Cairo: Almost four months after its publication, I Want to Divorce, a book co-written by two Egyptian women, is creating ripples.
The book takes the shape of a short story collection, which the co-authors say is based on real-life tales. Women are usually blamed for divorce in the mostly male-dominated Egyptian society.
I want to Divorce features cases of women caught up in doomed marriages, but they cannot demand divorce because of social, economic and religious reasons.
“This book is dedicated to each woman that wears stylish glasses concealing dark circles around her eyes swollen with misery,” writes Marcel Nazmy, the book’s co-author.
“There are many women in our society, who are leading a harsh [marital] life and are bearing social pressure. These women are just heroic because they are able to continue in a wretched life and at the same time appear [to be] all smiles in public,” Marcel told a seminar this week at the Cairo International Book Fair.
“The idea of expressing the wish for divorce is difficult for many women in society due to various restrictions including those related to religion, society’s view and economic hardships,” Doaa Helmy, the other writer of the book, told the gathering at the fair. “A woman may have a desire deep down to get divorced, but she can’t take the decision, for example, because she is economically reliant on the husband.”
Doaa said the idea of the book had been inspired by her divorced mother, who “faced up to society and refused to keep a failed marriage”.
Both writers, who are journalists by profession, said that they decided to change the names of the women mentioned in their book to protect their social status.
“When you read the 13 short stories, you can understand the suffering of women, who are seeking divorce or the divorced women, who suffer from people’s perception,” Marcel said. “When you read the book, you also come to the conclusion that divorce is not a luxury. It can be the last way to salvation.”
Their argument comes a few weeks after Egypt’s official statistics agency said that around 40 per cent of the nation’s annual 900,000 marriages end in break-ups within the first five years.
One author is a Muslim; the other belongs to Egypt’s minority Christian community — a cooperation seen as enriching the content of the book by providing insight into the ordeal of women from two different religious backgrounds.
The book, according to its authors, is not meant to offer advice. “It has no direct messages. The reader can make conclusions between the lines,” said Doaa.
I want to Divorce has triggered a heated online debate.
“After reading the book, I felt I made the right decision by demanding divorce from my ex-husband around five years ago,” said a divorcee who calls herself Nermeen Al Sareeha [the Frank] in a Facebook post. “Why should the woman cling to a life full of suffering with a selfish man?”
Some male commentators squarely put blame on women for the collapse of marriage. “Present-day girls lack the sense of responsibility and fortitude that characterised their mothers,” said a man named Khaled Handus. “Such books corrupt women’s minds and encourage them to rashly bring down marriage on the head of the family.”
Buoyed up by the strong reaction to their book, the co-authors of I want to Divorce have revealed a plan to jointly write a second book on women’s woes.
