Why I’m really here
This is our first week of class. Along with seven other students (since the 17 CASA students are split into two groups), I have a lesson in Modern Standard Arabic and Syrian Spoken Arabic each day. I’ve had many good MSA teachers, but not one worthwhile class in spoken Arabic, so it’s a relief to finally have one. Once a week, we have a class on novels; for now, we’re reading the book دمشق, يا بسمة الحزن [Damascus, Smile of Sadness] by Ulfat Idilby. Here’s what my book on Syrian writers by Miriam Cooke says about her:
“Ulfat Idilbi is considered the grande dame of Syrian literature and women’s culture. […] Her stories memorialize a lost past when women were strong. She wanted women to know their own strengths and weaknesses, rather than blaming men without understanding why they act as they do.” (So are women not strong now? Hmmm. I beg to differ.)
However, Damascus, Smile of Sadness is set during the French Mandate in Syria (1920-1946) and relates the story of a woman whose lover is killed in the struggle for independence, after which she suffers at the hands of her male relatives until finally hanging herself (sounds great, right?). As Cooke says, “In this rewriting of the people’s struggle to shake off the French, the fight for freedom consumed the good men, those who sacrificed their loves and lives for the nation, and spared the bad and the stupid.” And what, we might ask, did the fight for freedom do to the women? Well, I’ll let you know what I think after reading the novel.
On a happier note about women, all of my teachers as well as the program’s regional director are female, and I couldn’t have asked for kinder, more dedicated, more energetic, or more enthusiastic instructors. My MSA teacher also has a wicked sense of humor. When she came into our classroom the other day, she asked us how we were doing. When we gave the traditional Arabic reply of “Thank god,” she smiled slyly and asked us, “‘Thank god,’ really? Or should it be, ‘thank Satan?’” I am thoroughly looking forward to many more classes with them, those on depressing novels notwithstanding.
