K Tempest Tumbles

wildunicornherd:

Fatihah Iman takes Saladin Ahmed to task for his portrayal of women characters in Throne of the Crescent Moon:

Saladin Ahmed’s debut sword-n-sorcery fantasy novel has come in for some criticism from feminist quarters, some of which I have seen and some of which I have not. Ahmed has engaged with this debate to an extent, and in a comment on a blog post from earlier this year asked:

“Is there a problem, for instance, with not passing the Bechdel Test if one is depicting a world where women’s power is most obviously wielded via intermediary men…?”

Throne of the Crescent Moon is based on Arab/Muslim history and culture – as contrasted with Fantasy Medieval Europe, which is the usual fantasy setting. So the characters Ahmed is talking about here are the fantasy world analogues of Arabs/Muslims, and the world itself is a fantasy version of Arabic/Islamic settings. As a Muslim woman, I would dispute the assertion that “women’s power is most obviously wielded via intermediary men.” And to answer the question: yes, there is a problem if your story about Arab/Muslim women doesn’t pass the Bechdel test.

Because if you’re writing women based in an Arab or Islamic tradition, it should be EASIER to pass the Bechdel Test, not harder…