'The Wedding of Zeina' ( from the novel 'Aisha') by Ahdaf Soueif
Set in Egypt, Aisha's nurse Zeina, recounts how she was brutally 'tested' at the age of 15 before her wedding night by both male and female members of her family.
'Child's Play' by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Six weeks after her wedding,feeling that her marriage is already in trouble,18 year old Shirley returns home for a visit to her parents.Abandoned by her husband, indulged by her father and envied by her mother Shirley, young,spoilt,disillusioned;thinking that marriage would be 'candlelit dinners,friends dropping by,using all the presents,setting the table as perfectly as she did her face' is also brutally treated, in this case psychologically by family members.
Both stories from 'The Secret Self;Short Stories by Women selected by Hermione Lee,pub J.M.Dent & Sons 1985
No comments:
Post a Comment