“Blood Messages never Arrive:” A Cultural Study of Manar’s Rape Trauma in Ibrahim Nasrallah’s Balcony of Disgrace
A Cultural Study of Manar’s Rape Trauma in Ibrahim Nasrallah’s Balcony of Disgrace
Article History
Pages
1908-1116Abstract
The paper “Blood Messages never Arrive: A Cultural Study of Manar’s Rape Trauma in Ibrahim Nasrallah’s Balcony of Disgrace” is a detailed examination of a recurrent issue: the cultural response to rape and rape trauma within Arab communities. Balcony of Disgrace (2010), authored by Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah, tells the story of a young girl named Manar, who works as a social worker in a high school near her home. One day, she becomes a victim of brutal rape as an act of revenge from her brother. As a result, Manar is labeled as impure and must confront the cultural doctrines of patriarchy. This research applies a qualitative deductive cultural methodology, specifically Veeser’s “The Moment of Exchange,” to explore the novel and analyze Arab culture’s perspective on rape victims. Unfortunately, the paper concludes that the culture condemns the victims while absolving the perpetrators and the executioners.
Keywords:
References
- Al-Jabali, M. (2013). The fragile vessels: Rights and obligations between spouses in Islam. Al-
- Kitaab & as-Sunnah Publishing.
- Al-Wardi, A. (1965). A Study in the Nature of Iraqi Society. Saeed Ibn Jubayr Publication.
- Bressler, C. E. (2012). Literary criticism: An introduction to theory and practice. United States:
- Longman.
- Chaudhury, S., Biswas, H., & Sanyal, D. (2017, March). Psychological aspects of rape and its
- consequences. Psychology & Behavioral Science International Journal, 2(3), 1–7.
- DOI: 10.19080/PBSIJ.2017.02.555586.
- Hall, C. (1988). Rape: the politics of definition. South African Law Journal, 10(5),
- 67-77. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/soaf105&div=15&id=&page=.
- Jarrar, M. S. (2015, January). Balcony of Disgrace: A trial against honour crimes. International
- Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 5(6), 94-100. www.ijhssnet.com.
- Jumaa, S. Y. S. (2022, May). Manifestations of the critical realist vision in place in the
- novel Balcony of Shame by Ibrahim Nasrallah. The Journal of the Faculty of Arabic Language in Itay El-Baroud, Al-Azhar University, 36(2), 180–238. https://www.scribd.com/document/728296232/Artikel-04-Realisme-Sosial
- Mansour, A., Mansur, V., Banat, S., & Banat, M. (2024, April). Balcony of
- disgrace: The intersection of patriarchy and honor in Arab societies. World Journal of English Language, 14(4), 69–75. https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v14n4p69
- Papadaki, E. L. (2024, Summer). Feminist perspectives on objectification. In E. N.
- Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2024, Summer ed.).
- IslamWeb.Net. (2023, November 27). The characteristics of the Messenger, may God bless him
- and grant him peace: Everything of a Muslim is sacred to another Muslim: His blood, his money, and his honour. https://www.islamweb.net/ar/article/233272/%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A9-. (Accessed 30 Jun. 2025).
- The Quran. (n.d.). (Sahih International, Trans.). Quran.com: The ETC at King Saud University.
- http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/index.php?l=en#aya=28_35. (Accessed 13, May 2025).
- Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today: A user-friendly guide. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Veeser, H. A. (Ed.). (1989). The new historicism. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Welter, B. (1966). The cult of true womanhood: 1820–1860. American Quarterly, 18(2), 151–
- https://doi.org/10.2307/2711179.
Identifiers
Download this PDF file
Statistics
How to Cite
Copyright and Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
