Egyptian Conception of Marriage

Marriage is the center of contemporary Egyptian social life. It is the primary focal point in the lives of both women and men, followed only by the birth of a child. There is no dating or interaction prior to the wedding, but there are other occasions where Egyptian men and women can meet each other. Usually, this will take place at a public location. It started by the parents of the man visiting to his fiancée's house to get the approval to complete the marriage and reach an agreement. In the wedding. The contract is signed by the groom with the family of the bride. The wife has the unconditional right to economic support from her husband, but she remains in control of her property, including inheritance or earned income. In case of divorce, she is entitled to three months' alimony and to those possessions that she brought with her at the beginning of her marriage or those that she acquired with her own income, as well as any portion of her mahr that is due her.

My opinion on this matter is that there are religion and culture are a strong influence on today’s human behavior. We have seen so many different types of weddings and marriages that is surprisingly hard to believe that we are the same and yet we are so different. On this marriage, I would say that, the fact that is the most important occasion on a woman’s life, followed by the birth of a child shocked me because in our society, the most important aspect of the modern life is education. We have the privileges of going to school, choosing who we want to marry and what is going to be our future and in the other part of the world is the other way. Our country is base on free will and that free will took us where we are today. Some of us may think this type of marriage is weird, but they think the same of us too.

Most of the people in the Middle Eastern are followers of the Islamic law and this is the main reason or explanation for the doubts we may have about marriage in these places. I like to think of it as a chain, the religion modifies the culture, and the culture modifies the people and the way they live. Egyptian marriages are influenced by both the Middle Eastern tradition and the European tradition and that is why some weddings are looking more like the weddings we are used to see. The Egyptians are also a patriarchal society, the man is provider no matter what the income of the woman is and he has the right to obtain the greatest part if they divorce, including the kids. Everywhere in the world there is something new to discover and today we have learned how human being have built their own systems and ways of living.

Our presentation was about Eskimo Marriage, Egyptian Marriage, African Forced Marriages, and Indian Marriage. Two of our group members were absent in the presentation day. Their topic was Japan's Arranged Marriages and Intercultural Marriage. We, the present members of the group, dressed up as our topic and one showed a video about African Forced Marriages.

Reaction to "GEORGE AND THE PINK HOUSE"

George seems like the classical grump. He screams at children and beats his family. It is so funny to see all the town boys reunited talking about his issues and aggressions. This is the story of how life makes you pay for you mistakes. There is always this kind of people in our community and is really sad to see haw this people can be like this. I would like to respond to the fact that after his wife death he passed trough a hard time with money and suddenly he has money, his house is full of women, soldiers and sailors. Some people may not get this directly, but all the women in his house were prostitutes and the sailor and the soldiers were costumers. It is at the time of his daughter wedding that people start to say that he ought to put her to better use meaning that he ought to make her another prostitute. All this boys did not understand what was happening in this man's house. After years of bothering them and after his wife death, his daughter got married and after his son moved he just died and the boys got some money together to bury him. His son went to the funeral.

Reaction to "Story of an hour"

This story is about a woman whose husband was "killed" in a train accident. It is just surprising how this story can captivate you attentions since the beginning. At first she is told that her husband was one of the dead persons in the train accident. She feels weird at first because there were all kind of thoughts in her head, but suddenly a calm attitude confused me of the true feelings of her. She showed relief and freedom and this is an uncomfortable feeling for the reader. Instead of feeling bad, sad, miserable or just confused, she feels more powerful than ever and even more self sufficient than before. The story is quite shocking because when you receive news like that the usual feeling is abandonment, sadness or confusion. One can feel alone and lost just because he was a part of you that was beside you a certain amount of time and even in the worst of circumstances marriage is a huge deal in the past and in the present. Nobody expects to see something like this and the experience of only reading this story is an important fact, because now you know that even in the real life this can happen.

Reaction to "The Storm"

This story is very interesting, because it narrates how a woman and a man get together in passion even though she has a husband and he has a wife. I like that the story expresses the encounter of the man and the woman in a delicate and mysterious way. The theme is one that society has learned to talk about over the years and it is written in a time of controversy and political changes. My favorite part of the story is the final. The son and the husband of the woman came back home after the storm and the woman behavior was absolutely normal. The man writes a letter to his wife and he shows that he cares for her and for his babies. When the storm ended everything was normal, as if nothing happened.

Reaction to "A Worn Path"

The story “A Worn Path” is really tricky to understand. At first I thought that everybody cared about Phoenix Jackson and that her grandson resulted to be dead at the end. After reading the story again and after the teacher’s suggestion about Jackson being a charity case, I notice that the story was different. Phoenix Jackson walked through the woods towards the city and she encounters with the hunter. The hunter seems kind of nice at first and we may think he cares for her, but then he wanted to feel powerful and superior and he pointed his gun at her to see if he can scare her. The woman in the town helped her with the shoelaces in a way that suggests she feels sorry for her. At the end the nurses ask her if her grandson is okay, but all this kindness is just a costume they wear to hide their true feelings for her.

Reaction to "A Walk to the Jetty"

At first you may think Annie has no love whatsoever for her family or her country. When she wakes up she lets you know that she does not want to go to England, but she does not want to stay in Antigua. Trough the story Annie describes the day of her departure. It is a very interesting story divide by half. The first half of the story she show us cold feelings about her leaving her family and Antigua. The second half of the story she is feeling more sadness as she starts to see the buildings and the people she is leaving behind. I really liked this story because it shows the change of mind of individual as time passes. I think that is usual that Annie feels a bit sad at the end, but she showed it by holding her parents’ hands tightly. I firmly believe that she wanted to hear her dad saying he loves her, but she never expresses this directly.

Reaction to "Columbus In Chains"

I think that the way of thinking of the subject in this piece of writing is presented in a very mature way. Usually when we are made to believe that the person that discovered us , in this case Christophe Columbus, is a great person filled with both religion and integrity, and the reality is always different. In this story I loved the Annie expresses her point of view about Columbus. She marked the words “The Great Man Can No Longer Just Get Up an Go” with such anger and with a certain disrespect that feels almost like she is laughing at him and marking him like they marked her ancestors that were slaves. The fact that she wrote those words in Old English lettering was also wrote to show that she mastered new things and that she is overcoming the oppression that her family felt.