Citation: Abdulwahab, Y.O. & Akewula, A.O. (2025). Breaking the Chains of Patriarchy: Gendered Violence and Traumatic Retaliation in Jarīmatul Intiqām. Tasambo Journal of Language, Literature, and Culture, 4(2), 98-109. www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2025.v04i02.012.
BREAKING THE CHAINS
OF PATRIARCHY: GENDERED VIOLENCE AND TRAUMATIC RETALIATION IN JARĪMATUL INTIQĀM
By:
Yakub Olawale ABDULWAHAB
Department of Foreign Language Studies (Arabic
Unit)
Osun State University
yakub.abdulwahab@uniosun.edu.ng
08139770340
And
Dr. Adams Olufemi AKEWULA
Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies
University of Ibadan
olufemiadams2@gmail.com
Abstract
This
study critically explores how Jarīmatul Intiqām, an Algerian Arabic novel,
portrays mariticide, patricide, and suicide as gendered strategies of
resistance to trauma and systemic oppression. Drawing on postcolonial feminist
theory and trauma theory, the research examines how the female protagonists'
acts of fatal violence serve not only as personal responses to suffering but
also as political statements against entrenched patriarchal norms within
Algerian society. Through close textual analysis, the paper interrogates the
symbolic and narrative functions of these extreme acts, revealing how they
complicate conventional understandings of victimhood, agency, and justice.
Rather than depicting women as passive subjects, the novel frames their
violence as a means of reclaiming autonomy and articulating unspeakable pain.
At the same time, the ethical implications of representing such violence are
considered, particularly the tension between visibility, catharsis, and the
potential re-inscription of trauma. Ultimately, the study contends that
Jarīmatul Intiqām leverages narrative violence as a literary device to expose
the silences imposed on women’s experiences and to foreground the
socio-political dimensions of trauma and retaliation.
Keywords: Gendered violence,
trauma, resistance, mariticide, patricide, suicide, postcolonial feminism,
Algerian literature, Jarīmatul Intiqām
1.0 Introduction
In abusive contexts,
especially within structurally patriarchal societies, resistance is shaped not
only by gendered dynamics but also by intersecting factors such as religion,
class, and ethnicity (Hayes, 2013; Abraham, 2005). The strategies available to
women, whether physical retaliation, escape, or even suicide, are deeply
influenced by the socio-political and cultural forces that structure their
lived experiences. For instance, while “hitting back” is often viewed as an
overt and dangerous form of resistance, it remains a chosen path for some women
as a means of reclaiming power in relationships marked by coercive control
(Abraham, 2005; Johnson, 2006). In extreme cases, suicidal ideation or mariticide
may emerge not simply as acts of despair, but as the only avenues through which
women perceive they can exercise autonomy (Ferraro, 2006; Abraham, 2005).
This article
interrogates the literary depiction of such radical forms of resistance with a
special focus on mariticide, patricide, and suicide as narrated in the Algerian
novel titled Jarīmatul Intiqām. Set
within a socio-religious milieu that constrains women’s choices and
circumscribes their voice, the text provides a compelling exploration of how
gendered trauma can precipitate violent retaliation. Drawing on postcolonial
feminist theory and trauma studies, this study examines how the novel
reconfigures acts of violence as complex responses to structural oppression and
affective suffering. The objective is not to romanticize retaliatory violence,
but to understand its narrative function and the socio-cultural conditions that
render such acts conceivable, even necessary, in the quest for liberation.
The contextual
grounding of this analysis lies in Algeria’s patriarchal and religious
structures, which deeply influence gender roles and the limits of female
agency. Algeria, a postcolonial nation shaped by French occupation and a
protracted war of independence, continues to grapple with the residual tensions
between secularism and Islamism. The family code, heavily influenced by Islamic
law, reinforces patriarchal control over women’s autonomy in matters such as
marriage, inheritance, and mobility (Charrad, 2001).
Honour codes remain
central to gender relations, with women’s sexuality and obedience framed as
repositories of family and communal honor. Within this framework, both
mariticide and suicide are socially and religiously condemned. Suicide, in
particular, is forbidden in Islamic doctrine, viewed as a violation of divine
sovereignty over life (Khosrokhavar, 2002). Yet, within the narrative of Jarīmatul
Intiqām, suicide emerges not as a theological transgression but as a final,
autonomous act of resistance which marks the limits of endurance and the
failure of all other avenues of escape.
Thus, when women in
such contexts enact violence against patriarchal figures or themselves, their
actions transcend the personal to indict broader systems of gendered
oppression. The novel becomes a literary site where postcolonial, theological,
and feminist tensions collide, offering a compelling critique of the structural
conditions that render violent resistance both necessary and tragic.
2.0
Theoretical and Contextual Framework
Understanding Jarīmatul Intiqām as a narrative of
gendered resistance requires an integrative theoretical approach that situates
personal trauma within broader systems of power and historical subjugation.
This study draws on postcolonial feminism, trauma theory, and resistance theory
to interrogate how violence functions not merely as a reaction to
traumatisation and victimisation but as a complex, situated form of agency in
the lives of women embedded in patriarchal structures. These frameworks are
contextualized within Algeria’s socio-religious milieu, where women’s roles are
often shaped by entrenched gender norms, colonial legacies, and religious
discourse.
2.1 Postcolonial Feminism
Postcolonial feminism
provides a critical lens for analysing the intersection of gender, culture, and
colonial history in literary narratives. Scholars such as Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak (1988), Chandra Talpade Mohanty (2003), and Lila Abu-Lughod (2002) have
emphasised the necessity of centering women’s experiences in formerly colonized
societies without essentialising their identities. A critical and seminal
question asked by Spivak, which says “Can the subaltern speak?” obviously interrogates
how structural and epistemic violence can silence women’s voices, especially
when filtered through both colonial and patriarchal lenses. In Jarīmatul Intiqām, the female
protagonist’s retaliatory acts can be read as a reclamation of voice, a
breaking of the imposed silence that has historically defined the subaltern
woman.
Mohanty (2003)
critiques the homogenisation of “Third World women” in Western feminist
discourse, urging scholars to attend to specific cultural and political
contexts. This approach is particularly salient in examining Algerian women’s
resistance strategies, which cannot be disentangled from the country’s colonial
history, Islamic heritage, and socio-political upheavals. Abu-Lughod (2002)
likewise cautions against viewing Muslim women through binary tropes of
victimhood and agency. Rather, she advocates for ethnographically grounded
analyses that respect the multiplicity of women’s lived experiences and
resistance forms. This framework supports a nuanced reading of Jarīmatul Intiqām, allowing for an
interpretation that does not valorize violence but understands its emergence as
a situated act of defiance.
2.2 Trauma Theory
Trauma theory offers
insight into how personal and collective suffering are processed, remembered,
and narrated. Cathy Caruth (1996) describes trauma as an event that is not
fully assimilated at the time of its occurrence, returning belatedly in the
form of haunting memories and narrative fragmentation. This temporal
disjunction is evident in Jarīmatul
Intiqām, where the protagonist’s actions are preceded by deep psychological
ruptures and flashbacks that gesture toward unreconciled pain. Trauma here
becomes both a narrative and an affective structure, shaping the character’s
subjectivity and actions.
Judith Herman (1992)
emphasizes that trauma, especially in the context of domestic abuse and sexual
violence, is not merely an individual pathology but a political problem. She
argues that the silencing of trauma victims mirrors broader mechanisms of social
control. In patriarchal societies, where honour codes and gender roles delimit
acceptable female behaviour, speaking out can itself be a transgressive, even
revolutionary, act. The mariticide and patricide in Jarīmatul Intiqām thus emerge as responses to cumulative,
unacknowledged trauma. They rupture not only familial structures but also
narrative conventions that confine women to passive roles.
2.3 Resistance Theory
Theorists like Michel
Foucault and Judith Butler provide frameworks for understanding how power
operates through and against the body, and how resistance can be inscribed
within oppressive systems. Foucault (1978) contends that power is not only
repressive but productive; it creates subjectivities and possibilities for
resistance. In this light, the violent acts depicted in Jarīmatul Intiqām are not merely reactions but reconfigurations of
power relations. The protagonist does not simply escape subjugation; she
actively reclaims agency through the very structures that once confined her.
Judith Butler (1997)
extends this logic through her theory of performativity, arguing that identity
is constituted through repeated acts within a regulatory framework. Resistance,
then, involves the subversion of these acts. In the novel, the protagonist’s
engagement in taboo forms of violence, particularly against male figures of
authority, can be read as performative disruptions that challenge the gendered
scripts imposed on her. Her actions, though morally and legally fraught,
constitute a form of embodied resistance that undermines the hegemonic norms of
womanhood in her context.
3.0 Methodology
This study adopts a
qualitative literary analysis methodology, combining textual interpretation
with contextual reading to explore the representations of gendered violence,
trauma, and resistance in Jarīmatul
Intiqām. Qualitative methods in literary studies are particularly suited
for examining the symbolic, thematic, and narrative dimensions of texts,
allowing for a nuanced engagement with language, structure, and meaning
(Creswell & Poth, 2018; Eagleton, 1996). By analyzing the novel through
theoretical frameworks drawn from postcolonial feminism, trauma studies, and
resistance theory, this study situates the literary text as a site of
ideological struggle and sociopolitical commentary.
Textual
Interpretation
The first dimension
of the analysis is close textual reading, which focuses on the language,
structure, imagery, and symbolism deployed in the novel to articulate the
protagonist's traumatic experiences and acts of resistance. This approach is
informed by the principles of hermeneutics, which regard interpretation as a
dialogical process between the text and the reader (Ricoeur, 1981). Textual
interpretation entails not merely identifying literary devices but unpacking
how these devices construct meaning and communicate the unspeakable, particularly
about trauma, memory, and subjectivity (Caruth, 1996).
Following Barthes
(1977), the text is treated not as a closed, authorial object but as an open
field of meanings shaped by cultural codes, intertextual references, and
ideological subtexts. In the context of Jarīmatul
Intiqām, particular attention is paid to narrative fragmentation, shifting
perspectives, and temporal disjunctions that reflect the psychological ruptures
of the protagonist. This method allows the analysis to explore how literary
form mirrors content, particularly the fractured experience of trauma and the
disruptive nature of violent resistance.
Contextual
Reading
In tandem with close
reading, contextual analysis enables the study to situate the novel within its
broader historical, cultural, and socio-religious contexts. This includes
considering Algeria’s postcolonial condition, Islamic legal and moral
frameworks, and the persistence of patriarchal norms in shaping women’s lives
and their literary representations. Contextual reading, as advocated by Said
(1978) in Orientalism and by Spivak
(1988) in her work on subalternity, resists decontextualized universalism and
emphasizes the importance of locating texts within specific discursive and
material conditions.
This method also
draws on feminist literary criticism, which highlights the embeddedness of
gender in narrative structures and challenges the gendered hierarchies of
knowledge production (Moi, 1985; Showalter, 1985). In applying postcolonial
feminist theory, the analysis interrogates how cultural texts like Jarīmatul Intiqām both reflect and
resist the gender ideologies of their sociopolitical contexts. The novel is
thus not only read as a literary artefact but as a cultural document that both
shapes and is shaped by historical forces.
Furthermore, because
this study engages deeply with themes of violence and trauma, it is informed by
ethical considerations regarding representation. As noted by LaCapra (2001),
analyzing traumatic narratives requires sensitivity to the difference between
acting out and working through trauma, and an awareness of the risk of
aestheticizing suffering. The aim is not to romanticize the protagonist’s acts
of violence, but to understand them within a framework of constrained agency
and sociocultural silencing.
Data Source
and Analytical Strategy
The primary data for
this study is the novel Jarīmatul Intiqām
(title translated as The Crime of Revenge),
originally written in Arabic. The text is analysed in its original language to preserve
linguistic nuance and culturally embedded meanings, with translations provided
where necessary. The analytical strategy involves iterative reading and
thematic coding based on the three theoretical frameworks, which are postcolonial
feminism, trauma theory, and resistance theory. These codes guide the
identification of key themes such as voice and voicelessness, trauma and
memory, power and defiance, and the symbolic role of violence in gendered
resistance.
This methodological triangulation
ensures a robust, interdisciplinary approach to the research problem. The
ultimate goal is to foreground the novel’s narrative as both a personal and
political act of resistance, contributing to broader conversations about
gender, violence, and agency in postcolonial literary studies.
4.0
Analysis and Discussion
4.1 Mariticide as Gendered
Rebellion
In Jarīmatul Intiqām, the act of mariticide,
which is characterised by Amal's killing of her husband, is not merely a
spontaneous outburst of violence but a gendered and deeply symbolic rebellion
against patriarchal dominance and systemic domestic oppression. The figure of
the husband, Khalid, is constructed not only as a spouse but as a
representative of a larger oppressive structure that has silenced, exploited,
and psychologically annihilated Amal. Her final act of killing him is framed in
the text as both retributive and revelatory.
The moment of
confrontation between Amal and Khalid is charged with accumulated trauma. When
she exclaims, “سأقتلك ... سأقتلك أنت ... سأنتقم لكل الأرواح
البريئة التي قمتم بسفحها” (“I will kill you...
I will kill you! I will avenge all the innocent souls you have killed”), she
situates Khalid’s violence within a broader genealogy of collective suffering.
This moment transforms personal revenge into political resistance, positioning
Amal as a symbolic avenger of not only her own pain but of all victims of male
violence.
Khalid’s plea “أمل لا تتهوري ؛ أنا زوجك أتتذكرين”
(“Amal, don't be stupid. I am your husband, remember”) shows attempts to
reassert patriarchal authority by invoking the sanctity of marriage. But Amal’s
defiant response which says “لا أنت لست زوجي أنت قاتلي ؛ قتلتني وأنا حية” (“No, you are not my husband; you have
killed me. You have killed me alive”) rejects the legitimacy of this bond. She
names Khalid not as a husband but as a murderer, implicating both him and the
patriarchal lineage he represents. Her claim, “قتلتني وأنا
حية” (“You have killed me
alive”), metaphorically captures the soul-crushing nature of prolonged abuse—a
living death endured by many women in similar conditions.
When she eventually
pulls the trigger, Amal is described as acting “من غير إرادتها” (“without realizing it”), yet the
action is the culmination of conscious and unconscious resistance. Her
repetition of the words“أصبحت قاتلة أصبحت قاتلة” (“I have become a killer... I have
become a killer”) signals a profound ambivalence. On one hand, she internalises
the guilt of violating moral norms; on the other, she exposes the brutal irony
that survival within patriarchal systems often demands adopting the very
violence one seeks to escape.
Her later reflection
in prison further complicates the narrative. Speaking to Rahaf, Amal states: “وليس كلّ سيّئ في الحياة قد أراد أن يصبح سيّئا؛ فيوجد بعض السيّئين
أجبرتهم الحياة على أن يصبحو سيّئين قاسين بلا رحمة فلا ملامة عليهم” (“Not every bad person in life wanted
to become bad. Some people are forced by life to become harsh and merciless
without mercy. So, they are not to be blamed”). Here, Amal does not absolve
herself, but she reframes her transformation as the product of systemic
violence rather than inherent malevolence. Her words highlight the structural
constraints faced by women in repressive domestic arrangements where choices
are often illusions and rebellion the only form of self-preservation.
As Wilson (2002) and
Walker (2000) observe in empirical studies, cases of mariticide among abused
women often reflect not isolated pathology but social conditions of entrapment,
invisibility, and desperation. In Algeria, these dynamics are exacerbated by
cultural traditions that subordinate women within marriage and view them as
dependents or property (Hassan, 2021; Khan, 2020). Amal’s story exemplifies
this reality, showing that she is rendered voiceless and disposable in life,
and only through violence does she reclaim her narrative.
Themes of gender,
marriage, and violence are not an exception to the way Algerian literature
frequently reflects the nation's societal problems. The effects of patriarchy,
the difficulties faced by women in marriages, and the repercussions of gendered
violence, such as mariticide, have all been addressed by Algerian writers,
especially female writers. Numerous Algerian authors, both French and Arabic
nonfiction writers, have examined the psychological and societal elements that
contribute to such severe behaviors as well as the treatment of women in their
literature. The difficulties faced by women in patriarchal society are a major
issue in the writings of Algerian authors like Ahlam Mosteghanemi and Assia
Djebar. The brutality, oppression, and alienation that women face in their
relationships and in society at large are frequently portrayed by these
writers. Women are usually shown in their novels as having little influence
over their lives and being governed by the wishes of their husbands or other
male family members.
Particularly during
and after the Algerian War of Independence, Assia Djebar used her writing to
give voice to the oppression of Algerian women. She examines in her works how
women's circumstances are made worse by the intersections of colonialism, sexism,
and war, which frequently result in acts of resistance. The underlying conflict
between women's longing for independence and the limitations imposed by men is
a recurrent theme, even though she does not specifically address mariticide. In
her novel titled “Memory in the Flesh (Dhakirat al-Jasad)”, Ahlam Mosteghanemi
explores themes of betrayal, love, and power in the context of Algeria
following independence. Her depiction of women's resistance to male authority
captures the larger background of emotional upheaval and social pressures that
can trigger violent outbursts. Mariticide can be interpreted as a metaphor for
revolt against patriarchal domination in certain Algerian literary works. In
traditional Algerian society, the act of a woman killing her husband might be
seen as a symbolic rejection of the power and control that men exercise over
women. In addition to being a personal act of rebellion, it also makes a larger
statement against the power structure that limits the lives of women.
In literature, for
example, mariticide might be presented as the ultimate act of freedom for women
who have endured too much oppression and silence. Through the use of metaphor,
Algerian writers can delve into issues of pain, resistance, and liberation
while also exploring the inner depths of their female characters. Numerous
authors from Algeria examine how emotional and physical abuse in marriage
causes severe psychological harm to women. Extreme behavior, such as
mariticide, is frequently a manifestation of this trauma. Many of the female
protagonists in Algerian literature feel trapped and despondent, which is a
reflection of the difficulties that women encounter in society and real life,
since they have few legal and social options. Therefore, the way mariticide is
portrayed in literature goes beyond only the act of killing to include the
psychological process that precedes it. Through these novels, Algerian writers
highlight the necessity for social transformation and the acceptance of women's
rights and autonomy while criticizing the violent systems that push women to
commit such heinous crimes.
It becomes evident
that these extreme behaviors are a reaction to systematic oppression and
violence when looking at mariticide as a result of money marriage through the
prism of postcolonial feminism. To solve this problem, it is necessary to
address the underlying causes of money marriage, which include patriarchy,
poverty, and the colonial legacies that still marginalize women. To stop the
cycle of abuse and make sure that women are not pushed to such extreme
measures, interventions must include economic empowerment, legislative reforms,
and the establishment of support networks.
Ultimately, Jarīmatul Intiqām frames mariticide not
as moral collapse but as a tragic and complex act of resistance. Amal’s
defiance, while extreme, invites readers to interrogate the societal structures
that make such violence both thinkable and, in some cases, inevitable. The novel
challenges us to see beyond the criminal act and confront the conditions that
produced it, whether the conditions are deeply gendered, historically rooted,
or structurally upheld.
4.2
Patricide and the Collapse of Patriarchal Control
In Jarīmatul Intiqām, patricide is not
simply a criminal act, it rather becomes a symbolic rupture, a dramatic
unraveling of the authority that undergirds patriarchal order. The father
figure in the novel, Ahmad, is not only a man but a monolithic presence that
represents inherited violence, social order, and the intergenerational
transmission of trauma. His execution at the hands of his daughter, Amal,
constitutes a climactic rebellion: not only against familial abuse but also
against the very structure of authority he represents. It is through this act
of violence that Amal seeks to sever the chains of imposed identity and reclaim
a sense of autonomy lost to years of patriarchal domination.
In Algerian society,
the father occupies a position of entrenched power, both symbolic and
practical. As Heide (2013) explains, the father is often the upholder of
religious, cultural, and moral order. This elevated role positions patricide as
a profound act of defiance, challenging not merely familial hierarchy but also
the societal codes that sustain it. In Jarīmatul
Intiqām, Amal’s confrontation with her father becomes a microcosm of these
broader conflicts.
طرقت
الباب ؛ وما هي إلا بضع ثوان وإذا بوالدها يفتح الباب.....
قال
بدهشة : أممممممل !! أخرجت من السجن ؟؟! كيف ومتى ؟؟!!
دفعته
إلى الخلف بطريقه سريعة وأغلقت الباب من ورائها وأخرجت المسدس من خلف ظهرها وصوبته
نحوه. وقالت :
لقد
هربت يا أيها المسمى بأبي ؛ هربت فقط لقتلك ... لأن أمثالك لا يستحقون العيش لقد
دمرت حياتي .... أنت ضیعت مستقبلي ...... حرمتني من أعز ما أملك ..... أمي .....
رهف .... إياد ... والأسوء جعلت مني قاتلة ... نعم بسببك أصبحت قاتلة ؛. ..
-
أمل عزيزتي مابك ما الذي تقولينه ...... أنا والدك أنسيت
أنت
أبدا لم ولن تكون والدي .... حتى إنني أشمئز من كونك والدي أنت وببساطة أول شخص
أكرهه بحياتي كلها .أنا أكرهك يا أبي
ووجهت
السلاح على جبينه وضغطت على الزناد ورددت هذه من أجل أمي وكلّ ماعانته بسببك وضغطت
مرة أخرى وقالت هذه من أجل طفولتي التي سرقتها مني وضغطت
للمرة
الأخيرة وقالت هذه من أجل حاضري الذي ضاع من أجل احلامي التي ضاعت ومن أجل إياد
الذي غدر بسببك (Jarīmatul Intiqām, Page 80)
She knocked on the
door, and within a few seconds, her father opened it...
He said in
astonishment, Amal!!! Have you been released from prison? How and when?
She pushed him
backward quickly, closed the door behind her, pulled the gun from behind her
back, pointed it at him, and said:
I ran out of the prison, you who calls
himself my father, I escaped just to kill you because people like you don't
deserve to live. You destroyed my life. You ruined my future. You deprived me
of the dearest thing I had ... my mother ... Rahaf ... Iyad ... and worst of
all, you made me a killer. Yes, because of you, I became a killer. You forced
me to marry your nephew, knowing fully well the consequences of your actions,
but you never cared about me ... why ... you are not human ... a true human,
despite their ugliness and cruelty, has compassion, but you are nothing but a
monster in human form.
Amaal, my dear, what is wrong with you,
what are you saying ... I'm your father, remember?
Huh, my father ... you never were and
never will you be my father ... I even feel disgusted calling you my father.
You are simply the first person I have ever hated in my entire life. I hate you
father.
She pointed the
weapon at his forehead and pulled the trigger, saying:
This is for my mother and everything
she suffered because of you. She pulled the trigger again and said, this is for
my childhood that you stole away from me. She pulled the trigger one last time
and said, this is for my present that was lost, for my dreams that were
shattered, and for Iyad who was assassinated on your account. (Our translation)
Amal’s language is
seething with layered trauma especially resentment, grief, and betrayal. Her
monologue crystallises the psychological and existential toll of patriarchal
control. The act of killing her father is not only retribution for personal
suffering but a symbolic execution of the values he embodies: coercion,
silence, and dispossession. The sequence in which Amal pulls the trigger three
times with each time naming a loss, underscores the cumulative damage of
patriarchal violence: her mother’s suffering, her stolen childhood, and her
derailed present. Each bullet becomes a metaphorical severing from a life
defined by her father’s power.
Postcolonial feminist
scholars have long drawn attention to how patriarchal systems intersect with
economic and cultural structures to subjugate women. Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2005)
argues that practices such as money marriage reduce women to transactional commodities,
erasing their subjectivity. In Amal’s case, being forced into a marriage with
her cousin becomes a pivotal trauma, echoing the systemic nature of patriarchal
violence. Her father's actions are not aberrations but reflections of a social
norm in which female agency is suppressed in the name of family honor and
economic convenience.
"لقد
أرغمتني على الزّواج من ابن أخيك وأنت تعلم جيدا عواقب فعلتك لكنك أبدا لم تكترث
لأمري لماذا ... لمااااذا .... أنت لست إنسان.... فالإنسان رغم قبحه وسوءه وقسوته
رحيم ؛ أما أنت فلست إلا وحش بصفة إنسان"
"You forced me to marry your nephew, knowing fully well
the consequences of your actions, but you never cared about me ... why ... you
are not human ... a true human, despite their ugliness and cruelty, has
compassion, but you are nothing but a monster in human form.” (Jarīmatul
Intiqām, p. 80).
This confrontation
invokes what Daly (1988) identifies as the “symbolic severing” that patricide
can represent in postcolonial literature which is regarded as a decisive break
with the oppressive past. Amal’s act is not merely personal revenge; it is a
desperate reconstitution of power in her own image. As Brac de la Perrière
(2003) notes, when young and female generations in Algeria encounter the rigid
norms imposed by authoritarian fathers, their rebellion, even when rare, often
symbolizes a broader socio-political rupture. Thus, Amal’s patricide is legible
both as a personal reckoning and as a socio-cultural critique.
The complicity of the
family unit further complicates this dynamic. Amal’s suffering is not inflicted
by her father alone; rather, her silence and powerlessness are perpetuated by a
familial system that upholds the father’s authority. Postcolonial feminism
urges us to consider such complicity not as passive acceptance but as
structural conditioning. Familial trauma, in this sense, becomes
intergenerational, with patriarchal values passed down and normalized. Amal’s
mother, Rahaf, though a victim herself, could not prevent the forced marriage;
her silence, perhaps conditioned by similar patriarchal pressures, becomes part
of the apparatus that sustains Amal’s suffering.
Patricide, in this
context, emerges not as an act of madness but as an extreme form of resistance
which is also known as an act that makes visible the silent violences endured
by many women within authoritarian families. Amal’s transformation from victim
to agent of justice unsettles the traditional narrative of daughterly
obedience. It also complicates our understanding of morality: is her act evil,
or is it the only language available in a world that has consistently silenced
her pain?
Through Amal’s
character, Jarīmatul Intiqām stages
the collapse of patriarchal control as both personal liberation and cultural
indictment. The father’s death is not merely an end, nit is a metaphorical
reset, a clearing of the old order to make space for something unspoken,
unnamed, and perhaps still unfolding.
4.3.
Suicide as the Final Act of Resistance
Amal’s suicide in Jarīmatul Intiqām functions not merely
as an individual act of despair but as a radical, if tragic, form of agency
which is an ultimate protest against the intersecting structures of gendered
violence, sociocultural repression, and spiritual alienation. In a context
where Islamic teachings unequivocally condemn suicide as a grave sin where
Allah says: “Do not kill yourselves, for
God is merciful to you” (Qur’an 4:29), her death dramatises the
irreconcilable conflict between lived trauma and theological interdiction. The
religious prohibition, undergirded by Hadith literature and juristic consensus,
renders suicide ḥarām, a moral and communal violation that
stains familial honor and spiritual identity. Yet, for Amal, her act is not
reducible to sinfulness or surrender, it is articulated in the narrative as a
sovereign declaration of exhaustion and resistance.
Her final monologue,
laden with metaphoric intensity and existential weariness, underscores the
psychological toll of gender-based violence and the futility of resistance
within a patriarchal order:
- أظن أنه آن الأوان لأغادرك يا أيها الحياة
فلا أنت ترغبين بوجودي ولا أنا أرغب بالبقاء ؛ خارت كلّ قواي فما عدت أقاوم صعابك
وعقباتك؛ إني الآن أعلن استسلامي ... فهينيئا لك يا أيها الحياة لقد فزتي أخيرا
...
ثم قامت بوضع السلاح على جانب جبينها وضغطت
على الزناد ؛ لم تتوقف عن الضغط حتى خارت كل قواها وسقطت على الأرض غارقة بدمائها (Jarīmatul Intiqām, Page 80)
“I think
it's time for me to depart you, oh life! Neither do you want me here, nor do I
wish to stay. My strength has failed me, and I can no longer resist your
challenges and obstacles. I now declare my surrender... Congratulations, oh
life, you have finally won. Then she placed the weapon against the side of her
head and pulled the trigger; she did not stop pressing until all her strength
gave out, and she collapsed to the ground, drenched in her own blood.”
This climactic act
raises a profound question: Is Amal surrendering to life’s brutality, or is she
engaging in a final assertion of autonomy, reclaiming power through the only
choice left to her? Abraham (2005) and Ferraro (2006) argue that suicidal
ideation in abusive contexts emerges from a space of total isolation and loss
of agency where death becomes the only domain a woman can control. In this
reading, suicide is not escape but defiance, an act of resistance to trauma where the very illegitimacy of the act signals
its power to disrupt moral, religious, and social orders.
Furthermore, her
suicide, while appearing as defeat, becomes a paradoxical assertion of
resistance, one that parallels the philosophical quandaries posed by the absurdist
Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus.
Camus famously wrote, “There is but one
truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” His absurdist
reflections suggest that the contemplation of suicide arises when the search
for meaning confronts a silent, indifferent universe. While Camus stops short
of endorsing suicide, his work resonates deeply in postcolonial Algeria, where
political disillusionment and social fragmentation fuel existential anxieties
similar to Amal’s. Just as Meursault in L’Étranger
meets death with indifference, Amal walks toward it with a fatigued clarity.
Her suicide mirrors what Camus described as the rebellion against the absurd: “It is essential to die unreconciled and not
of one’s own free will.”
Similarly, Yasmina
Khadra’s The Swallows of Kabul and
Rachid Boudjedra’s La Répudiation
portray suicide or suicidal ideation as both symptomatic of and responsive to
institutionalized despair. Khadra’s women, like Amal, are crushed under
religious authoritarianism and domestic tyranny. Boudjedra, more explicitly,
critiques Algerian patriarchy, portraying female protagonists who contemplate
suicide as the only escape from suffocating moral expectations and social
erasure. In these texts, suicide emerges as a paradoxical liberation: a refusal
to participate in a life designed to silence them.
Amal’s death thus
engages the contradictions of Islamic morality, Algerian social convention, and
feminist protest. Though Islam rejects suicide, her act can be interpreted as a
sacrilegious ijtihād, a
reinterpretation of suffering not through jurisprudence but through blood. Her
death is not martyrdom, nor is it madness; it is a loud silence, echoing a
tradition of Algerian literature where the body becomes the battleground of
resistance, and death the final weapon.
In sum, Amal’s
suicide is a complex narrative device: a site where gendered trauma, spiritual
disillusionment, and cultural critique intersect. It compels readers to
re-evaluate the binaries of sin and sacrifice, victimhood and autonomy. As
Perlmutter (2002) notes, Algerian literature often uses suicide to explore the
“psychic costs of repression,” and in Jarīmatul
Intiqām, this cost is borne, with chilling clarity, by a woman who chooses
to speak through her death when life no longer allows her voice.
4.4
Resistance, Agency, and the Ethics of Violence
The acts of
mariticide, patricide, and suicide presented in Jarīmatul Intiqām form a triad of resistance strategies, exposing
the complexities of agency within systems of gendered violence. Each act, while
horrifying in its consequence, embodies a reclamation of narrative power in a
world where the female subject is systematically silenced. These acts do not
come forth from isolated incidents of trauma but from a continuum of structural
oppression ranging from familial, religious, legal, and cultural that leaves no
viable channels for protest except through transgressive rupture.
Violence in this
context is depicted not as gratuitous, but as a narrative device that confronts
readers with the ethical weight of silence and complicity. Amal’s choices
reflect what Spivak (1988) refers to as the “epistemic violence” of systems
that preclude subaltern women from speaking in intelligible or authorized ways.
Her retaliation, though ethically fraught, becomes the only language available
to articulate an otherwise unspeakable trauma. As Butler (2004) argues, agency
under constraint often takes paradoxical forms, and the ethics of resistance
must grapple with the moral ambiguity of actions born in conditions of
unfreedom.
This synthesis of
violence and voice thus poses a central question: Is violence a reclamation of
subjectivity, or a tragic inevitability? In Jarīmatul
Intiqām, it appears as both. The characters are neither idealized heroes
nor mere victims; rather, they are agents navigating impossible choices in a
patriarchal society that denies them recognition until they transgress. Their
violent acts disrupt normative moral frameworks, not to glorify destruction,
but to reveal the absence of alternatives. As Cavarero (2009) notes, the act of
narrating violence is itself a political gesture, capable of restoring dignity
to those whose suffering is often ignored or pathologized.
Furthermore, the
ethical implications of representing trauma through retaliation must be
considered with care. Literature that centers gendered violence risks either
sensationalizing pain or reducing women’s resistance to reactive rage. However,
Jarīmatul Intiqām resists this
flattening. It offers a textured portrayal of women’s emotional and
psychological landscapes, portraying violence as a last resort rather than a
fetishized spectacle. The novel asks readers not to condone violence, but to
confront the structures that render it thinkable.
Ultimately, the
ethics of such representation lie in its power to provoke reflection,
discomfort, and accountability. By making readers complicit witnesses to trauma
and retaliation, the narrative forces a reckoning with the sociocultural norms
that perpetuate gender-based oppression and, in doing so, reframes violence not
as a solution, but as an indictment.
5.0
Conclusion
Jarīmatul Intiqām offers a compelling literary
exploration of women’s resistance to trauma through extreme acts such as mariticide,
patricide, and suicide. These acts, while morally and legally transgressive,
function as narrative strategies through which unspeakable trauma is both
articulated and politicized. In the absence of institutional justice and social
empathy, violence becomes the only language available to the silenced, yet a powerful
means of reclaiming voice and asserting agency.
This analysis
contributes to feminist literary criticism by foregrounding how gendered
violence and retaliatory acts are intricately linked to narrative subjectivity.
It extends the discourse of postcolonial feminism by situating women's
resistance within the context of Algerian sociopolitical realities, revealing
how postcolonial literature functions as both testimony and critique. The novel
serves not merely as a mirror to violence but as a site of contestation, challenging
religious dogma, patriarchal authority, and ethical complacency.
Future research could
benefit from comparative studies across Maghrebi literatures, exploring how
female resistance to trauma is depicted in Tunisian, Moroccan, and Libyan
narratives. Such inquiry might illuminate regional patterns of resistance and
resilience, while also identifying divergent cultural responses to gendered
oppression. Additionally, interdisciplinary studies linking literature with
law, psychology, or social work may bridge the gap between fictional
representations and real-life implications of trauma, providing critical
insights into how narrative can inform advocacy, policy, and healing. In the
end, Jarīmatul Intiqām compels us to
confront the limits of empathy, the ethics of representation, and the dangerous
silences that literature dares to break.
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