Ethnocentrism and Arab Women in Fadia Faqir’s The Cry of the Dove

Abstract

Arab women bear the struggle of their local tradition in their countries and the tradition of the Westerns when they live between them. They are victims of gender discrimination and racism. Ethnocentrism is the inclination of people who consider their customs, civilizations, culture, skin, and colour superior, demanding others to follow and imitate them. This paper examined the influence of ethnocentrism on Arab women in Arabian and Western countries by analysing Fadia Faqir’s The Cry of the Dove (2007). The framework in this study is guided by ethnocentrism as a concept in postcolonial theory. The findings revealed that (i) due to ethnocentrism, Arab women suffer gender discrimination, violence, marginalisation, slavery, and death, (ii) Western ethnocentrism abuses and dehumanises the Arab women immigrants, and (iii) ethnocentrism creates many chronic social and political diseases in the minds of people (colonizers, colonized and decolonized people, men and women ), (iv) and some Arab women view the Western world as a unique model that should be imitated.