Assia Djebar’s A Sister to Scheherazade is framed by the story of Scheherazade from Alf Layla wa-Layla (One Thousand and One Nights). In Alf Layla wa-Layla, a bloodthirsty king takes it upon himself to marry a different wife each night, only to execute her the following day. He does this to universalise his misery upon the entirety of his kingdom, as a stance against his queen’s betrayal of him with the palace servants. Scheherazade decides to marry the king and manages to flee her destiny by outwitting him, retelling a story that keeps her alive, and him intrigued for a thousand and one nights. Thus, freeing the kingdom from his irrationality at her own expense. Scheherazade serves as a classic archetype of a certain kind of woman; a woman that works around her circumstances and triumphs by surviving, by not being oblivious to structures, but by re-inventing solutions that suit her situation. In other words, the character of Scheherazade does not forge conditions, where they do not exist.

In Djebar’s book, we find a portrayal of women that do not fabricate reality to suit the end goal of emancipation. But rather, she incorporates local landscapes, local oppressions, traditions, and loyalties that both enable and disable women in Algeria from progressing. She provides us with a multifaceted perspective of Arab feminism, one that rejects Western projections of oppression but still acknowledges them as oppressions. It tells us the story of an awakening; one whose unfortunate prerequisite entails an overdue slumber. In the stories of Isma and Hajila, we are guided through the lives of these two very different women, who are bound together by shared experiences. Isma and Hajila are two women who are married to the same man, but unlike stereotypical renditions of rivalling wives, they share a sister-like dynamic. Isma is older, expressive and disillusioned. While Hajila lives passively, assuming and accepting everything she is instructed to do because she thinks it is her rightful duty to do so.

The story is retold in altering chapters, In some chapters. Isma narrates her life in the first person while Hijla’s story is told in the second person. Isma’s character is told in first person because she projects agency and challenges norms despite their rigidity. In the case of Hajila, her story is told on behalf of her. Her passivity disables her from assuming control of her own narrative. Hajila lives veiled, incapable of going against her family’s wishes for her to cover but manages to gain some solace from engaging in minorly rebellious actions. Isma, also incapable of escaping her dilemma, uses Hajila’s story to project her anguish. However, Their cooperation is to be viewed as “A practice reinforcing women’s solidarity within a dominantly masculinist world: “Respite comes: the husband will take a co-wife; Oh, to feel free at last…” (Imran, 2005).  It is a story of two women compromising their existence in different ways to survive.  

Their stories are different projections of the same struggle, a struggle that can only come to a resolution if they both unite. Through the narration of Isma, both women relate to each other’s retrospective struggles. Hijla needs Isma to help her deconstruct her passivity, to help her rise up and survive. They also are able to re-imagine their realities and see beyond their present oppressions by navigating around them, hoping for change that’s conscious of the perils of their tradition and society. 

Bibliography: 

Markar, N.I., 2005. Sisters to Scheherazade: Revisioned Histories of Gender and Nation in Postcolonial African and Asian Women’s Literature (Doctoral dissertation).