The Effects of Women’s Oppression in Saudi Arabia as Reflected in Badryah al-Bishr’s Love Stories on al-Asha Street

The novel is a genre of literature that can be employed to reflect the problems of humans and societies, in particular societies in which abundant problems deny people their freedom and dignity and prevent them from access to their human rights. In such societies, women tend to be more vulnerable than men are. To address this issue, the feminist movement was formed, and the writers and leaders of this movement defended the rights and demands of women. The feminist novels of Saudi Arabian literature are more consistent with the feminist movement than other Arabic novels are, because women in Saudi Arabia suffer numerous problems, and live and work under more difficult conditions. Badriah al-Beshr is a contemporary Saudi Arabian writer and novelist. She is one of the most active writers in the field of feminism. She has dedicated many of her writings and activities to solving the problems of women. Hence, her writings are full of tragic cases of women in Saudi Arabia. In her latest novel entitled Love Stories on al-Asha Street, published in 2013, she takes the reader into life in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the 1970s. The stories are mostly told from women’s points of view, although male voices also feature. The novel narrates the lives of women under the male domination and the means of violence and oppression that are used against them. Among the female characters of the novel, the problems of a character called Aziza are highlighted. The writer portrays numerous obstacles that prevent her success in the society and how she makes endless efforts to overcome them but fails to do so. The present article employs the definitions and the terminology of feminist criticism in order to analyze the most significant effects of women’s oppression depicted in this novel through a descriptive-analytical method.