Violence Inflicted Upon Women in the Narrative of Sahar Khalifeh

Abstract

Sahar Khalifeh works herald an era when there was a political turmoil in Palestine. Israeli forces had occupied many territories of Palestine, including the West Bank. Sahar Khalifeh has been the most outspoken writer of the genre. She has been able to depict the harsh realities of Palestinian’s life under the Israelites. Though most of her works are political in content, she focusses on issues of gender discrimination that is faced by the Arab women in various arenas. The main argument of this paper is the introspection into the different forms of physical violence that the women endured by being submissive and subjunctive in a male dominated society. This paper throws light on the way the writer has challenged the androcentric order which is the root cause of patriarchal domination. This hegemony had its severe repercussions on the women. This paper focuses on two Arabic novels of Sahar Khalifeh, which have been translated into English. The names of the novels are The Inheritance, The Image, the Icon and the Covenant.