Single Stories

When looking back on how far we have come in this class there is one theme that comes to my mind and that is a single story. A single story is when the reader or writer leapfrog over different perspectives of a story only giving one side of the story to the readers or listeners. With this class the main part of the single story we focus on is that of women around the world. We have studied female writers from all corners of the world and they all discussed similar issues that show females everywhere have this single story attached to them. The writers are trying to challenge these traditional ideologies and pressing western thoughts. It is important to keep fresh in our minds that single stories do not and should not define a person. It can be difficult to not let a single event tamper with your feelings for someone, but the idea of this class is to open your mind to new ideas. With writings from authors such as Elif Shafak she helps us break down the single story narrative and helps us get a better understanding on how to deal with them.  

The first writer that highlights these ideas for me is Elif Shafak. During her Ted Talk “The Politics of Fiction” she discusses how she moved from country to country because her mother became a diplomat. By moving countries and frequently changing schools it was difficult for her to make connections with the other students. Her single story starts while she attended these schools because when something terrible happened back in her home country of Turkey, everyone looked to her for an explanation on why they did something like that. Knowing that she is only a young girl and has no power over the government in a country she no longer lives in. Shafak also wrote the novel Three Daughters of Eve this book tests what it means to be a feminist. The main character Peri and her two friends Shirin and Moana. All three women follow Muslim beliefs, but are at different levels with their strictness. Mona is the traditionalist wearing the hijab, but is also a feminist. Shirin has no interest in religion even though she comes from Iran. And Peri who is caught up in the middle she grew up with a faithless father and a devoted Islamic woman.  I do believe that the way she describes the three main women in the novel that it does represent feminism they are open to be who they want. We know from previous readings/videos that women do not always have the freedom to do as they please that usually there is someone who is deciding for them so with these women choosing how they dress and act I do see it as a sign of feminism.

Another piece of work we watched that goes off of a single story is Dalia Mogahed’s TED talk on “What is like to be Muslim in America”. This TED talk is so important because it touches on events that have happened in our lifetime. When she spoke of the terrible events of 9/11 she realized at that moment she no longer was just a woman she was a Muslim woman and that her religion defined who she was. She stated “Not only had my country been attacked, but in a flash, somebody else’s actions turned me from a citizen to a suspect” this is hard to hear because we are all guilty of this at some point in our lives stereotyping someone based on someone else’s actions. From that moment on Dalia no longer was just an American girl she now had to live in fear that someone would look to retaliate against her religion. 

One event I went to right before spring break was High Point University Theater’s production of Borrowed Babies. Many scenes from the play made me think back to our class and what we have been learning. The first one that comes to mind is when one of the four girls is moving to NYC to pursue her dream in art and she convinces another of the girls to go with her and when she tells her parents her father basically tells her that if she chooses to go that she will be cutting all ties with the family because “only whores and sluts chose to live in the city alone.” This relates back to a single story that we have been learning about. Her father had envisioned her marrying his boss’s son and being a mother and never thought of her being a working woman. Another aspect of the single story shown in this play is when they do not allow Judy to keep Katherine because she is not married. The agency doesn’t see how well the baby is doing under Judy’s strict schedule of care and how much she truly loved the baby. They could only imagine that if and only if there was a man in the house then the baby would’ve been taken care of financially that Judy could not possibly be doing it on her own. 

While the readings and videos have changed through the semester, the main points and ideas stay the same. Women have struggled since the start of time when it comes to equality. Women in the western world are seen as pioneers to women across the globe because many of them are still fighting for basic rights. I am not sure that we will have full equality worldwide, but what I do know is that by learning and talking about it that we are only helping the cause. If we normalize the conversation on equality for younger generations maybe they will in turn change others’ mindset. With having technology at our fingertips we have the power of teaching others what we have learned during this class and help out others break down stereotypes. Sometimes we allow our culture and others cultures define who we are as people. This might be the largest challenge we will ever have to fight.