Oppression of Women in Mahfouz's Early Novels

الملخص

Violence against women has always been an important theme in modern literature. The main objective of the study is to deal with the theme of oppression of women in selected novels that Mahfouz wrote in the 1940s and early 1950s. The study tries to show how Mahfouz's realistic novels are contemporary and relevant because they deal with issues that are contemporary and relevant. The paper uses Sociological Criticism through examining the theme of violence against women in the cultural, economic and political context, exploring the relationships between the social and economic conditions and women’s status in society. Several female characters from New Cairo(1945), Beginning and End(1949),  Middaq Alley(1947), and the Cairo Trilogy(1956-1957) are selected as examples of the submissive wife, the self-sacrificing woman, the ambitious woman, and the new woman. Through the stories of these women, the study arrives at several recommendations that will help, if implemented, in reducing the level of violence in Middle Eastern Societies. It is through these findings that the study links the past with the present.