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The Women’s Research Institute would like to invite you to our book discussion and light lunch. This will be the last event sponsored by the Women’s Research Institute. RSVP required.

So Long a Letter
By Mariama Bâ

Thursday, December 10, 2009
12:00 PM
2110 JFSB

Discussion led by
Chantal Thompson, PhD — French & Italian

So Long a Letter

So Long a Letter is a sequence of reminiscences, some wistful, some bitter, recounted by Senegalese widow Ramatoulaye to her friend during the mandatory forty-day mourning period following the death of her husband. Both women had married for love and had happy, productive marriages; both were educated, had work they loved, and were intellectually alive. During their lives, both of these women’s husbands chose to take a second wife—and each woman then made a different choice.  Although sanctioned by Islam, the decision was still a calculated betrayal of trust and brutal rejection of their life together. The letter is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival afterwards, revealing a perceptive testimony to the plight of articulate women who live in a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them their proper place. (For more information, click here).

Please RSVP via email to wri@byu.edu by Monday, December 7, 2009.