American Exceptionalism
The irony in “Manar of Hama” begins with the opening paragraph in which the first-person narrator launches an all-out assault on America’s view of itself as superior to every other part of the world. The young Syrian woman narrating the piece complains about the meat, bread, coffee, olives, milk, cheese and pretty much everything else which passes for food in America. The ironic kicker to this paragraph is that this woman from a country most Americans view as severely lacking in comparison has actually lost weight since she started on her Americanized diet.
The Irony Queen
The title character of “The Spiced Chicken Queen of Mickaweaquah, Iowa” is presented as a stereotypically submissive Muslim woman living a life of quiet desperation under the thumb of a particularly despicable Islamic husband. By the end of the story, however, this portrayal will prove to have been deeply and profoundly ironic. The titular character of Mzayyan is painted in broad strokes as the very essence of the stereotypical Islamic wife. This perspective is relentlessly reiterated throughout the story until the end with its ironic revelation that Mzayyan has been the most ruthless and cunning character in the story all along.
Not That Mecca!
The title of the story “The Girl from Mecca” ironically subverts predisposed expectations about stories involving Muslims. The title naturally leads one to expect that the titular female is from that Mecca to which Muslims are expected to make a holy pilgrimage. Turns out the girl is only from the Middle East as it relates to American geography: Mecca, Indiana.
Petty Irony
Kahf engages in a bit of petty irony in “The Girl from Mecca” which seeks to connect the distinctly anti-Islamist prejudice of the MAGA folks with Americans in general, even those not actively seeking to harm members of the religion. After the title girl rips off the two young women helping her out and finding themselves seriously low on cash, one of them spots what appears to be a Bible study group, but which turns out to be a much more liberal-minded “Agnostic Fellowship.” Never mind that this group is made up not of Christian fundamentalists, but people who likely voted against Trump twice, she ironically preys upon their good nature by adopting the persona of a stereotypical veiled Muslim woman in order to scam them rather than simply being upfront about her desperate circumstances. The whole sequence serves to implicate all Americans as equally extremist in their blind prejudices toward Islam.
9/11
“The Spiced Chicken Queen of Mickaweaquah, Iowa” concludes with a veritable tornado of irony. The gut punch is related to the fact that most of the story is set right around September 11, 2001. The title character’s husband is, as previously indicated, not a particularly nice guy, though not exactly a terrorist either. Ironically, the problem of being married to a jerk is indirectly taken care of by the terrorists on the planes. In the ensuing crackdown on potential Islamic troublemakers, he is rounded and eventually deported.
