Balcony of Shame

The poet and novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah has published a new novel entitled “Balcony of Shame”, which is the third novel in his novel project: “Balconies”, which includes a number of novels, each of which is completely independent from the others. As usual, Ibrahim Nasrallah remains the best at expressing the contradictions of social life, the best critic, and the best at conveying its images with extreme and rare boldness by breaking the traditional novelistic form. He is now addressing a current issue that is extremely sensitive and worrisome at the same time: “honor crimes”, whose victims are women who have been wronged by their families and society together, and who are helpless in the face of the cruelty of society, its customs, traditions, and canned cultural frameworks that want to make a girl like a moving doll in the family home and the marital home at the same time. They are balconies from which the novelist wanted to look at the reality of the situation that Arab women live, especially in the middle and poor classes, by placing all his aesthetic, cognitive, and creative experiences in the character of “Manal”, whose father insisted on educating her and provided her with the necessary support until After graduating and getting a job as a social worker, she found that the world had suddenly expanded. But? Suddenly, her life changed and something unexpected happened! “Suddenly, Younis opened the car door from the outside, and in less than a second, Manal felt the coldness of that dagger on her neck. I will slaughter you if you breathe!” (…) In front of the door of that small room, he stood for a moment, then pushed the door open with his right foot. He entered and closed the door with his foot, and in a quick movement he lifted the dagger from her neck, stuck her back to the door, and returned the dagger to its place. With his free hand, he turned the key. At that moment, he was sure that his prey had lost all her strength, as well as her voice. Her hands had fallen to her sides like two worn-out pieces of cloth on a clothesline. He dragged her towards that bed, turned on that small red lamp, which he seemed to have prepared especially for that moment, and under its heavy light she could see the human face transforming into the face of a monster. So what happened after that? This is what we will discover together when we read this purposeful novel, which its author wanted to be a resounding cry in the face of everyone who deprives women of their humanity and their right to life, to choose, and to defend themselves. How long will society and men continue to view women as prey that they hunt whenever they want, and whose shame is only washed away by blood? Is the man in societies keen on Traditional defense of family honor, concern for himself, or concern for the woman he considers an eternal possession, and his concern for her is not open to discussion as an act of chivalry, is it so? A novel that includes a brave defense of a woman’s right to preserve her life and humanity, which is a right granted to her by God before humans.