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¶ … Tales from the Thousand and One Nights and compares and contrasts them in order to reveal the depiction of women in them.
The depiction of women in the Nights is diverse in nature. On the one hand, there are many female slaves and concubines who must obey the men who own them. On the other hand, there are not fully independent but self-confident women whose courage and wit save many human lives. An example is that of Shahrazade who gathers the courage to marry the King and heal him of his insane distrust of women. This in turn saves the lives of many women.
Similarly, in the "Tales of the Hunchback," wife of Badr Ul Din Hasan, is shown to be an extremely faithful woman, who was arranged to marry a hunchback but was instead fated to marry Badr. Though Badr is transported by djinns to another place, where he spends many years away from his wife, she continues to live without him but remains faithful. She also has a son born of him, whom she brings up single-handedly and after some years, even goes to look for her husband and the father of her son. Hence women are depicted as faithful, simple, courageous and caring in this tale.
In the "Tale of Khalifah, the Fisherman," women are depicted in two ways. Depiction of Kut al Kulub is comparable to that of Badr's wife in the Tales of the Hunchback. She is intelligent, lovely but faithful to her master. However Lady Zubaydah's character is in contrast to that of either the hunchback's fiance or Kut al Kulub. In the character of Zubaydah, women are depicted as jealous, scheming and cruel. Where Badr's wife and Kut al Kulub are obedient and simple (Kut al Kulub even obeys Zubaydah because she is his master's wife), Zubaydah is shown to be deceitful. She cheats Kut into her plan and then disposes off her so that her husband would return to her.
In conclusion, it is easy to see that women are depicted in different ways in different tales. They do not have the strengths or weaknesses of the modern western woman but she has her own set of them.
REFERENCE
Dawood, N.J. Tales from the Thousand And One Nights. Penguin: 1954.
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