214 Kökoğlu
Servant, the Dominant Lioness, and the Egalitarian and Polymorphic Pledger.
These three types can also be read as three evolutionary stages of a dynamic
or a revivalist view of the relation of sexes in Islam. The Submissive Servant
invites male despotism in oblivion of true Islam which Pickthall believes is
egalitarian, and even feministic contrary to the current practice. Along with
Gul-raaneh, most harem women in Veiled Women including Barakah belong to
this group.
The Dominant Lioness who stands against transgressors and the betrayers
of the contract is a passing stage but it leads to the alienation of the sexes on
the one hand, and homosexuality on the other. Reshideh passes through this
phase very swiftly, but the most seductively destructive example of this type
is the widow Aminah Khanum in Veiled Women. She is a Terminator Lioness,
a true War Machine, which can be expressed with the formula: “I cannot re-
sist your attraction, but you are an alien to me”. In search of a perfect match,
she has ten successive husbands who she either divorces or kills. She also has
first-hand experience of Western men who she finds “growing superficial, flip-
pant, without depth of character”.75 In Pickthall’s fiction, which happened to
coincide with a time of wars and betrayals, Turkish women are all potential
Lionesses. Whatever type they belong to, they never idealise marriage, or love.
The only thing they hold sacred and are determined to protect is the locus
on which they stand. When that locus is challenged they become Defensive
Lionesses. That locus is sometimes as small as the body, as in the case of Gul-
raaneh, who kills herself to defend the only location she is capable of; some-
times it is a body without organs as large as the whole country as confessed by
Emineh – Hasan Pasha’s daughter in House of War – in confirmation of what
his father proclaims to Elsie:
“We love our land and our religion, and when either is assailed we kill. If
I knew that my own daughter were a traitor – which God forbid – I would
kill her with my own hand”.
“And I would kill my father and myself if such dishonour were to come
upon our house through him!” exclaimed Emineh proudly, taking her
father’s hand and kissing it.76Finally, the Polymorphic Pledger type has as its unique example Reshideh
when she marries Camruddin. Her ex-husband Shukri Bey, in order to appear
friendlier to the Europeans, both transgresses the oriental rules of decency and
75 Pickthall, Veiled Women, 87.
76 Pickthall, House of War, 41.