Politics of Desire in Ahdaf Soueifs in the Eye of the Sun (Critical Essay‪)‬

In Ahdaf Soueifs The Eye of the Sun, (1) the protagonist Asya's emotional journey sheds light upon many sensitive and complicated issues, such as desire, sexuality, love and mutual understanding, all of which constitute the basis for a healthy relationship and a solid viable marriage. Furthermore, this article focuses on serious questions posed by Asya's story. Do married Arab women have the right to speak out about sexual needs? Can marriage based only on love ensure happiness? Should or can the married woman feel only for her husband even if she feels lonely and sexually unsatisfied or should she suffer in silence to uphold a socially sanctioned marriage? The patriarchal Egyptian society from where Asya comes, holds certain views concerning marriage, fidelity, infidelity, love and feelings rooted in economic, legal, and political structures, as well as social and cultural institutions that oppress women through the assertion of male power, dominance and hierarchy. In other words, Aysa's journey moves through the complex process of unfolding desires, sexual, social, economic, and political and how this is shaped by the character herself and all that surrounds her. In The Eye of the Sun examines the politics of Asya's quest to combine love and desire with the entanglement of patriarchal domesticity, family and religion. Within this context, Suad Joseph defines desire as the broad range of experiences of wanting, erotic and non erotic (Joseph 2005). In this study, we would like to use the broader term of desire which covers the erotic and non erotic since desire In the Eye of the Sun always "exists in a context of politics, history and geography all of which are intermeshed." (Massad 1999:74)