Tattoo - “Distant View of a Minaret”
Alifa Rifaat writes, “The last time she had made such an attempt, so desperate was she at this critical moment that she had dug her fingernails into his back compelling him to remain inside her. He had given a shout as he pushed her away and slipped from her: ‘Are you mad, woman? Do you want to kill me?’ It was as though he had made an indelible tattoo mark of shame deep inside her, so that whenever she thought of the incident she felt a flush coming to her face.” The rhetoric tattoo underscores the woman’s mortification which is attributed to being passionate with her husband. Had the husband responded positively to her desires, she would not be embarrassed. She recognizes that being passionate is an indicator of disproportionate madness.
Clouds - “Telephone Call”
The narrator asserts, “Soon the call to dawn prayers will float like clouds of sound across the sleeping city. I shall hear it from different mosques that surround our building. The calls will follow one another not quite synchronized.” The allegorical cloud alludes to the loudness of the call which is intended to awake people from their sleep so that they can go to prayers. A floating sound would guarantee that all the sleepers will perceive it. However, for the narrator, the call will find her alert for she is not asleep.
