Generational and Gender Differences in Brick Lane and Scheherazade Goes West

Brick Lane by Monica Ali and Scheherazade Goes West by Fatema Mernissi both address the issues of gender roles in Islam, as well as the differences between genders and generations for both Eastern and Western cultures. Mernissi compares her upbringing in a harem to the Western concept of harem, while Ali tells the fictional tale of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman who enters into an arranged marriage and moves to London, and her sister Hasina, who flees her village to marry for love.

Scheherazade Goes West emphasizes the prescribed social roles for Arab women, mentioning that "Growing up, I was taught that a woman should lower her gaze, so that men could never know her thoughts" (Mernissi 11) but also declares that Muslim women are not inferior, but "raised with a strong sense of equality. This could explain why women have emerged, in spite of extremism, as political leaders in many Muslim countries" (Mernissi 23).

The author's first person narration frankly discusses Western ideals and Eastern realities of the harem, confronting the stereotypes that have plagued both groups. While the Westerners who Mernissi encounters explain their visions of harems as sensual, Aladdin-esque orgies, she experienced them as dens of gender clashing, where "men expect their enslaved women to fight back ferociously and abort their schemes for pleasure" (Mernissi 14). Western men seem to depict themselves as confident and fearlessly masculine, and so "the tragic dimension so present in Muslim harems- fear of women and male self-doubt- is missing in the Western harem" (Mernissi 16).

Mernissi acknowledges the struggles between the sexes, as embodied in The Thousand and One Nights, as "an abysmal, unbridgeable frontier, a bloody war between men and women" (Mernissi 44). However, she makes it clear that this epic battle is not confined to the men and women of the East. After experiencing size discrimination in a Western department store, Mernissi notes that "maybe "size 6" is a more violent restriction imposed on women than is the Muslim veil" (Mernissi 213). The author opens readers' eyes to the inequality going on everyday in the Western world through this anecdote.

Monica Ali's fictional work Brick Lane offers a more subtle understanding of the inequalities between men and women- and young and old- throughout the world. Nazneen relates that her beautiful young sister was immediately judged for her looks; "The older women began to say, even before she turned eleven, that such beauty could have no earthly purpose but trouble… it was a fact that being beautiful brought hardship" (Ali 34). This emphasizes the double standards placed on Muslim women, and the prejudice of elderly against the young.

Ali speaks more directly through her characters about the gap between the East and the West, like in this speech by Chanu: "I'm talking about the clash between Western values and our own. I'm talking about the struggle to assimilate and the need to preserve one's identity and heritage. I'm talking about children who don't know what their identity is. I'm talking about the feelings of alienation engendered by a society where racism is prevalent. I'm talking about the terrific struggle to preserve one's sanity while striving to achieve the best for one's family" (Ali 88). Chanu stresses the complexity of being an Easterner in a Western world. Ali addresses these complicated identity issues in the larger context of clashing cultures.

Brick Lane and Scheherazade Goes West explore the complicated intricacies of gender relationships and roles from both Eastern and Western perspectives. Both works offer deeper insight into the hidden world of harems and arranged marriage, as well as providing the Western reader with a mirror in which to gauge their own stereotypes and prejudices.