# Alifa Rifaat

Fatimah Rifaat (June 5, 1930 – January 1996), better known by her pen name Alifa Rifaat (Arabic: أليفة رفعت), was an Egyptian author whose controversial short stories are renowned for their depictions of the dynamics of female sexuality, relationships, and loss in rural Egyptian culture.

## Quotes
### Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories (1983)

* She returned to the living room and poured out the coffee for herself. She was surprised at how calm she was.
** This phrase is from the last line of “Distant View of a Minaret.” The husband has just died, and the wife is not terribly upset about his passing.
* Isn’t it better, when he returns, for your father to find himself with a legitimate son [rather] than an illegitimate grandson?
** This quote is the last line of “An Incident in the Ghobashi Household.” Zeinat’s unmarried daughter, Ni’ma, has gotten pregnant. Zeinat’s husband is away for many months for work, so Zeinat will pretend that the baby is hers, rather than Ni’ma’s.
* Daughter, I’m not crying now because I’m fed up or regret that the Lord created me a woman. No, it’s not that. It’s just that I’m sad about my life and my youth that have come and gone without my knowing how to live them really and truly as a woman.
** This quote is the last line of “Bahiyya’s Eyes.” Bahiyya has faith in Allah, and when she says that she does not regret that the Lord created her a woman, she demonstrates her belief that all that happens in life is in accordance with Allah’s will.
* “Only blood,” he said, “washes dishonor clean.”
** These words were spoken by Sayyid in “Mansoura” after his wife, Mansoura, is found dead after falling into a canal to escape Hindawi, Sayyid’s employer, who was trying to convince Mansoura to resume her affair with him
* “Father, you gave me a real beating tonight.”
** Hassan speaks these words at the end of “At the Time of the Jasmine.” Hassan has spent the day at the burial ceremony of his father, Hagg. Just before sleeping, Hassan thinks back on his relationship with his father and regrets not having spent more time developing it.
* The fact is there’s no joy for a girl in growing up, it’s just one disaster after another till you end up an old woman who’s good for nothing and who’s real lucky if she finds someone to feel sorry for her.
* (AWS, 1987; Page 8)
* There was no doubt but that the secret of my passion for her, my preoccupation with her, was due to the excitement that had aroused, through intense fear, desire within myself; an excitement that was sufficiently strong to drive the blood hotly through my veins whenever the memory of her came to me, thrusting the blood in bursts that made my heart beat widly, my limbs limp.
* (AWS, 1987; Page 71)
* An idea would obtrude itself upon me sometimes: did Cleopatra, the very legend of love, have sexual intercourse with her serpent after having given up sleeping with men, having wearied of amorous adventures with them so that her sated instincts were no longer moved other than by the excitement of fear, her senses no longer aroused other than by bites from a snake? And the last of her lovers had been a viper that had destroyed her.
* (AWS, 1987; Page 71)
* Perfect beauty is to be found only in woman,’ she said, ‘so yield to me and I shall let you taste undreamed of happiness…’
* (AWS, 1987; Page 75)

## External links

* Goodreads
* Amazon
* Sparknotes
* Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories