Ramza

I actually read this book several years ago and don't remember all of the details, but since there were only two reviews I decided to write one. I just remember that I had a major test or a long day at work the next day, but I couldn't put this book down, and didn't get to sleep until around 5:00AM. I also recommended it to several people.

Out El Kouloub's Ramza is a fine fictional work that contributes to the understanding of the aristocratic harem institution in Egypt and the factors that helped bring its destruction in the 1920's through the vicissitudes of its heroine Ramza Farid. The harem had survived and flourished throughout the Ottoman Empire for centuries until internal social and political changes and growing European influence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries closed the harem officially. In the Ottoman Empire proper this occurred in 1909 after the Young Turks seized power from Sultan Abdulhamid II who had become increasingly conservative in an attempt to curb socially liberalizing ideas that had started to threaten the future of traditional institutions such as the harem.More significantly, some articulate and resilient harem women actively began to object their condition and were captivated by feminist ideals that eventually prevailed against the harem and those who continued to identify with it. Houda Sha'rawi became famous in Egypt for openly objecting to the wearing of the veil in public and in the Ottoman Empire proper Halide Edip expressed a discontent at the harem system which is reminiscent of Ramza's. Notions of marriage and family were inseparable from the harem institution and a rejection of the harem system necessarily entailed one against the majority of societal notions of women's rights and status.

The typically snotty Kirkus Review hardly does justice to this book which manages to depict harem life without sensationalism as well as an unflinching look at a tragic romance. Ramza's story is one of a spoiled and pampered child who gradually abandons her home and family for a lonely freedom. Feminist beliefs are costly for Ramza, but Out el Kouloub clearly believes freedom for her society was worth the price for the pathbreaking few women who defied custom. The translator's introduction is valuable in providing context for the novel, with some interesting notes on style and "free translation" that may explain the somewhat florid prose.