Palace Walk

In this section of the novel, The Struggle for Independence gains particular prominence as al-Sayyid Ahmad’s children attempt to assert their own agency amid family dynamics that are designed to suppress their desires and control their every action. When Fahmy falls in love with the girl next door, his affections complicate his efforts to maintain his reputation in his father’s eyes while also being true to his own feelings. In his own household, his father’s rule forbids women from leaving the house. Although al-Sayyid Ahmad’s rules do not govern the family next door, Fahmy is still concerned that his father will accuse him of sexual delinquency if he directly admits to his love for Maryam. As a result, he must play an elaborate political game by revealing the truth to his mother, who then passes along this information to his father.

Significantly, Amina presents Fahmy’s request to marry Maryam in a reserved way, assuring al-Sayyid Ahmad that no offense could possibly have been committed in the development of Fahmy’s desire. During this careful exchange, she manipulates her son’s words to portray his wishes in the best possible light, and this delicate dance reveals the complicated nature of the situation. Fahmy rightly suspects that he has little control over his future marriage and suspects that rather than marrying for love, he will be forced to marry a woman whom his father believes to be suitable. Not for the first time, Fahmy is caught in a position between his sincere emotions and his desire not to upset his father. Alone among the children, he is the only child who consistently and sincerely challenges al-Sayyid Ahmad in the name of what he believes is right.

Yet despite this denied request, Fahmy’s failed attempt to secure his father’s permission to marry Maryam forms a telling contrast with Aisha’s own doomed romance, for although Fahmy has little choice in his future, he is still permitted to exercise far more agency than his sister. Because Aisha is female, she has even fewer resources at her disposal and is not even supposed to leave the house, much less catch the interest of a man. Even so, she orchestrates an excuse each day to catch the eye of a passing police officer, and in her restricted, limited world, this is the extent of her romantic agency. Unlike Fahmy, Aisha harbors no illusions about being able to set her own marriage agenda, and when her father summarily dismisses the young man’s interest in marrying her, the situation displays yet another example of The Disempowerment of Women. By refusing his daughters any say in the shape of their adult lives, al-Sayyid Ahmad is potentially dooming them to decades of misery if the matches he chooses prove to be poor ones. However, it is also significant that Aisha moves on fairly quickly from her first romantic experience, and the speed with which she forgets about him suggests that she is more enamored of the idea of love. Given that she can only base her love on eye contact and daydreams, she must construct romance from mere scraps, and the speed with which she falls in and out of “love” therefore illustrates The Toxic Effects of Patriarchal Authority in the form of al-Sayyid Ahmad’s controlling attitude and tyrannical parenting style.

Ultimately, the two failed romances of Fahmy and Aisha set the emotional context for Amina’s trip to the mosque, which constitutes an act of disobedience by her husband’s overly strict standards. When her children convince her to disobey their father’s orders, their request represents a unified effort to engineer a calculated attempt at domestic disobedience. To this end, it is no accident that they pick a pious act, and one that means a great deal to their mother. Because Amina prayed at this mosque when she was a child, it has a great sentimental value to her, and she is easily convinced. As a result, the children experience disobedience of their father vicariously through their mother. They want her to leave the house as a challenge to the paternal authority that has had such a limiting effect on their lives. Given the recent failures of Aisha and Fahmy to pursue their true desires, the children feel a lingering resentment, and this motivates their desire to challenge their father’s authority. Through their mother, they have the opportunity to do so without risking punishment for themselves. Thus, the two failed romances fuel the children’s universal desire to challenge al-Sayyid Ahmad, while the indirect manner of their rebellion also illustrates the extent to which they fear their father’s authority.