Desdemona in the Shadow of the Willow

Desdemona in the Shadow of the Willow is a narrative of the dire circumstances experienced by a cohort of women as a result of the masculine grip over their existence. Like Desdemona, the six protagonists of this collection embrace the conventional patriarchal construct that considers women as possessions who are passed as chattels from parents to husbands. The title invokes Shakespeare’s Desdemona who is passively subject to Othello’s physical and verbal assault; she simply sings the willow song even though she reads murder in his eyes. However, the six stories question whether soul killers are worse than body killers, like Othello, because they drain the soul of its energy and trigger lifetime injuries. Yet they always go unpunished. Alia, Hanan, Hafeetha, Ansam, Saja, and Intisar have their souls eternally injured by their Romeos. Hence, these six women indulge in a quest to recognize and defy soul killing techniques. Are they going to make it, or are they doomed to sing the willow song and ask their Emilias to shroud them with their wedding sheets?