Farida - Paperback

by Monia Mazigh (Author), Phyllis Aronoff (Translator), Howard Scott (Translator)

Translated from French by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott.

Farida, a young woman in Tunis, is passionate about reading and loves the French language. But she is compelled to marry Kamel, a brute of a man, who drinks, keeps mistresses, and beats her when she talks back. But she is defiant, and takes comfort from her secret reading. The country is a French colony and male-dominated. Finally after ten years she is granted a divorce by the courts and lives with her son Tewfiq. A smoking, independent-minded divorcee, she sees the country attain its freedom from the French and its arrival into modern times; the growth of her son into a young public servant; and her granddaughter Leila mature into an independent, educated young woman. This is a novel of modern Tunisia told through the lives of its women.

Author Biography

Monia Mazigh is the author of two memoirs, three novels, and a collection of short stories. She has written for ONFr+, Radio-Canada, the Ottawa Citizen, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star and contributes regularly to Islamic Horizons. Her memoir, Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey with a Scar(f) was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2023. Farida won the Ottawa Book Award for French fiction. Monia Mazigh is an adjunct and research professor at the Department of English and Literature, Carleton University (Ottawa).