UNSPOKEN AUTONOMY: RE-READING THE SILENT WOMEN IN RUM’S A WOMAN IS NO MAN

Abstract

This article looks at the idea of unspoken autonomy in Etaf Rum’s novel A Woman is No Man. The story focuses on Arab American women whose lives are shaped by silence, tradition, and cultural expectations. While silence often appears as weakness or oppression, this paper argues that it can also be read as a form of hidden strength. The women in the novel—especially Isra and her daughters—use silence not only because they are forced to, but also as a way to resist, to endure, and to protect themselves. Silence becomes a language of survival, a quiet way of saying “no” to the roles imposed on them. By re-reading these silent women, the article shows how autonomy does not always need loud voices or open rebellion. Instead, it can exist in small acts, in withheld words, and in the choice to remain quiet. This perspective challenges traditional ideas of empowerment and highlights the complexity of women’s lives in patriarchal and immigrant communities. In the end, silence in A Woman is No Man is not simply absence—it is presence, a subtle form of agency that deserves recognition.