-class, religious Muslim family, who is forcefully and hastily married to a complete stranger after her family finds out that she was having an innocent love relationship with a young pharmacist assistant. The narrative follows her struggle to get an education and a job, and to look after her children as a single mother. The book portrays the oppressive conditions that women can suffer from in an oppressive patriarchal Islamic society. The novel surveys a lifetime of endurance and survival. Actually, her seeming feminine weakness is only one side of the coin. Her weakness is transformed, when required, into strength and accomplishments like the legendary Phoenix that is burnt up but out of the ashes springs a new life, metaphorically announcing resilience and fortitude.

Received: 2 November 2020 / Accepted: 9 December 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021