Fareeda and Khaled's House, 545 72nd ST, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

Fareeda and Khaled’s home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is the most significant setting of the novel. That Rum writes the bulk of the novel within the confines of the house reflects one of her themes of A Woman’s Place. The women of the novel - Fareeda, Sarah, Isra, Deya, Nadine, and her sister are all trapped together in the home, and in their gender. The cycle perpetuates itself as the home keeps them tethered to their gender, and vice versa. The house is extremely full of people - containing Fareeda, Khaled, Adam, Isra, Deya, Nora, Layla, Amal, Omar, Nadine, Nadine’s children, Ali, and Sarah.

The unknown voice describes the house on page 2, “an old row house no different from the others - faded red brick, a dusty brown door, number 545” (2). When the reader first reads from Deya...