Nayera El Miniawi
Can East and West ever meet? Can a geographical journey from the depth of eastern deserts to the western part of Europe-England engulf an empowerment journey for a young Arab Bedouin girl who was escaping for her life as she got pregnant out of wedlock? Can her past, language, culture, heritage and looks strike or fail to establish communication channels with her new set up? This paper is an attempt at tracing how a human being can find his/her way cross culturally in spite of impediments that might obstruct communication for a while , but eventually one can succeed in building bridges of interaction and channels of communication among people of different cultural, lingual, and religious adherences that are enriching to human life. Is communication possible when Salma, the main protagonist in the novel is torn between two different nationalities, two different languages, two different religions and two different identities? The English immigration official asks Salma: 'Is this your maiden or Christian name?', Salma, not understanding fully what he said, would answer the half communicated message by : 'Muslim no Christian!' Then the immigration officer would respond by somehow crossing over his own English language boundaries in an attempt at simplifying the question and using other languages synonyms to establish some kind of communication with Salma saying: ' Name ? Nome? Izmak?' Salma then answers: 'Ismi, Ismi? Sally Ashiir.' Here, then, communication is established through trials, errors and concessions on both sides. The Arabic and the English language, the Arab girl and the English man, the Muslim and the Christian, and the East and the West seem to somehow manage to communicate. 'I was young, pregnant and unmarried.' (My Name is Salma, 94).
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