The Almond by Nedjma:Sexual Awekening of Muslim Woman

[OLOL]

Arab author tackles the last taboo - a Muslim woman writes a bestselling erotic epic

 

Jon Henley in Paris

Tuesday June 21, 2005

 

Guardian

 

It passed almost unnoticed when it was published in France last year, but L'amande or The Almond, a slim brown volume billed as the "first erotic account written by an Arab woman", has now sold rights in 17 countries, including Britain, where it is to be published next month.

The book is explicit enough to have prompted comparisons with the sex films of Catherine Breillat, whose preferred actor is the porn star Rocco "the Italian Stallion" Siffredi, and with Catherine Millet, the intellectual art critic whose sex-stuffed but strangely unerotic confessions, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, recounted a life of staggering promiscuity.

 

But the difference is that Nedjma, the 40-something North African woman who wrote The Almond and who wants, not surprisingly, to remain anonymous, sets out not only to celebrate the sensuality of the female body but to strike a real moral blow against Islam's longstanding repression of women.

 

"In these lines where sperm and poetry mingle," she writes in the preface, "my ambition is to give women back the speech that has been confiscated by their fathers, brothers and husbands. I lift these words, as one lifts a glass, to the health of Arab women."

 

She told the New York Times: "The body is the last taboo, the one where all the political and religious prohibitions are concentrated.

 

"It is the last battle for democracy. I didn't want to write politically, but I did look for something radical. This book is a cry of protest."

 

The Almond's 260 pages tell the story of Badra, a Moroccan girl living in a small village, who is pushed, at 17, into an arranged marriage with a local notary of 40. After being dramatically deflowered ("He broke me in two with a single stroke") and five years of what she describes as "a hideous marriage", Badra flees to the bright lights of Tangier and the home of her emancipated Aunt Selma.

 

There she falls under the spell of Driss, a sophisticated, European-educated cardiologist who initiates her into the pleasures of the flesh and becomes at once "my master and my torturer". As their adventures become more debauched, Badra becomes disillusioned and pulls back, winning her freedom but also losing her capacity to love.

 

Nedjma has said 40% of the work is autobiographical and the rest based on the experiences of dozens of Muslim women she knows. She has also criticised Islam's "disfigured" approach to sex, noting that the ancient Arab world produced classics of erotic literature such as The Perfumed Garden.

 

The Almond would never have been published in the Arab world, she says, where male subjugation of women is "not the work of the Prophet or God ... but of the sharia, the way laws are interpreted, the writings, the clerics who rule Islam in place of God." The Arab world, she said, is "a sick old man, consumed by gangrene, illiteracy, poverty, dictatorships, fundamentalism".

 

French critics have been positive, talking of a book that combines "eroticism, anger, sensuality, vitality and poetry with a real finesse" (Lire magazine).

 

The reviewer from L'Express said the work was "an alchemy of opposites: lubricious and sensual, modern and traditional ... an ode to female desire that marks the debut of a highly talented - and courageous - writer."

 

Published in August, it has so far sold 50,000 copies in France, "an excellent figure for a book of this type", said a spokeswoman for the publishers, Plon.

 

But the take-up abroad has been more spectacular: The Almond has spent weeks on Der Spiegel's bestseller list in Germany, and is selling "very well" in the US. In Britain it is being published by Transworld.

 

Extract

 

'I had become liquid ... '

[OLOL]

another Extract:

 

By Way of a Response to Cheikh Nefzaoui

 

[...I, Bedra, proclaim to be certain of one thing only: I am the one with the most beautiful .... on earth, the best designed,the best developed. the deepest, warmest, wettest, noisiest, most fragrant ad singing, the one most fond of .... when they rise up like harpoons....]

[OLOL]

The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi

Translated by Sir Richard Burton [1886]

 

Written in the 16th Century, this volume is one of the oldest texts on the subject of erotica. It provides a fascinating look into the sexual customs and behavior of Arabia in the Middle Ages, much like the Kama Sutra reflects ancient Hindu culture. Translated into English by the renowned explorer Sir Richard F. Burton, The Perfumed Garden Of The Cheikh Nefzaoui explicitly sings the praises of intimacy. Sections include "Concerning Everything Favorable to Coition," "Of Matters which are Injurious in the act of Generation," and "On the Deceits and Treacheries of Women." With complete candor, this classic celebrates sensual pleasure with beautiful prose.

 

"I swear before God, certainly! The knowledge of this book is necessary. It will be only the shamefully ignorant, the enemy of all science who does not read it, or who turns it into ridicule." --Cheikh Nefzaoui

 

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/garden/

[FatB]

woow :eek: that cirtanly cought my attention. hmmm what can i say. the shaydaan opporates in many ways to lead us from the path of righteousness. this is nothing more than a loathom selfobsest woman who has nothing better to do than tye to discreadit islaam.

 

i say let not your attention linger and turne way with out commnet, for with our blaitant dinials she would simply atains greater publisity.

 

may allah guide her in to right path. and us all

[Valenteenah.]

:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

 

Hmmm....Transworld, you say?

 

 

**Quickly backs out of the thread**

[Strawberry_Xu]

Critics love controversy and as such anything slightly taboo is praised. Especially if it relates to Islam and the middle-east. I'm sure this woman could have written something little more interesting than a medical map of the female anatomy and it would still have been attriubuted the same literary praise, just because an 'arab muslim' wrote it.

[-Serenity-]

Confession - This book is in my Amazon wish list. A Friend told me about it a few weeks ago. I'm always interested in 'controversial' books coming out of the muslim world. I have to say, I find Arab 'controversial' writers (Fatima Mernissi, Laila Ahmed, Ziauddin Sardar) most fascinating. Its like you can almost feel the chains of societal decorum breaking around them as you read their words.

 

p.s. A couple of friends in Oman have read it. Maybe it isnt making rounds here alone.

[Castro]

I have to say, I find Arab 'controversial' writers (Fatima Mernissi, Laila Ahmed, Ziauddin Sardar) most fascinating. Its like you can almost feel the chains of societal decorum breaking around them as you read their words.

Indeed. What I like about such writers as well is how they show (our) eastern cultures and how what is done publicly is not often a reflection of what's done privately.

 

I'll look for the book as as soon as I finish reading The Myth of Monogamy and rereading The Art of War.

[Haddad]

Pornography, June 29, 2005

I purchased this little gem after reading a favorable review in the International Herald Tribune. I read about half of the book before tossing this porn into the garbage where it belongs.

 

Unsure What to Make of It!, June 26, 2005

Read this because I was curious about the obvious contradiction between reportedly puritanical Muslim life and the book's content. The supposedly true story begins with a young girl (Badr) in a marriage arranged by her mother to a man who had rejected two prior wives because "they were barren." Badr becomes the third, realizes he life is going nowhere, and takes a long, somewhat dangerous trip to stay with her aunt in Tangiers. After reflecting on her earlier curiousity about sex, she meets and falls in love with a doctor who rouses and satisfies her inner desires.

 

Badr is not the only Muslim with carnal thoughts - numerous references are made to other women making baudy jokes about men. Still, given all the reporting about Muslim limitations on women, I am highly doubtful about how representative of Muslim life the book really is. Would have preferred a less personal, more objective (eg. survey) source.

 

Source

[Medley of extemporanea]

this is such bull shit... there is nothing good about his. if you want sex, go and get it. if you want porn, it's the biggest thing on the net next to email, so browse on to it.

 

but don't talk about this crap as if it's literature or art, it's smut and nothing more.

 

""In these lines where sperm and poetry mingle," she writes in the preface, "my ambition is to give women back the speech that has been confiscated by their fathers, brothers and husbands. I lift these words, as one lifts a glass, to the health of Arab women."

 

She told the New York Times: "The body is the last taboo, the one where all the political and religious prohibitions are concentrated.

 

"It is the last battle for democracy. I didn't want to write politically, but I did look for something radical. This book is a cry of protest."

 

The Almond's 260 pages tell the story of Badra, a Moroccan girl living in a small village, who is pushed, at 17, into an arranged marriage with a local notary of 40. After being dramatically deflowered ("He broke me in two with a single stroke") and five years of what she describes as "a hideous marriage", Badra flees to the bright lights of Tangier and the home of her emancipated Aunt Selma.

 

There she falls under the spell of Driss, a sophisticated, European-educated cardiologist who initiates her into the pleasures of the flesh and becomes at once "my master and my torturer". As their adventures become more debauched, Badra becomes disillusioned and pulls back, winning her freedom but also losing her capacity to love."

 

What freedom is she talking about? The freedom to have fetish sex and write a porn novel? If that’s the freedom Arab women want, no wonder Bush wants to set them free so bad

 

What does democracy have to do with moral degradation?

 

For those of interested in such books, there is nothing literary or artistic about them. If your interested in sex, porn or whatever visit the millions of hardcore websites that are on the net.

[Haddad]

Originally posted by Haniif:

For those of interested in such books, there is nothing literary or artistic about them.

Yep.

[FatB]

^^^ i second that motion

[Haddad]

Originally posted by professer:

i second that motion

Court adjourned.

[FatB]

lool

 

i the prosecution rest ur honor.

[Valenteenah.]

^ Dingbats.

 

Haniif, I must say, thats the MOST I have seen you write. :cool: