"Distant View of a Minaret" is a short story by Alifa Rifaat. Like many of Rifaat's stories, the story deals with issues of religion, femininity and loss in Egyptian society, criticizing aspects of the patriarchy through a religious lens. The story is told from the point of view of a wife having unenjoyable sex with her husband. Afterwards, she prays, reflecting on how religion is more important to her than her alienated relationship with her husband. After the husband dies of a heart attack she is surprisingly unfazed.