Fatma Abdullah Rifaat-Short Story ExtraordinaireFatma Abdullah Rifaat, better known as Alifa Rifaat, has created some of the most compelling tales to come from Egypt. Since she was born in 1930, Rifaat has been exposed to the realities of being a woman in the Islamic-based Egyptian culture. Her life story was typical of an Egyptian woman and she chronicled the arranged marriage aspect of her life in the gripping stories "Distant View of a Minaret" and "A Long Winter's Night" from Distant View of a minaret .Rifaat was a talented young man who began writing very early and at the age of nine he wrote a poem titled "Despair in Our Village". She was also punished for writing this and has since been forced to essentially give up writing as a hobby. After finishing her studies at the British Institute in Cairo, she tried to complete her education by going to college, but her father and the society's lifestyle forced her to put her dreams aside and return to the norm for women. This meant becoming a victim of an arranged marriage and following the routine life of a stay-at-home mom. Her husband, being her cousin, later died leaving her to raise three children and live on her own, which I believe she wasn't that upset about. She continued to read works of Arabic fiction and resumed writing fiction in 1955. According to World Literature Online, Fatma took on the pseudonym Alifa Rifaa to veil her identity and publish short stories. But once her husband asked her to stop writing, she did, and that too for over 10 years, but she was able to continue again once her husband gave her the 'ok'. Rifaat's stories very much reflect this abhorrent life attributable to arranged marriages. The general idea behind her two short stories is to implicitly discuss the discriminatory norms of women in society. He states how the problems start from the husband who turns out to be inconsiderate towards his wife and devoid of any sort of sympathy. Since women in Egypt don't have any kind of rights, men seem to believe they have the right to be selfish in a relationship. In many of her stories, husbands end up being dirty, lying cheaters who don't appreciate their wives. Both “Distant View of a Minaret” and “A Long Winter's Night” reflect the negative impact on these poor women forced into lifelong relationships with strangers.