1001 Nights

So I read the story of King Shahryar and His Brother and the Tale of the Bull and the Ass. I was indeed intrigued and found it an entertaining story. Being female obviously I had an issue with the abusive tendencies. I know that there is a cultural difference as well as a large generation gap, but perhaps someone should have clued King Shahryar into the fact that his wife, most likely any wife, would not be happily content and faithful if her husband had 10 concubines and lets not even start on the concubines. Yes, I know that Islam has a long standing reputation of suppressing women and their role is supposed to be one of submissiveness and obedience but honestly. Its ok for the king to sleep with all of his concubines and his wife, and thats considered faithful but if she sleeps with another man, she is instantly treacherous and the result is her death. King Shahryar not only kills his wife but proceeds to kill all women he marries. There is a strong theme of female evil and treachery in most of the stories. I randomly picked many of them to read but most of the women have a reputation of wickedness and disobedience. Again this falls back to the cultural expectation of women but it bugs me so sorry for the rant. In the end the King does pardon his wife and perhaps he learns that not all women are vile and unfaithful but the cost of that lesson is enormous.

For anyone curious about husband beating his wife in the Bull and the Ass, let me just make a point. There is a spot in the Koran, and possibly more than one spot, where the Koran specifically says that it is acceptable for men to beat their wives when they are disobedient and send them to their rooms. The Koran is taken literally, there is no room for interpretation or representation. If it says God has hands, then in some way God has hands. Anyway, there are many, many Muslim men who do not beat their wives and then claim it to be just as it is written in the Koran; however, there are some Muslims that use sections such as this in the Koran to justify suppressing and abusing women. It is a long standing problem: one that will most likely take years of Muslim women protesting to solve.

On another note, I did enjoy the story about The Simpleton and The Sharper. I love the end where the simpleton walks up to his donkey and talks to it, and moves on. This has got to make everyone smile at the gullibility of this man. :)