ANOTHER

EVENING AT THE
CLUB
BY:
A L I FA R I FA A T

TIMELINE
Alifa Rifaat born Fatma Abdullah
Rifaat was born in Egypt in 1930.
At a young age Rifaat begin
writing short story and poems, one
of her famous ones was The
Despair in our Village, which she
wrote at the age of nine years old.
Riffat stories covers the journey
and sacrifices she had to take in
order to become a writer. She was
very addicted to writing since a
youth but was stripped of her
writing privileges often to please
her father, and later in life her first
and second husband. At one point
in time she didnt write for ten
years.
As an Egyptian writer Rifaat is
known as one of there most
interesting short story writer, she
writes about the Islamic culture
norms for women and there
arranged marriages.

FAMOUS WORKS OF ART

Distant View of a Minaret
A Long Night of Winter
A long night of winter is a short story within the book of Distant view of a minaret. The general idea behind her two stories is to implicitly
argue the discriminatory norms of women in society(Fatma Abdullah Rifaat-Short Story Extraordinaire). She explains to the reader the
difficulties she and every other Egyptian women had to endower in there arranged marriages. They are basically forced to marriage a man they
never met at a young age with out knowing exactly who they are dealing with. In the early 1900s laws prevented women from having rights
which lead them into a miserable life with a man they didnt love:
Cheating
Lying
Disrespect
Selfishness
Unloved
Sex life
In both stories, the husbands are depicted as animals/possessed beings when having sex and depicting the self-interested mentality

of the men in Egypt. A marriage with no love is a life lived without any meaning (Fatma Abdullah Rifaat-Short Story Extraordinaire).

WORKS CONTINUED: IN CLASS READING

A N O T H E R E V E N I N G AT TH E C L U B

In the short story Another evening at the club rifaat tells a story about a young girl being
forced into a marriage at a young age. Her new husband showers are with gifts and a new
life. Conflict arise one day when the wife's emerald ring goes missing. The only person
suspected of taking it was the their servant. With no power or say so the wife waited for her
husband to arrive home before they confronted the situation. The husband automatically
went in to rage yelling at and slapping the servant for her actions. He even phoned the police
to handle the situation. The ring was later found behind the dress where the wife had drop it.
Because of the lack of power women have and the dominance men have. The husband never
apologized to the servant. He didnt want the town laughing at him for the mistake.
The short story display the roles of power between the men and women. Women having no
power must submit to men and honor their orders. They are liable to deal with disrespect,
punishment, mistreat and no sympathy. They must wait for the men to make all the decisions
and determine what is going to happen. Women must stay in there place.

TIME LINE
Born in 1930
Wrote first major poem at age of nine The Despair in our Village.
1950s when she started back writing, she changed her name to save her family the
embarrassment, for the sexual topics she explored ( The lives behind the politics, Hatem).
Rifaat's representations of Egyptian women's subordination, virginity and genital excision reflect
the development of Islamist modernity in the 1970s-1980s, persuading a majority of middle-class
college women and working women to follow a complete way of life rooted in Islam(Truly living as
a woman, 2015)
1996 Rifaat passed away
Early 2000s women were granted the right to divorce there husbands on any grounds if they
returned all the grooms gift and a dowry payment (Fatma Abdullah Rifaat-Short Story
Extraordinaire)

IMPACT
In essence Fatma Abdullah Rifaat has been a true foreign
advocator of womens rights for the women of Egypt as well as for
all the women around the world who had gone through constant
persecution due to their gender. With the short stories in the book,
Distant View of a Minaret, she has uncovered the realties women
face and has implied what should be done to correct such an
injustice that women have gone through for many years in Egypt.
(Fatma Abdullah Rifaat-Short Story Extraordinaire)

WORK CITED
"Fatma Abdullah Rifaat-Short Story Extraordinaire."123HelpMe.com. 16 Jun
2016
<http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=161384>.
Hatem, Mervat. "Review: The Lives behind the Politics."The Women's
Review of Books3.10, Women in the World (1986): 10-11.JSTOR. Web. 16
June 2016.
She, Chia-Ling. "Truly living as a woman: sexual politics in Alifa Rifaat and
Nawal El Saadawi's short stories." Tamkang Review 45.2 (2015): 111+.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 June 2016.