SOURCE: Erickson, John D. “Veiled Woman and Veiled Narrative in Tahar Ben Jelloun's The Sand Child.” Boundary 2 20, no. 1 (spring 1993): 47-64.

In the following essay, Erickson analyzes the difficulties surrounding Ahmed/Zahra's ambivalent sexuality in The Sand Child and asserts that Ahmed/Zahra's struggle to find acceptance in the Islamic world mirrors Ben Jelloun's own complex position as a Maghrebian author.

There is a truth that cannot be said, not even suggested, but [only] lived in absolute solitude. …

—Tahar Ben Jelloun, The Sand Child

I am … the look that seeks itself and the mirror.

—Tahar Ben Jelloun, The Sand Child

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A great deal has been written about the privileges accruing to males and the exploitation of women in the societies of the Islamic East. This situation comprises part of a much broader system of exploitation, coming not solely from forces within these societies but from their interaction with forces...