Blood Feast: The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf
4/5
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About this ebook
A cult classic by Morocco’s foremost writer of life on the margins.
Malika Moustadraf (1969–2006) is a feminist icon in contemporary Moroccan literature, celebrated for her stark interrogation of gender and sexuality in North Africa.
Blood Feast is the complete collection of Moustadraf’s published short fiction: haunting, visceral stories by a master of the genre. A teenage girl suffers through a dystopian rite of passage, a man with kidney disease makes desperate attempts to secure treatment, and a mother schemes to ensure her daughter passes a virginity test.
Delighting in vibrant sensory detail and rich slang, Moustadraf takes an unflinching look at the gendered body, social class, illness, double standards, and desire, as lived by a diverse cast of characters. Blood Feast is a sharp provocation to patriarchal power and a celebration of the life and genius of one of Morocco’s preeminent writers.
Malika Moustadraf
Malika Moustadraf (1969–2006) was a preeminent arabophone writer from Casablanca, Morocco. She died at just thirty-seven, leaving behind a semi-autobiographical novel and a collection of short stories. Four other short stories were published posthumously by the Moroccan literary journal QS and are included in this collection. Admired for her unflinching work, she was also persecuted throughout her short life for her taboo-busting subject matter.
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Reviews for Blood Feast
12 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I read some paragraphs of the first story, I was confused. What is this book about? Why do the stories feel so blunt? I realized later that the stories are satirical stories, telling how men see women, how society judges women, and how they treat women. And the stories are based on her own experience or the surrounding society.
Malika Moustadraf was a Moroccan Arabic-language writer. She is best known for her pioneering short stories and women’s rights activism, which set her squarely in Morocco’s feminist vanguard. She was a feminist literary activist focused on sexuality, patriarchy, disability, illness, class, and women’s rights. When I look at her background while reading the book, I feel sad at the end. Malika Moustadraf died of kidney disease at the age of thirty-seven. I feel like we need more writers and women’s right activist like her.
The stories in Blood Feast make me feel lots of emotion. Anger, sadness, upset, disgust, all at once. I realized that women in Muslim/Arab countries are living hard life. Patriarchy, Misogyny, Sexism, Domestic Abuse, and all unfairness that almost all women experienced.
At the end of the book, they put Translator’s Note with a length almost the same as half of the story itself. It’s sad to read how other authors (especially men authors) criticized and hated her for her works.
As Moustadraf commented to Ouafik in an interview, “Women have always been, and still are, accused of being the true protagonists of what they write. Why are women prosecuted for what they write, unlike men? Quite simply, because we live in a patriarchal society.”.
She told Ouafik, “Men can say anything and everything, it’s all accepted. But if a woman expresses what she’s burning to say, then shame on her, she’s got no manners. We’re accustomed to men saying everything on behalf of women. They want us to just be pretty and keep quiet!”.
Moustadraf’s friend Aida Nasrallah also recounts in her memoir that a prominent male intellectual told Moustadraf that she “deserved” her illness for writing the way she did. This is so cruel. Men are indeed always cruel.
Before you read the stories, please check the content/trigger warning first. Don’t forget to read the Translator’s Note. Overall, I like the stories. I would give 4 stars for this book!