Distant View of a Minaret: Alifa Rifaat's View of Sexism in The Arab World

I found Alifa Rifaat's view of "Sexism in the Arab World" quite interesting. She does not take a radical feminist approach to dealing with sexism through her writings. This is not to say that radical feminist or political reforms towards equality is not desirable. It just means that Alifa Rifaat's view is more balanced and contextual, given her preferences and beliefs shaped by an Islamic belief system.

I am not sure if there is a moral stand towards her view of monogamy, which doesn't seem likely but her views seem to reflect her innate needs and the choices she wants to make in her life. Speaking in sociological terms, she was denied "agenda", as she had even been disallowed to publish her work by her husband for a good number of years, before he gave her his nod again.

She is even denied an education in Fine Arts, which her translator Denys John-Davies or Denys Johnson-Davies says that her parents interpreted as her readiness for marriage. In his Translator's Foreword in the "Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories" (affiliate), Denys makes a mention of Alifa's belief in "Quranic precept that "men are in charge of women". This puts a burden on men to behave towards women with kindness and generosity.



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"If a man's behaviour falls short of what is expected of him, the woman's natural acceptance of her role is likely to change to contempt and rebellion," he writes and adds, "Alifa Rifaat's revolt, therefore, is merely against certain man-made interpretations and accretions that have grown up over the years and remain unquestioned by the majority of both men and women."

In the "Distant View of a Minaret", the short story begins quite poetically with the lead character going through an intercourse and having various thoughts during simultaneously. Alifa quite poignantly brings out the dissatisfaction in the way she gets treated in her marital life and in sex. Her mind is led to her timely daily prayers and even her toenails. She relates more to her prayers (which she finds more satisfying) than to her husband, marital relationship or sex. Finally, when she finds her husband dead out of a sudden heart attack, she pours herself a cup of coffee pondering over how calm she felt at that moment.

This is one of the many short stories written by Alifa Rifaat in Arabic language. Wikipedia also compares Alifa Rifaat with another popular feminist writer Nawal El Sadaawi, whose feminist views are different from that of Alifa's, while Alifa's views do not come out of mere conformity either. I believe Alifa's views are strict choices out of love for what she naturally likes.

The reason I wrote this article is to point out how external views of the rest of the world could differ from the one who actually lives those moments, time, circumstances, ethnicity, cultures and environment. Al Jazeera also points out that "Sexism in The Arab World is not due to popular beliefs that the people more or less do not participate or hold sexist beliefs among themselves but they are sexist only by institutions.

My personal belief is also that social issues must be read from strong and sound individual perceptions with sheer empathy, instead of taking a collective statistical external understanding. There is always a huge contrast between what is seen in the external world and what is actually in the internal world i.e. one's own heart. Oftentimes, we do only the former and ignore the latter. So, I believe we should begin looking more into the internal workings of social issues than what is popularly seen from an external point of view.

Gravity: The Rebirth and Reproduction Metaphor

Surprising how Alfonso Cuaron had been so expressive and vocal of cinematic liberties and on how a film ought to be made, sometimes, compromising on the factual side of things! Yet, he seems to have gotten most things right.

I have put myself into watching movies recently - Interstellar and Gravity - movies I had missed upon release. These two films mean a lot more than meets the eyes of the casual observer. They are remarkable, path-breaking and revolutionary. Just the sheer importance of this film makes me write about it two and a half years after release.

This post is only about Gravity and the many discussions and debates the movie has raised since release. I wouldn't want to mention spoiler alert two years after release. However, you do good watching the movie before reading this piece, if, under very rare circumstances, you haven't!

The Plot (and Interpretations): Gravity could be the simplest and the most universal of plots you can come across. Things go wrong in space and you have to get back to earth to survive. Debris after a missile strike into a Russian satellite launch into orbit and they are going to hit everyone and everything on the way, every 90 minutes.

Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) have to get back to earth, while everyone else on board on the space shuttle Explorer is dead.

It was at this point that I began to interpret the movie in different ways, vis-a-vis the many interpretations of the movie, while watching the second time. Does Dr. Ryan die here immediately after being cast out into space? Just as Kowalski arrives to save her, it seems so. That's why after the long journey toward the ISS (International Space Station), she assumes the fetal position with the umbilical cord. She has gone into another womb. On the way, she looks almost dead and quietens before she struggles to enter the Space Station. Further, her entry into the Space Station simulates the entry into the "egg".

Kowalski, as a second sperm, cannot enter the egg, as in most cases. [Somehow, from the moment they were tethered together, I got the feeling, even the first time, that George Clooney was going to do a "Space Titanic". I thought he would have to let go. I think it played as a cliche in my mind minutes before it was going to take place. I also believe that he need not have died. But it might be a good way of getting rid of his character to have a lone survivor in Sandra Bullock (a plot device).]

Dr Ryan is reborn as she goes further into the International Space Station head first, after she assumes the fetal position with the umbilical cord. Before this scene, we never see her inside a space station or much less a shuttle. After the fire accident, entering the Soyuz Capsule is entering another womb. Again, she decides to die as a fetus, when George Clooney (the sperm that goes missing voluntarily) returns briefly, as probably Dr. Ryan's father or "who-knows-who" might have had sex again with her mother.

She leaves the Soyuz (birth) and enters the Tiangong-1 (Chinese Space Station), enters another capsule/spacecraft and returns to earth. All these could mean the evolution of the soul, rebirth and the reproduction process.

Sandra Bullock: Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone is a painfully clumsy lead character. We wish she had been trained well enough to encounter bigger challenges that were not part of her training. It looked as though she was hamming her way throughout the film. I wouldn't want to criticize a great actress so much given how difficult the role was and how well she did. Yet, even her excessive gasping was a bit or a lot irritating at times.

Wouldn't the NASA teach astronauts and engineers some Indian Yoga breathing exercises to retain and make optimum use of available oxygen? Somehow, the film is about wastage. While George Clooney tells her to breathe slowly to save oxygen, he keeps spacewalking with his jet pack minutes before, which he could save for later, though he is supposed to be testing the technology.

Knowledge of the use of breath (like pranayama) tells me how disastrous it is to breathe heavily even in our daily atmosphere like here on earth. Sandra Bullock keeps throwing out breaths in heaps like she is going to throw up, which could blind her, as a real astronaut said on the website, "Vulture". It is common knowledge how merely pouring out your breath can cause you to faint.

Breathing Heavy: Of course, she is out on space, she says she can't breathe, she is cast out into space but reducing panic levels can cause your breathe to slow down, though difficulty in breathing is understood. At least, breathing slowly can stretch the time in between breaths, which can prolong your oxygen.

I really wished Sandra Bullock better died given how clumsy she was. I wanted her to stop breathing heavy more than anything. Matthew McConaughey was a more experienced pilot/astronaut in the Interstellar and at times he breathed heavy but this breathing of Sandra Bullock wasn't like it. Did anything go wrong in regard to her breathing? Am I missing something? I would like to be corrected if wrong.

[Actually, when you are about to die, accept that you are going to die, which is actually the acceptance of the "fact" that we are all going to, eventually, die. A life impulse from inside us will spring beginning from this moment of acceptance, which will save us from anything on earth or beyond. Dr Ryan Stone ought to have done that.]

The Interpretations

It could also be said that her acceptance of death saved her, if she really were saved, according to the many interpretations of the ending. To the uninitiated, Sandra Bullock died in the Russian Soyuz before George Clooney appeared again and she dreamed the whole thing from there on. While this is one of the esoteric interpretations, a much mundane interpretation is that she truly saved herself and came back to planet earth. For some like me, she showed the rebirth and reproduction process throughout the movie.

7am Arivu Review - 7aum Arivu Review - An Unintellectual Rhetoric

This post remained a draft for four years and I had forgotten about it and now published, as it would go wasted! :)

7am Arivu Review -- An Unintellectual Rhetoric!

7AM ARIVU runs full houses at Satyam, Devi, Escape, Fame National, Inox and PVR which would account to about Rs. 1+ crore collections (gross) within the first five days to the weekend in Chennai alone. Yet, there are those who don't get tickets to watch the movie. The crowd at the billing counters for the snacks is overwhelming.


Suriya's market graph would rise, AR Murugadoss would rewrite his CV and Udhayanidhi Stalin would bag it all. Suriya's highest (to my knowledge) was Rs. 78 lakhs in Chennai for Singam but surely the five Diwali festive days would make it go past Rs. 1 crore which would be known by Tuesday. Ajith scored Rs. 1.79 crore in the opening weekend for Mankatha. 7am Arivu could be much close.

Suriya, the Rs. 10+ crore star is worth the money -- if you completely exploit him as Bodhidharman. Suriya's well-trained prowess comes to the fore in the first few scenes itself. The elegance with which he performs martial arts is awe-inspiring. 7am Arivu is a compulsive/compelling watch for families try to get a glimpse of the film, good or bad. Post-script opinions do not matter by which time the audience have shelled out hundreds.

The marketing began when AR Murugadoss proclaimed the surge of Tamil spirit that would result from watching the movie. He went so far as to say "Ovvoru Thamizhanum". So, every Tamilian has felt that it is his duty to watch the movie and felt guilty if not. The same couldn't be said of Velayudham. They could voluntarily miss out on Velayudham. There is enough dilution in Harris Jayaraj's music from Minnale to Vaaranam Aayiram to 7am Arivu. He was considered almost at par with AR Rahman when he made his debut. The feeling gradually subsided in 12B and other films post 2003.


As I get to know from circles, Harris Jayaraj, like most other musicians, composes music only abroad. He takes his friends too and the producer and the director wait till their hangover is reset. Meanwhile, Harris clinched Shankar's Nanban, when he was supposed to work in 7am Arivu. That's why, he could probably choose to align Chinese lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baba Black Sheep! The background score towards the end is simply blaring and is reminiscent of the 70s and the 80s of the MGR's and Sivaji Ganesan's twilight heroic era.

The editing is not one that you would associate with Anthony. Carrying out proper discussions in the pre-production period would have proved useful. AR Murugadoss could have enjoyed autonomy over the script. Though he would have had discussions, there could have been no greater opinions than his. That's why, Johnny Tri Nguyen's introduction happens soon after the Bodhidharman documentary. I would have preferred watching Bodhidharman part in toto. Any other director would have considered postponing Johnny's introduction after Shruti Hassan's.

The part could simply have been edited to fit after Shruti Hassan's and Suriya's introduction. The audience do not empathize with the yet-to-be-seen Shruti who is under threat by a Chinese high-conspiring group. Since we watch enough number of Hollywood movies, we understand how dialogues are written. Tamil directors tend to spoon feed while writing dialogues in English. The film went to the extent of ensuring grammatical correctness to write bad English dialogues. Okay, it is the Chinese but Chinese hardly speak English at all, among themselves.

"You have to kill that girl" is the laughably childish and amateurish dialogue ever written. Why not let Shruti be displayed on a large screen than on a Chinese Jiangxi Shicheng laptop? A pathetic photograph of Shruti Hassan is shown on a Windows Photo Viewer. Moving onto the next scene, Ringa Ringa song is the most generic of songs you could ever see with limited imagination that tries to ape Shankar. Suriya's love story isn't that strong nor has Shruti Hassan been actually wrong in trying to bring Suriya under the genetic research. Can Shruti Hassan use genetic engineering to bring her father Kamal Hassan's talents onto herself?

She is clueless, as an actress and is doubly bubbly to show mere exuberance in Yellaelama song. Shruti neither hates Suriya too badly nor is she selfish enough to be wronged. The dialogues in their argument are forced and Shruti's bad performance makes it far too worse. It is just a pre-lead or lead build up to the one song inspired by "Unna nenachen" song from Apoorva Sagotharargal. The first half does not have much to boast of with Johnny Tri Nguyen reappearing only in the interval block to announce, "Operation Red has started successfully".

There is some fluttering of emotions and swelling with pride when Shruti Hassan takes Suriya to the museum and explains him about Bodhidharman and the lost legacy of Tamils. However, it is evident that the film tries to woo neighboring states too by the references to Aryabhatta and showing Telugu television channels' coverage of the new disease. Dialogues again, juvenile and amateurish, are irritating and mind-numbing when Shruti repeatedly utters, "Vaanga polam", "Come on", and "Call him immediately". The screenplay and editing prolong proceedings when they logically try to be correct by showing that they take the stairs when Johnny is on the lift. Why do they use the stairs when the lift is just coming up?

Here, they could simply move (out of frame) and Cut to Johnny, (the lift door parts open), would be understood as he comes at a later time after they left. Although for convenience, the one brilliant scene is when Johnny's "Noakuvarmam" or hypnotism would not work against Suriya. When Johnny gets lorries to motorcyclists attack the lead pair by simply looking at them, and when a bystander girl performs elegant kung fu, it strikes awe due to the spectacle and the resulting chaos. However, the climax and pre-climax sequences are epic fails.

The build-up takes simplistic and immediate propulsion to end it all. Suriya in a sensory deprivation tank and the laboratory ambiance create an authentic lab atmosphere. Despite all the plus points, even the dialogues on the Tamil plight do not flutter your nerves much but any little flutter is due to the recent memory. The collective emotion is purely exploited but this exploitation at least helps the vigor to resurface. Though the on screen scenario does not contribute to the feeling, the feeling is automatic when spoken about.

In the simple climax, the hero beats the villain after taking a few blows. Harris is on duty probably in another film. We distinguish - the sound and the sight. The orientation of our two primary senses are split into heading towards two different directions. Thanks to Harris! The final epi(mono)logue sounds good only because Suriya makes it sound good. Manjal (Turmeric) is an antibiotic but whose custom is it to apply turmeric as an antibiotic? Is it a Tamil custom, invented by the Tamils? I doubt. Topical antibiotic need be applied only when there is bacterial infection. Otherwise, it can weaken the immune system. Wouldn't it also kill the good microbe bacteria too?

With inadequate "intellectual" quotient and with lame arguments, the premise of 7am Arivu is built, that tried to utilize the freshness of the concept to attract eyeballs. Perhaps, there was some overconfidence and a little too much of concentration on the concept than on the execution. Perhaps, the only saving grace is that the film is not that bad as it is made out to be. The strength of the premise or the foundation slightly held it strong from a complete collapse. The potential of the premise and the production values made it a decent film, though not causing a sweeping impact on the audience which they would keep on talking about for days on end -- and that would not correspond with the pre-release hype. 7am Arivu - A Mortal's Combat!

Rating:- 2.5/5

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