Dynamics of Sexual Victimisation: A Monolithic Portrayal of the Male Character in Sara Shaarawi’s Niqabi Ninja

Abstract

Feminists view sexual violence and harassment as an exhibition of men’s patriarchal control over female sexuality. Sexual harassment of females by the male gender is particularly considered an important aspect of women’s oppression as it reduces women to the status of an object, purposely structured to satisfy men’s sexual craving. Sara Shaarawi’s Niqabi Ninja delineates the Niqab (face veil) and other forms of Islamic dress code for women as integral to the Islamic injunction that symbolises modesty and physical rectitude. Unfortunately, such a dress pattern does not preclude women from being susceptible to sexual abuse. This paper set out to examine the portrayal of the male gender in relation to the treatment of women’s sexuality, particularly the reduction of women to sexual objects for men’s gratification. Using radical feminism as the theoretical frame and adopting a content analysis approach, Sara Shaarawi’s Niqabi has been incisively interrogated to unearth layers of sexual assault that women are subjected to in the hands of men as evident in Cairo, Egypt. It concludes that the depiction of sexual harassment of the female gender in Shaarawi’s Niqabi Ninja presents a monolithic portrayal of men as sexual beasts. Thus, a more balanced portraiture of the male gender may be more appropriate as it ensures that female writers are not guilty of the charges that has been laid against male writers.