摘要
The analysis of women’ contribution to Arabic literature brings to light novels written by Arab women novelists whose writings reflect the intricate factors restraining women between the tradition and the codes of Islam. The Syrian writer Ulfat Idilbi and the Jordanian novelist Fadia Faqir delineate such entanglment elequently in both Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet and Pillars of Salt. The paper previews some critical opinions namely of: the Egyptian American Professor of Women Studies and Religion, Leila Ahmed;the Moroccan Sociologist and writer, Fatima Mernessi;and the Algerian writer and film maker, Assia Djebar. Through manifesting theses critical views along with the two novels, the paper proposes that much of the gender inequalituy practised in the Arab societies and reflected in the two novels, might be rooted in the tradition, not the religion itself.
