Layal and Her Right to Stay

Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire is a challenging and thought provoking piece of theatre. In contrast to Katie (even though this is just an original blog and not a response to her Dec. 2nd blog – I did that as well…), I find the character of Layal to be the most moving and captivating. My perspective of how Iraqi women view American judgment is specifically affected by Layal. Throughout the play it seems as though Layal is fighting off judgment from Americans. Her perception of freedom and existence are much different from the western concepts held by those attacking her country... I was hurt by her assumptions that I would view her as a whore. She constantly defends herself with statements about the choices she makes.

LAYAL: Always I run to them, I come crying, begging, take care of me / they need me to do it, oh they love me to run to them crying – If I am not afraid then there is no feeling. Your eyes say to me that I am a whore / their eyes say I am the most beautiful woman in Baghdad / I am their fountain / I have been raped and raped and raped and raped / and I want more / they see me, they recognize me for what I am / that is freedom / they will never kill me –

In this passage she says that they “need” her to run crying and to be afraid. She says that without her fear there would be no “feeling.” I see Layal as a survivor and as someone who is fighting to protect the only way of existence she has known. She says she has been raped many times and wants more... I cannot understand how a woman can be at peace with being forced against her will sexually. I cannot understand how she could desire more of it and justify the action by stating it gives her freedom to be recognized for what she is… However, even though I do not understand, I do believe Layal has the right to exist this way if she so chooses. Her objective, she says, is not to die, which I’m interpreting from her final line in the above passage, “they will never kill me.” If her goal is to stay alive and remain in Iraq, then survival calls upon her to accept certain inevitabilities in life. For my part, I wish she would leave this lifestyle and pursue a new life somewhere else away from this oppression. But then again, that is for Layal and other Iraqi women like her to decide, not me… It is Layal’s strong commitment to stay in Iraq under her current circumstances that makes her the most powerful character in Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire.