1. Alifa Rifaat's stories did not attempt to undermine the patriarchal system; rather they were used to depict the problems inherent in a patriarchal society when men do not adhere to their religious teachings that advocate for the kind treatment of women.
Fatimah Rifaat used the pseudonym Alifa to prevent embarrassment on the part of her family due to the themes of her stories and her writing career.
Fatma Abdullah Alifa Rifaat was born on June 5,1930, in Cairo, Egypt.
Alifa Rifaat's father was an architect and her mother was a housewife.
Alifa Rifaat was raised in provincial Egypt and spent most of her life there.
Alifa Rifaat attended the British Institute in Cairo from 1946 to 1949 where she studied English.
Alifa Rifaat published her stories from 1955 until 1960 when she chose to stop after facing pressure from her husband to end her writing career.
In 1973, after facing a serious illness, Alifa Rifaat's husband allowed her once more to write and publish her work.
Alifa Rifaat continued on to publish a collection of short stories and two novels beginning with the short story "My World of the Unknown," for which she gained initial popularity.
Alifa Rifaat continued on to make the [hajj], the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1981 and travelled to multiple European and Arab states including England, Turkey, Germany, Morocco, and Austria.
Alifa Rifaat attended the First International Women's Book Fair in 1984 where she spoke about the rights of women in Islam and the topic of polygamy.
In 1984 Fatimah Alifa Rifaat received the Excellency Award from the Modern Literature Assembly.
Fatimah Alifa Rifaat Died at the age of 65 in January 1996.
Alifa Rifaat left behind three sons and a body of over 100 works that have been translated into multiple languages and have been produced for television.
Fatimah Alifa Rifaat's writing centers upon the silent plight of women in a patriarchal Muslim society.
For Fatimah Alifa Rifaat, patriarchy is merely a fact of life and acceptable under Quranic terms, however it is the opposite and in some instances even the same gender's lack of observance towards religious teachings that acts as the catalyst to many of the protagonists' problems.
Alifa Rifaat tells her daughter that although the doctor's diagnosis attributes her loss of sight to natural causes and tells her she can be treated with medication she knows that it is instead due to all of the tears she has cried because of her life as a woman.
Alifa Rifaat continues on to lament the position of women in society and the upholding of this low status by members of both genders.