A Double Colonization: The Case of the Arab Bedouin Woman in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt

Abstract

This study scrutinizes Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt by analyzing the various forms of violence against the protagonists, Maha and Hannyeh, their heterogeneous representation and their conditions within the cultural encounter between modernity and traditionality. Applying postcolonial feminism, the analysis of Faqir’s novel shows that colonization and patriarchy interact as double structures of oppression that produce cumulative forms of violence against the colonized women. It also shows that these women’s responses to oppressions are divergent: while Maha adopts unique strategies of self-empowerment that help her resist subordination, Hannyeh espouses limited ones that intensify her disempowerment. As for the encounter between modernity and traditionality, the analysis indicates that imperial colonization and its modernity have destructive consequences on the colonized nation: they blur both its social formation and cultural identity.

Keywords

• arab patriarchy
• double colonization
• empowerment
• modernity
• pillars of salt
• postcolonial feminism