Readings by Femenists

As a fellow woman, I found these readings to be both insightful and confusing at times.   The Amiry stories had a very honest and human quality to them, and the “story” format of the reading, rather than a lecture or essay, kept it interesting for me.  I especially loved “A Dog’s Life,” which any dog owner can relate to in terms of that unique unconditional love.   The section about Nura was funny and frustrating at the same time.  I love how Amiry has embraced humor as a way to cope: it is something relatively new and refreshing in our readings.

Hasan-Rokem’s article stayed more in the realm of allegory and metaphor, and so it is not surprising that this was the more challenging article to understand.  It was interesting to note all of the sayings surrounding the city, all coined by men.  It was much harder for me to connect this idea to the real world: Does this mean that men have historically been the only people with a longing for Jerusalem?  Does it mean that women’s expressions for the city were not written down or considered valid?  Her suggestion in the end that we must seek to end this sort of vision of Jerusalem as a sort of “helpless maiden” comes without concrete ways of applying it.  The overall writing was very good, however, I wish