The last two chapters of Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery were extremely interesting. It taught me about their relationships, respect, Vendetta System and family roles in the community. What shocked me the most was the part when the parents talk about being imbarrased that their oldest daughter is 20 and still not married off. They talk about how she is the only woman that is 20 and went through school, she is also the only 20 year old not married. They attribute the reason she isn't married to the fact that she went through school. However, there is no question that the narrator, a boy, attends school in full. This custom is extremely different from ours. When a child is born it is not questioned whether or not they will attend school, it is implied that they must attend school. Boys being the only ones going to school help them to become the more dominent sex. This is not true in the United States, as a matter of fact more and more women are getting jobs just as good if not better then men. The second thing that shocked me was the Vendetta system. It is implying it is okay to kill someone as long as it is for revenge. The Vendetta system whether we beleive it or not does happen here in the United States. There was a movie made called V for Vendetta that describes the Vendetta system. It is about one man that has revenge against the entire government. He kills multiple government officials in revenge for making him out to be a criminal which seems ironic. 
The book ended up to be a very good book. I believe it portrayed the Middle east in a very powerful way. However this book has all the stereotypes that "Reel Bad Arabs" was trying to say weren't true. In the book the men are barbaric and do kill their family. There also the Outlaws that are said to be dangerous and would kill anyone if they had to. Harbi kills the bey, which is extremely barbaric and ends up getting out of jail. It also shows the stereotype that men overpower their women in the middle east. Just like the stereotype, men have more power than women in the book. When Aunt Safiyya is running her own farm everyone thinks it is wierd because women shouldn't be running farms in their eyes. This fits that stereotype and completely contradicts what the movie "Reel Bad Arabs" was trying to teach us.
The book ended up to be a very good book. I believe it portrayed the Middle east in a very powerful way. However this book has all the stereotypes that "Reel Bad Arabs" was trying to say weren't true. In the book the men are barbaric and do kill their family. There also the Outlaws that are said to be dangerous and would kill anyone if they had to. Harbi kills the bey, which is extremely barbaric and ends up getting out of jail. It also shows the stereotype that men overpower their women in the middle east. Just like the stereotype, men have more power than women in the book. When Aunt Safiyya is running her own farm everyone thinks it is wierd because women shouldn't be running farms in their eyes. This fits that stereotype and completely contradicts what the movie "Reel Bad Arabs" was trying to teach us.
I think your discussion of stereotypes is important. Notice how you can make this more complex: 1) some stereotypes don't fit -- the father making sure that the daughters are educated, to use the issue of education for women for example; 2) some stereotypes we can understand better -- the mother is harsh on the daughters and discourages education because she wants them to be honored and successful in the village; 3) some stereotypes are changing -- there are now more women in college in many Middle Eastern countries than there are men in college.
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