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brutally, psychologically and physically. In Wounding Words, 
Hayate who is a radical metaphor of freedom in the conservative 
Tunisian society transcends religious barriers to fight for and 
demand the liberation of women who were working under 
indecorous conditions in textile factories. In her activist 
consciousness, she defends a female victim who does not feel the 
pain of losing her husband to adultery and promiscuity. In both 
texts, the writers create awareness of the damaging effects of 
oppressive patriarchy on the wellbeing of women. They call for an 
attitudinal change that is gender friendly and guarantees the 
fundamental human rights of women which are assured in the law. 

 Keywords: Dehumanisation, Protest, Violations, Law, Liberation 

Introduction
  During the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, between 1715 
and 1789 precisely, an intellectual movement sprang up 
emphasizing reason, individualism, scepticism and science. The 
period also signified the time women began to stand up for their 
rights and benefits in the society. They began to assert that all 
persons were born equal and there should not be any 
discrimination based on gender. The enlightenment age was a 
period of female consciousness. It was a time when women began 
to write to air their views. They wrote to express their 
dissatisfaction with the plights of women in many European 
societies. Female writers who engage in such quests for liberation 
are called feminists. In other words, a feminist is someone who 
supports the idea that women should have the same rights and 
opportunities as men – someone who believes that the 
fundamental human rights of women should be respected.

  Charles Nnolim, in his Feminism in African Literature 
views “feminism as a movement and ideology that urges in simple 
terms, the recognition of the claims of women for equal rights with 
men in legal, political, economic, social and marital 

Patriarchy as Infraction in Evelyne Accad's Wounding Words 
and Neshani Andreas' The Purple Violet of Oshaantu

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi
Department of English and Literary Studies,

Enugu State University of Science and Technology
Enugu, Nigeria 

&
Ethel Ngozi Okeke

Department of English and Literary Studies,
Enugu State University of Science and Technology

Enugu, Nigeria
&

Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo
Department of English,

Chrisland University, Abeokuta

 Abstract
Feminist writers protest against dehumanisation, political 
enslavement, and social oppression which are violations of 
fundamental human rights guaranteed by the law. Existing 
feminist literatures of African focus privilege a utilitarian and 
collaborative approach to the plights of women in Africa. Using 
Evelyne Accad's Wounding Words and Neshani Andreas' The 
Purple Violet of Oshaantu, this study interrogates patriarchal 
subjugation immanent in African cultural spaces. Andrea 
Dworkin's radical feminism is employed to account for the 
characters' radical actions that are geared towards a holistic 
liberation of the woman from the shackles of oppressive 
patriarchy. In The Purple Violet of Oshaantu,Kauna's refusal to 
mourn her late abusive husband marks the height of radical 
protest of gender discrimination and oppression. Not even the 
conspicuousness of the fruits of her marriage to the late husband 
was enough to persuade her. She is abused by the late husband, 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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The fundamental belief behind feminist theory 
is  that  from the beginning of human 
civilization, women have been given a 
secondary status by masculine dominated 
social discourse and western philosophical 
tradition.  The history of every civilization 
shows that  women have always been 
subordinated to a position where they have no 
means to re-claim their unique identity unless 
and until they re-visit the history, explore it and 
finally re-establish it through their own 
experiences and insights (3373).

It is worthwhile to note that the term “feminism” was not there 
originally. It emerged much later to be used to describe women 
who come together to examine the prevailing societal ideas about 
women, assert women's roles in the society, discuss how women 
are being treated by fathers, husbands, boyfriends and brothers, 
and seek a shift from the norm. Feminist writers, therefore, began 
to protest against dehumanisation, political enslavement, 
discrimination, imbalances and social oppression. They began to 
demand equal rights for both male and female genders. This began 
to raise serious questions about cultural orientations and 
traditional stereotypes that had created gender imbalances.  
Margaret Waltersaffirms that sense of individuality which is often 
mistaken for misandrism. She argues, “I only know that people 
call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate 
me from a doormat or a prostitute”(1).

  Another factor that prompted women into writing was the 
belief that men were not in the right position to write exhaustively 
on the life of women; and even when they do, they cannot or may 
not write effectively on the subject. Take the issue of barrenness: 
the major problem that a woman faces in the world especially in 
Africa is the pain of not being able to bring forth a child from her 

situation''(135). For Modupe MaryKolawole:
Feminismis a rejection of inferiority and a 
striving for recognition; it seeks to give a 
woman a sense of self as a worthy, effectual, 
and contributing human being. It is a reaction 
against such negative stereotypes that are 
targeted at women” (29).

She further points out that feminism is based on the theory of 
individuality, recognition of the personhood of women and equal 
opportunity for development (37). From its etymology, “femina” 
(meaning female), feminism conveys the ideology of womanhood 
– that is, any organized social or political philosophy about 
women. Does the world or the different societies of the world have 
a concept of womanhood? Is there a body of ideas about the female 
gender? The word, “feminism” entered the Oxford English 
Dictionary in 1894, long after the intellectual movement of the 
Enlightenment era as mentioned earlier, but ever before then, there 
had been an ideology of women in the Western world as well as in 
other societies of the world. 

  According to R. Bossan, feminism is, “a socio-political 
awareness that stirs up in women the agitation for equality in all 
forms of rights and privileges between sexes” (230). Bossan 
believes that feminism embodies the idea that it is necessary to 
struggle against the oppression of women on the social, economic 
and ideological planes. The struggle comes in various forms and 
with different objectives, which is why Goring, Hawthorn and 
Mitchel describe feminism as “a broad church, one within which 
many different emphases and persuasions … can be found.” Thus, 
as an ideology of women's emancipation, feminism has enough 
rooms to accommodate the various types of feminisms.According 
to Javeed Ahmad Raina:

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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“exposing the sexist tragedy of women's history, protesting the on-
going degradation of women, celebrating their physical and 
intellectual capabilities, and above all, unfolding a revolutionary 
vision of role” (16). It is left to the creative writers, male and 
female alike, to explore this new awareness, this new image of 
women's sensibilities, possibilities and realities and produce 
works which the modern African woman can relate to. 

  With the affordance of Evelyne Accad's Wounding Words 
and Neshani Andreas' The Purple Violet of Oshaantu, this study, 
therefore, interrogates patriarchal subjugation and objectification 
of women as immanent in African cultural spaces. It also gives 
reasons why oppressed women often react to subjugation in 
extreme ways. Finally, it creates awareness about the plights of 
oppressed women and discourages such oppressive tendencies 
streaming down from patriarchal structures so as to encourage a 
harmonious co-existence between men and women in the society.

Andrea Rita Dworkin's Feminism
  Andrea Rita Dworkin, a radical feminist author, speaker, 
and activist, is best known for her scathing criticism of 
pornography and prostitution and for being vocal in condemning 
oppressive tendencies of patriarchal institutions and cultures. In 
her 1983 speech entitled “I Want a 24-HourTruce in Which There 
is No Rape”, she is acclaimed to have declared thus: “The power 
exercised by men, day to day, in life is power that is 
institutionalised. It is protected by law. It is protected by religion 
and religious practice…” (1). In a nutshell, Dworkin's writings are 
purposed to assert the universality of oppressive patriarchy and 
decry the injustices in institutionalized and normalized sex-based 
harm against women. This paper is therefore mainly anchored on 
her viewpoints. For instance, she sees pornography as an 
oppressive practice which enables suppressive men to possess 
women as objects and commodities. Her radical views are 

womb, a feat that no man can perform. The pain is great if she is 
denied this function and this is why the theme of barrenness is 
explored by many African writers, particularly the female ones. A 
wife is more often betrayed and abandoned by her husband if she 
does not have a child. Therefore, the desire to be pregnant, to 
procreate is an overpowering one in the life of a woman. She is 
ready to do anything to have a child, single or married. To the 
women writers, it is practically impossible for men to adequately 
capture, refract and reflect women's conditions in their writings. 
Women writers believe that it is only the person who wears the 
shoes that knows where it pinches the most. They believe that no 
man can adequately write on the feelings of a barren woman, a 
prostitute, a divorced woman, a widow or a pregnant woman. It is 
only a woman that can express these feelings through writing. 
Although a few male writers have written on feminist issues, they 
have often done so to portray how women are politically enslaved 
in a particular society but have failed to capture the inner feelings 
of women.

  Women have, therefore, enriched the existing knowledge 
base by writing about their own experiences within the African 
context. It is deducible from Flora Nwapa's works that a woman's 
role in Africa is crucial for the survival and progress of the race. 
This is of course true of all women across the globe, be they black 
or white. In most of her works, Nwapa tries to project a more 
balanced image of African womanhood. Recent changes in 
Nigeria from the Civil War era, economic changes, and an 
emphasis on the education of women, have affected men's views 
about women. Women have started to redefine themselves; they 
have started projecting themselves as they feel they should be 
projected.More than anything else, Nwapagives examples of the 
crucial roles Igbo women play in their traditional communities. 
The African female creative writers arevery much alive in Africa 
today and occupy an important place, breaking new grounds by 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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reality of the choices open to Kauna and the path that she takes to 
understand and deal with her predicament. Africa is replete with 
stories of marital abuse which often have men as preys and women 
as victims. 

  Mee Ali is married with four children and enjoys her 
marriage because she married a man who loves and adores her. For 
her, marriage should be enjoyed and not endured and it is not 
worth staying with an unfaithful husband. She fears for her friend 
and does all that she can to bring attention to her friend's 
plight.MeeKauna is also married with five children and her 
marriage is not a happy one because her husband in addition to 
beating her every now and then also cheats on her without trying to 
hide it. She sees marriage as something that should be endured and 
even though she no longer loves her husband, she has chosen to 
stay with him. Marriage in the traditional sense is the union of a 
man and woman that is based on mutual consent and love. When 
love and consent suffer inequality in marriage, violence becomes 
the order of the day.  

  The third woman, Mee Maita, who attends church with Ali 
and Kauna, believes that whatever joy that is to be derived from 
marriage is in the first few years. After that, the honeymoon is over 
and a woman should accept whatever comes her way. Mee Ali and 
MeeKauna are best friends. In their friendship, Kauna finds respite 
from most of her marital problem. Mee Ali and her husband, Tate 
Michael help in saving Kauna from many a fight with her husband, 
Tate Shange.Other women, notably Kauna's aunt, speak for Kauna 
but the reality is that Kauna's options are few. As a married 
woman, she cannot go back to her parents' house. Kauna's aunt 
tells her that the ball is in her court and she can decide whatever it 
is that seems best to her. Her mother's advice to her is to appreciate 
the man that God has given her. With time and prayer, Shange will 
change. She has little sympathy for her daughter, believing that 

privileged in this study because they reflect on domestic 
imperatives and marital sexuality. The central concern in 
Dworkin's work is re-evaluating the culture and politics of the 
male gender against the female. She does this by creating a prism 
of men's sexual violence against women in a patriarchal context. 
Her concept of radical feminism is evident in her examination of 
subjects historically written or described from men's perspective. 
She goes further to theorise the sexual politics of intelligence, fear, 
courage, and integrity and weave it around presumed biological 
superiority (Dworkin: 1987, 127-128). She, indeed, submits that 
male supremacist political and cultural ideology is made manifest 
in rape, battery, prostitution and pornography (Dworkin: 
1976:25).

  Consequently, the authors foregrounded in this study create 
male characters who violently abuse the dignity of women within 
the marital space, and immediately evoke a condemnation of 
sexual violence against women. In Neshani Andreas' The Purple 
Violet of Oshaantu, Kauna suffers physical, psychological and 
sexual abuses in the hands of her late husband. She loses her 
pregnancies due to constant beatings. Similarly, in Evelyn Accad's 
Wounding Words, Hayate becomes an advocate in a largely 
conservative society defending oppressed and abused women.

The Nuptial Entrapment in the Purple Violet of Oshaantu
  ThePurple Violet of Oshaantu is set in a village in northern 
Namibia. It reflects on a number of issues – marriage and 
widowhood, economic status of women, reproduction rights, 
domestic violence, religion, and (dis)inheritance rights – to 
critique an oppressive patriarchal system. In this novel, the author 
exploresthe different views on marriage held by various women. 
This is a story about a young woman called Kauna. Kauna's story 
is narrated by her older friend Mee Ali, who unlike Kauna enjoys a 
good marriage. Kauna's husband is abusive. The novel is about the 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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to her dead husband. Instead, she is vocal about her suffering in the 
marriage: “Well, I'm sorry you all feel uncomfortable about my 
behaviour, but I cannot pretend. I cannot lie to myself and 
everybody else in this village”(34).Kauna realises her victimhood 
and the need to fight for emancipation. It is quite ironical that a 
wife loses her husband and all she feels is resentment instead of a 
solemn feeling of loss. 

 Kauna's attitude is realistic because human beings naturally 
respond to the effects of actions. While positive actions are likely 
to get positive responses, negative actions get negative responses. 
Her husband gave her doses of negative actions while alive and 
she will not pretend to respond with positive actions in his death. 
In fact, she relishes the wind of freedom she feels. She goes further 
to say, “...all know how I was treated in my marriage. Why should I 
cry? For what? For my broken ribs? For my baby, the one he killed 
inside me while beating me? For what'' (53)? This is a very radical 
break from the required traditional demeanour that would have her 
pretend or show some squeamishness even contrary to her true 
emotions. It is at this point of rebellion to the existing order and 
self-assertion that she begins for the first time to imagine herself as 
an individual, and not as a woman in relation to a man.

   This and a combination of other things make Shange's 
family angry withKauna, especially when she tells them that she 
doesn't know anything about Shange's money. They suspect that 
she is keeping the money for herself. After the funeral rites, they 
ask Kauna and her children to leave the house. Kauna goes almost 
too willingly because she is ready to live a life, ready to start afresh 
as a free woman. Kauna's refusal to mourn her husband among 
other acts of defiance shows that she has, finally, got a bit of her 
self-worth back. This is a radical protest which signals 
psychological freedom from oppression. Shenge's family's 
attitude to Kauna's pains says something critical about the 

whatever has happened to Kauna is her own fault and she should 
not bring shame to their family by leaving Shange. This is 
essentially the goal of oppressive patriarchy, to perpetually keep 
women subjugated. In her mother's thinking, a good wife must 
stay to make her marriage work irrespective of the kind of 
circumstances surrounding such a marriage. This is what women 
in many cultures of the world are trained to imbibe religiously. 
They are made to believe that choosing to leave the marriage to 
protect themselves from harm is akin to disgrace. Hence, many 
women have had to suffer in their marriages until such marriages 
take their lives.Dworkin's Feminism challenges depraved 
structures that oppress women and dent their dignity. It is quite 
ironical that a woman is urging a fellow woman to continue 
enduring victimisation. On the surface, one might see culpability 
in Kauna's mother's advice but the fact is that she is only 
responding to the culture of subservience that she has learnt. 
Oppressive patriarchy uses control to subjugate women. The 
oppressive system makes a male-inclined system that is called 
culture and uses it to stifle the voice of women. They create gender 
identities and roles to shortchange women.The village community 
and the church are both unsympathetic. But there is an 
acknowledgement of Kauna's suffering when almost all the 
village women,including children, join hands in preparing 
Kauna's large farm land for the planting season. They all sing 
different songs of victory,friendship, sorrow and love.

  When Shange dies all of a sudden, accusing fingers are 
pointed atKauna, especially since she does not cry or show any 
sign of bereavement. She only keeps telling everybody that 
Shange just came home and did not touch the food she had 
prepared. Mee Ali does not like the fact that Kauna does not mourn 
the death of her husband and when she tries to reason with her, 
Kauna retorts that she has no interest in pretending she misses her 
husband. Kauna does not cry and refuses to speak a word of tribute 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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community to perceive herself as a victim in her marital 
relationship. She is rather expected to accept her experience as 
something normal within the marriage institution. There are, at 
any rate, several female characters whose voices, friendship, and 
support remind Kauna of her worth and also provide respite, 
however brief, from her situation. The latter help her to regain her 
dignity and humanity. She soon realises that she is a being with 
right to personal thoughts and perception, a being with intentional 
capacity to reason and make good and bad decisions which she 
and she alone should be responsible for. Kauna regains her 
freedom. On the other hand, the vicious attitudes of the enablers of 
the patriarchal cultures infringe on her right to personal dignity 
guaranteed by the natural law and that of the United Nations. 
There are many vulnerable women in Kauna's shoes in many parts 
of the world. Many of them find it difficult to find and assert their 
voices for the fear of being labeled disrespectful women. Many 
thanks to the different waves of the Feminist Movements which 
have consistently helped women to speak out on different cultural 
issues affecting them as a social group. They have over the years 
won the right to vote and be voted for in many progressive climes – 
even though this right is slowly being enforced. They have also 
won the battleon segregation in the corporate and academic 
worlds, social organisations, to mention but a few. However, the 
road to the paradise of gender equality is many miles away. The 
awareness created by movements like the Me-Too has also helped 
tremendously in foregrounding the plights of women in many 
strata of the society. Kauna's experiences constitute a definition of 
women in many oppressive cultures of the world.  

Womanhood as Solace inEvelyne Accad'sWounding Words
  The novel is a clear autobiographical exploration of 
women's concerns in the contemporary Tunisia. Evelyne Accad is 
a feminist writer born in Beirut. As a Lebanese-American with 
Arab root, Evelyne's perception of her ancestral society and the 

oppressive patriarchal culture in many parts of the world 
especially Africa which sees culpability only in the woman in 
every instance of nuptial hitch. Even when it is clear that a woman 
has done her very best to make her marriage work, the hegemonic 
culture has a funny way of shifting blames to her. Kauna is not 
ready to continue living with the identity of servitude. She has 
been pushed to the wall and she is now turning to fight back. She is 
grateful to her friend, Mee Ali, who has stood solidly by her during 
her stay with Shange. Thus, psychologically liberated, Kauna 
confesses how she has desired and always wished she were 
married to Tate Michael, Mee Ali's husband. Aside from the fact 
that Tate Michael is very loving and caring, she feels that she 
deserves the best of all men. She feels that she is supposed to have 
married a good man as a reward for keeping her virginity till 
marriage. But the reverse has just been the case with her. She is at 
last able to express her frustration at respecting a sexuality code 
that fails to compensate her with an equally chaste, kind, and 
caring husband. This is one instance of inequality in codes of 
many patriarchal cultures. What favours a man will be coined not 
to favour a woman. While it is cultural and normal for Kauna to 
keep her virginity, the idea of chastity is not even conceived for a 
man let alone being ethically enforced. The concept of virginity is 
only defined in relation to a woman's conducts. That is inequality 
of human dignity. Although Mee Ali is very angry at Kauna's open 
interest in her husband,she later pardons her in the understanding 
that her friend's misery is a factor of socially approved sexual 
conduct for the males that robs women of kindness at home from 
their husbands. Mee Ali only happens to have been fortunate with 
her own husband, Tate Michael, otherwise she would have been in 
the same unfortunate state as Kaunaherself.

  One would indeed conclude that the power exercised by 
men against women in the fictive world of the novel is so firmly 
entrenched that at no point in the narrative is Kauna allowed by the 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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their experiences. Hayate mobilises an army of aggrieved women 
who are ready to take back their humanity and dignity forcefully 
taken away by hegemonic patriarchal cultures. Nayla symbolizes 
the voice of many women which has for long been stifled by 
oppressive cultures. The Tunisian society of the novel is not open 
to progressive changes and ideas which favour the progress of 
women. Hence, just like the biblical Jews who for many years 
hoped for the coming of a saviour who would liberate them from 
the claws of the Roman Empire, the women in this fictive Tunisian 
society eagerly anticipate the coming of saviours like Nayla and 
Hayate. Their bondage in the patriarchal culture of the novel kills 
the poise in them and Hayate is not happy about the reality. She 
and her friends functionally become the messiahs the vulnerable 
women in Tunisia have long been waiting for.  

  The most pressing concern is finance; where can they obtain 
the fund to begin? They decide to refuse all help from institutions 
or individuals to whom they would be accountable. They do not 
want to see themselves limited in what they have to say by 
economic pressure, however friendly. They decide to contribute, 
even at the cost of enormous sacrifice. For some of them, fifty 
dinars is more than a quarter of their monthly salary. Even so, they 
give it whole-heartedly.They organise themselves into 
committees assigned to cover different experiences with men and 
how their society treats them badly. It is important the goal of a 
project is understood and carefully understudied from the 
beginning. The women who are constituting themselves into 
change agents understand clearly what they want to achieve with 
their project. Hence, the need to shut all opposing or would-be 
opposing doors. Shutting such doors will allow them to focus on 
the crux of the project which is to liberate Tunisian women from 
the shackles of patriarchal culture. On the willpower that enables a 
revolution of this nature, Hayate motivates Aida, “The sea has a 
power to renew that always surprises me. I chose to live here for 

world view therein is represented in the idiosyncrasies of her main 
character, Hayate. She is certainly not given to inequality and 
oppressive tendencies hence, her firm position as portrayed in the 
character of Hayate. Being the protagonist, Hayate's feminist 
ideals are put to the test during her stay in Tunisia. Her friends face 
the choice of leaving the Arab country to live where women can 
find more freedom, or stay to work for a better society. The women 
in Accad's novel fight against male oppression. The protagonist is 
a Lebanese feminist who spends a year on a research grant from an 
American university, meeting up with Tunisian feminists.

  The story opens withHayate's visit toNayla. Nayla's wall 
was covered with posters and photos, calling for the liberation of 
the oppressed. She seems very excited at the sight of Hayate. She 
pleads with Hayate to help her prepare an article on women textile 
workers in the area, whose working conditions are inhumane. She 
says, “They have to be talked about, even if it's dangerous. If we 
don't have the courage to reveal injustice, who will? People are so 
apathetic” (112). Hayate responds positively and agrees to help 
her. Hayate is a messianic figure for the oppressed women in the 
Arab nation. Nayla cannot hide her joy in sighting Hayate. They 
forge friendship with other women like-minds and discuss ways of 
bettering the lots of women in the regimented cultural space. They 
hold their first meeting, where one of them, a psychiatrist, explains 
an article which establishes the link between sexuality and 
identity. The article's ideas contradict her sexual life and her 
professional life. The other women take the floor; they express 
their uneasiness and difficulties, the sexual problem they have 
encountered and what these may signify for the Tunisian society. 
They plan to create a publication for women, a magazine in which 
they would finally be able to express what torments them. In this 
way, they could make their voices heard, unveil and reveal 
society's ills. Through Hayate's experience and resolve, Accad 
opens an uncomfortable conversation on the rights of women and 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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She realises that their conditions of living suggest that they are 
seen as “mere objects” who have nothing else to offer except the 
“forbidden city”.  The sexualisation of women in Tunisia reeks of 
the parochial mentality slavish cultures have about women. Accad 
protests thisideation of the woman. Redefining the sexuality of 
women will in the words of Hayate mean that her army of women's 
activists will have “scars in their words, open wounds in their 
hearts, tears in their writing, cries in their tears…light a thousand 
fires of rebellion and hope” (17). Their fight requires perseverance 
and consistency. Dworkin's Feminism corroborates the fact that 
patriarchal ideology drives on the wheels of rape, battery, 
prostitution and pornography – the sexualisation and 
objectification of women. 

  Aida never likes doing household chores. She values her job 
a lot. Her husband befriends her girlfriend for a very long time 
without her knowledge. At a point her husband announces that he 
is going to live with her friend. She allows him go, and in a way, it 
was a relief. They don't get along on a physical level, nor on 
emotional or psychological level. They divorce and she gets 
through the trial with the help of the women's group which is being 
formed. All the women have similar experience which takes little 
effects on their private lives. Fortunately, there is a group 
association where they could talk about their odd experiences and 
try to overcome the suffering.Halima tells of her life story, the 
death of her husband, and her conflicting feeling of liberation as 
well as guilt.Each of them speaks of how they came to feminism. 
Zahra takes the floor first. To her,feminism is a personal and 
political response to her situation and relationship with power. For 
a long time, she has refused to go out with a militant. Living the 
life of a militant feminist would mean not refusing all of her 
family's pressure regarding marriage. Feminism helps her to 
establish her identity and to be independent. The latter, of course, 
are the hallmark of feminism. It helps women to de-objectify 

just that reason, even though for a woman alone, staying in such an 
isolated house by the sea is risky.”(2) An isolated space is indeed 
not ideal for a revolution that is intended to overthrow a tyrant. 
Hayate encourages her army to build safe zones from where they 
will launch out. 

  The propelling force for the movement of emancipation as 
far as Hayate is concerned is urgent and critical. She outlines the 
plights of women in the Arab society, “women singing through the 
darkness of their time, women crying out so that others may hear 
the call, women writing to denounce fear, cowardice, and 
injustice…” (7) The stifling culture of oppression creates the thick 
cloud of darkness, the loud cries and flowing ocean of tears, and 
the fear and cowardice which all come together to deny women of 
their dignity in the novel. The oppressive culture contravenes their 
basic human rights. Hayate's diary is detailed in narrating the 
experiences of women in the Tunisian society. As a tourist to 
Tunis, she is careful to observe and see the conditions of living of 
women in the city. She marshals her observations:

The damp dust of your walls clings to the skin
Like the insistent eyes of your men
On women's bodies and faces
Violent glances which incite revolt
Cries of rage, a call to action,
A walk in the forbidden city
A table in barred restaurants…
Solidarity of women approaching spaces closed to them…
The story of these women
Silent and strong
Daring to challenge.
Women have become 'mere objects' for the fascination of 
men (7).

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
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141 142

longer feels marginalised and alone, she becomes comfortable. 
The club therefore becomes a symbol of freedom for the women 
who seriously feel caged and oppressed. They see it as a platform 
for expressing themselves and cooling off. The oppressing 
Tunisian culture is choking. They all in one voice acclaim, “We 
won't allow repression to become established” (14). Control is 
used effectively by the hegemonic culture to make women 
subservient. Their feeling of insecurity makes them brandish 
control as a tool of oppression.According to the female 
psychiatrist, “the Arab male is afraid of the female orgasm…afraid 
she will be unfaithful to him. In a relationship, the man's stakes are 
higher than the woman's…Men are therefore very afraid, for in 
losing their sexual identity, they can lose everything” (16). The 
sexual control they usually have over women against their consent 
is one tool they will never want to lose.

  To Dalale, religion prevents her from moving forward. But 
when a woman drags her to the club, she begins to blossom. After 
God, it is the club. At the club, Samia talks about her research on 
the image of women in the society; she gets people from different 
areas to speak to her. She speaks to one woman who narrates how 
she has refused to have intercourse with her husband for the last 
seven years because he refuses to give her money to feed the 
children. The activities of the activist women create awareness of 
the need for total emancipation for the woman in Tunisia.

  The novel is basically a journal of meetings and ideas dotted 
with numerous accounts of women reworking their society. It is 
less a novel, more of an exploration of the complex issues that 
confront mainly middle-class, Arab feminists. It becomes an 
avenue for narrating tales of women's struggles in the societies and 
against conditions that threaten their well-being.

themselves and assume an identity of independence and 
responsibility. If women are independent of men, it is not equal to 
insubordination. It simply means that they can relate better with 
men and be more useful to them. In fact, it is vice versa. Men's 
independence should also enable same amiable relationship.

  It is equally interesting to know that oppressive cultures use 
religion as a contrivance of hegemony. The women are surprised 
to realise in their first meeting that religion which should 
ordinarily protect the interests of women who are vulnerable is 
used effectively to oppress them.Samia narrates the experience of 
a group of women who protests the many injustices against 
women in Monastir. They were “silenced with a reminder that the 
Koran had proclaimed that nothing good could come from a 
woman leader, that women are too emotional , do not have the 
intellectual capacity of men…” (14) This is nothing but 
circumscription of inferiority to women. While patriarchal norms 
of cultural leaning oppress women, religious doctrines equally 
canonised by men do further harm to them.  Kevin Harrison and 
Tony Boyd corroborate that, “Feminism…attempts to analyse the 
social position of women, explain their apparent subsidiary role in 
history and offer the basis for reform and the advancement of 
women in all areas of society” (296). Patriarchal cultures leave 
nothing but subsidiary roles for women. 

  Samia speaks of how women are oppressed. She learns of 
how girls who are not virgins are killed in her small village. Her 
father beats her mother. Later on, she learns of her mother's trials 
and resolves that she will not live like her. She decides not to get 
married. She wants to study. Some of her illiterate cousins die 
under the blows of their husbands, and she says that she will never 
accept that fate. At age twenty two, she does the opposite of what 
she says, gets married but later divorces her husband. She goes 
back to continue her studies. When she discovers the club and no 

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2022



143 144

Bossan, Rita. “Feminist Tendencies in Chimamanda Ngozi 
Adichie's Purple Hibiscus”in Gender and Power in 
Contemporary Africa: Essays in Honour of Prof. Sophia 
Obiajuli Ogwude, Gboyega, K, Egya S. E. and Ifamose, S. 
(Eds.), Bahiti and Dalila Publishers. p. 230. 2014.

Bryce, Jane. 'The Unheard Voices': A Review of Female Novelists 
of Modern Africa by     Oladele Taiwo. 1993.

Dworkin, Andrea Rita. Intercourse.Basic Books, 1987.
--- “I Want a 24-Hour Truce in Which There is No Rape”. 1983. 

h�ps://www.guardian.com.
--- Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics.G.P. 

Putma's Sons, 1976.
Goring, Paul, Jeremy Hawthorn, Domhnall Mitchel. Studying 

L i t e r a t u r e :  T h e  E s s e n t i a l   
Companion.Oxford UP, 2001.

Harrison Kevin and Boyd Tony.“Feminism.”Understanding 
Political Ideas and Movements.Retrieved on 30/10/2022 
from manchesteropenhive.com. 2018. 

Kolawole, Mary E. Modupe. Womanism and African 
Consciousness.Trenton, African World Press, 1998.

Lloyd W. Brown,  Women Wri ters  in  Black Afr ica . 
Westport.Greenwood Press, 1981.

Neshani. Andreas. The Purple Violet of Oshaantu.Heinemann 
Books, 2001.

Nnolim, Charles E. “A House Divided: Feminism in African 
Literature”.Issues in African  L i t e r a t u re .  Tr e a s u r e 
Books, 2009. pp. 134-147

Raina Javeed Ahmad. “Feminism: An Overview”. International 
Journal of Research, vol 4, no 13, 2017, pp.3373.

Stratton, Florence. Contemporary African Literature and the 
Politics of Gender.Routledge, 1994.

Walters Margaret. Feminism: A Very Short Introduction.Oxford 
University Press. 2005.

Conclusion
  This study has been able to show that literatures of Arab 
origin also explore themes of women concerns. The two novels – 
Evelyne Accad's Wounding Words and Neshani Andreas' The 
Purple Violet of Oshaantuare characterised by oppression and 
subjugation.  Most of the female characters live under the 
oppression and suppressionof their husbands. Most of the male 
characters are portrayed as oppressors who deprive the female 
characters of value-defined lives. InThe Purple Violet of 
Oshaantu, Kauna suffers victimhood in the hands of Shange, her 
abusive husband.When Shange eventually dies, Kauna refuses to 
mourn him because she has not recovered from the gory memory 
of her late husband's abusive actions.  Unsuspecting persons who 
do not really know what she has passed through in the hands of her 
late husband see her actions as wicked, vindictive, and 
unreasonable. Hayate in Wounding Wordsassumes the 
responsibility of an activist going about preaching in conjunction 
with other like-minded women the need for women to be free from 
every form of oppression. Abusive patriarchy is portrayed as a 
dangerous societal ill which must be discarded for the freedom of 
women and the society, to the end that thefundamental human 
rights of women must be respected. The authors, therefore, have 
successfully exploited the instrumentality of literature to protest 
against as well as seek amelioration for the difficult circumstances 
women suffer within their societies.

    Works Cited
Accad, Evelyne. Wounding Words: A Woman's Journal in 

Tunisia.Heinemann Books, 1996.
Aidoo, Ama Ata. “Unwelcome Pals and Decorative Slaves: Or 

Glimpses of Women as Writers and Characters in 
Contemporary African Literature”. Literature and 
Society: Selected Essays on African Literature, edited by 
Ernest Emenyonu. Heinemann, 1986. pp. 8-17.

Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi & Ethel Ngozi Okeke & Gabriel Kosiso Okonkwo:  Patriarchy as Infraction 

in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding  Words and Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2022

https://www.guardian.com

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