Haddawy's The Three Apples

The stories that we read from Arabian Nights portray a large variety of how women are seen and treated in early Islamic society. Throughout the stories, many women are slaves who are owned by men and must obey them in order to live. Shahrazad, for starters, is the one who ultimately spares the lives of the women in her village. "Scheherazade possessed courage, wit, and penetration. She had read much, and had so admirable a memory, that she never forgot any thing she had read. She had successfully applied herself to philosophy, medicine, history, and the liberal arts; and her poetry excelled the compositions of the best writers of her time. Besides this, she was a perfect beauty, and all her accomplishments were crowned by solid virtue." (Haddawy,
When the chest is opened, it reveals a woman’s corpse chopped up. Caliph orders that Ja’far investigates the murder. Two men come forward and confess to the murder. This story echoes the harsh ideology towards women in the stories of this time period. Initially, the story seems to revolve around justice for the poor woman who was killed. However, once the crime is confessed, no one seems to care about the woman anymore and all seems to be forgiven. The mere fact that the murdered woman's father was willing to take the blame for the sake of his son-in-law suggests the importance placed in the patriarchy at this time and how far men would go in order to protect masculinity. This is extremely unsettling, considering how brutally the girl was killed. It is prominent that women were expected to conform to a rather severe set of expectations. Including with Scheherazade herself, in the Frame Story. This tale The Three Apples also leads readers to believe that during early Islamic society women were seen as inferior, but were also desired greatly. When the man confessed to killing his wife, he said, "So I conjure thee, by the honor of thine ancestors, make haste to kill me and do her justice upon me, as there is no living for me after her!" (Haddawy, 155) The man said this because he felt he deserved only death for killing his wife. He viciously murdered her, yet believes he does not deserve to live because he did so. Which is very contradicting because he killed her because he believed she did not deserve to live after committing