Another Evening at the Club - Alifa Rifaat - Analysis

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Women's right to speech and women's right to education were two very important topics in this piece. Several times in the story, we notice how Samia, the protagonist is never allowed to speak her mind, provide her opinion, or simply assert what she wants. When Abboud Bey comes to see her for the first time, her parents have already made the decision to get her married off to him (if Abboud Bey agrees) and also decides by the time the marriage is arranged that there is no point of her getting an education at school anymore. We also notice how whenever she speaks to her husband, she only says whatever would comfort him or not anger him but not what is on her mind. The communication in their marriage seemed one way. To me it seemed very dominant, how her husband had all the power and right to speech and making decisions while she merely seemed like his puppet. I believe that is not how the unity and bond of marriage should be treated.

Emotional conflict is also a major theme here. Throughout the story, Samia always seemed rather tense or afraid to speak to her husband. We came to know there was a huge age gap between them, him being in his late thirties and her being only in secondary school when their marriage took place. This led to her seeing him more as a father figure than her husband. How she felt like it was a fatherly gesture when he patted her cheeks adoringly at the beginning of the story as well as how that same gesture at the end of the story made her feel entrapped by his dominance.

All in all, "Another Evening at the Club" was a brilliant and thought provoking read. The life lesson I have learnt from it would be to make sure I never become dependant on a man but become my own independent woman. Also it has strongly motivated me to complete my higher education successfully and become financially independent before I marry someone in the future.

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