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Women are alienated in a remote
place Jalil didnt have the dil either, Nana said, to do the honorable
thing. To stand up to his family, to his wives and in-laws, and accept responsibility for what he had done. Instead, behind
closed doors, a face saving deal had quickly been struck. The next day, he had made her gather her few things from the
servants quarters, where shed been living, and sent her off. Nana
71
Women are alienated in a remote
place And, believe me, Nana said, it was a relief to your father
having me out of sight. It suited him just fine. It was Muhsin, Jalils eldest son by his first wife, Khadija, who
suggested the clearing. It was on the outskirts of Gul Daman. To get to it, one took a rutted, uphill dirt track that branched off
the main road between Herat and Gul Daman. The track was flanked on either side by knee high grass and speckles of
white and bright yellow flowers. The track snaked uphill and led to a flat field where poplars and cottonwoods soared and
wild bushes grew in clusters. From up there, one could make out the tips of the rusted blades of Gul Damans windmill, on
the left, and, on the right, all of Herat spread below. The path ended perpendicular to a wide, trout-filled stream, which
rolled down from the Safid-koh mountains surrounding Gul Daman. Two hundred yards upstream, toward the
mountains, there was a circular grove of weeping willow trees. In the center, in the shade of the willows, was the
clearing. Jalil went there to have a look. When he came back, Nana said,
he sounded like a warden bragging about the clean walls and shiny floors of his prison.
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And so, your father built us this rathole. Nana and
Mariam
Women are alienated in a remote
place In the clearing, Jalil and two of his sons, Farhad and Muhsin,
built the small
kolba where Mariam would live the first fifteen years of her life. They raised it with sun dried bricks
and plastered it with mud and handfuls of straw. It had two
sleeping cots, a wooden table, two straight backed chairs, a window, and shelves nailed to the walls where Nana placed clay
pots and her beloved Chinese tea set. Jalil put in a new cast iron stove for the winter and stacked logs of chopped wood behind
the kolba. He added a tandoor outside for making bread and a chicken coop with a fence around it. He brought a few sheep,
built them a feeding trough. He had Farhad and Muhsin dig a deep hole a hundred yards outside the circle of willows and built
an outhouse over it. Nana
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Women are forced to get married
You have a suitor, Khadija said. Mariams stomach fell. A what? she said through suddenly
numb lips. A khasiegar. A suitor. His name is Rasheed, Khadija went on.
He is a friend of a business acquaintance of your fathers. Hes a Pashtun, from Kandahar originally, but he lives in Kabul, in the
Deh Mazang district, in a two-story house that he owns. Afsoon was nodding. And he does speak Farsi, like us, like you.
So you wont have to learn Pashto. Mariams chest was tightening. The room was reeling up and
down, the ground shifting beneath her feet.
Mariam
467
Women are forced to get married
I dont want to, Mariam said. She looked at Jalil. I dont want this. Dont make me. She hated the sniffling, pleading
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124
tone of her voice but could not help it. Mariam
Sons are preferred than girls
Do you want a boy or a girl first? The minarets Oh, what beauty What a gorgeous city
Boy is better, Mariam jan, they carry the family name
Mariam
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Women‟s ways of dressing up are
restricted He fished a sky blue burqa from the bag. The yards of pleated
cloth spilled over his knees when he lifted it. He rolled up the burqa, looked at Mariam.
I have customers, Mariam, men, who bring their wives to my shop. The women come uncovered, they talk to me directly,
look me in the eye without shame. They wear makeup and skirts that show their knees. Sometimes they even put their
feet in front of me, the women do, for measurements, and their husbands stand there and watch. They allow it. They
think nothing of a stranger touching their wives bare feet They think theyre being modern men, intellectuals, on
account of their education, I suppose.
They dont see that theyre spoiling their own
nang and namoos, their honor and pride. Mariam
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Women‟s ways of dressing up are
restricted Mariam had never before worn a burqa. Rasheed had to help her
put it on. The padded headpiece felt tight and heavy on her skull, and it was strange seeing the world through a mesh
screen. She practiced walking around her room in it and kept stepping on the hem and stumbling. The loss of peripheral
vision was unnerving, and she did not like the suffocating way the pleated cloth kept pressing against her mouth.
Mariam
7110
Womens mobility is They had Eid visitors at the house. They were all men, friends of 8112
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