Syrian Brides is a debut from Anna Halabi, a Syrian who currently lives in Germany with her family. This book contains 14 short stories about Syrian women, all of them married women or brides to be who lives in Syrian.
I honestly don't know much about culture in Syria, and reading this collection of short stories enlightens me. From some articles I read, patriarchal culture in Syria makes women in the second classes. Likewise, in this anthology, women must submit under the hands of their husbands. In the story of The Groom's Miracle, it is told of a wife who was locked up by her husband, was afraid she might stray if he let her out. Also in the The Groom's Hand which depicts a light-handed husband but always compensates luxury items for his wife.
The issue of polygamy was also discussed in one of the short story entitled The Bride's Maid. Khadija is 7 months pregnant and wants a maid. When her husband returned with a beautiful girl, Khadija was worried. Until then her husband wanted to marry the girl on the grounds of maintaining their honor.
I understand that Syrian cultures are influenced by Arabic culture, so does about the marriage. If you curious about that, you should read this book. This collection of short stories gives readers a unique insight into the Syrian culture. Although generally raised about household issues that are gloomy, but there are also stories that make me smiles and even laugh. My favorite is Nobody's Bride, about a clever woman who robbed two sellers at about the same time.
I hope this anthology can be translated into Indonesian. But you can buy the paperback on Amazon and the digital version in Google Play Hopefully Anna can continue to produce other work about Syrian culture. Thank you Anna for providing me this book.
Syrian Brides
Anna Halabi
132 pages (Kindle edition)
Petra Books
November, 2018
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