A Woman Is No Man

Deya finally discovers the truth of her parents’ deaths. As reported in the newspaper article Sarah gives her, Isra was beaten to death by Adam, who then threw himself from the Brooklyn Bridge. Riding the train back to Bay Ridge, Deya reproaches herself for not suspecting the truth sooner and for not pressing Fareeda harder for the real story. Deya cannot reconcile her happy memories of Adam with the truth of his actions. She resolves not to relive Isra’s life.

Isra cannot remember her life before marriage. The sights and smells of Palestine are nearly lost to her. All she knows is the tedium of motherhood and housework. Now the mother of four daughters, Isra spends her days bathing them, brushing their hair, helping Fareeda, and trying to find time to read. She is still young, but sometimes she feels that she has experienced “far too much of the world for one life” (248). When Deya asks to watch a “princess” movie, Isra refuses. She fears that these movies will instill in her daughters the same naïve ideas of love that she once had. Before going upstairs to make dinner, she reminds Deya that she loves her.

Deya shares the story of Isra’s murder with her sister, Nora. She pledges to confront Fareeda and “make her tell me everything” (251). Then, she tells Nora, they are going to make a plan to run away.

One morning after Isra and Sarah have washed the dishes, Fareeda announces she has found a suitor for Sarah. Isra fears the loss of her only friend and confidante as well as her secret supplier of books. Isra notices Sarah’s secret rebellions, such as makeup she wipes off before coming home and sleeveless shirts she hides in her backpack. Isra and Sarah debate a woman’s place in their culture, and Sarah vows to endure as many beatings as Fareeda can dish out in to preserve her autonomy.

Fareeda entertains a new suitor for Sarah, but he declines. Fareeda grows desperate, vowing to marry off Sarah to anyone who says yes, even if he’s “old and fat” (258). In her basement apartment, Isra observes her daughters and vows to save them from a life like hers. As she reads to Deya, Deya mentions that Isra always seems sad. Isra tries to deny it, but she doesn’t believe her own denial. 

Fareeda contemplates her life with Khaled, who rarely speaks to her or even looks at her anymore. Where, she wonders, is the man who “used to break belts across her skin” (262). Leaving Palestine broke his spirit. Reflecting on her own life, she regrets the time that has passed, leaving her with few good memories. As she lies in bed, Deya bursts in and confronts her grandmother with the truth of her mother’s murder and her father’s suicide. Fareeda persists with the car accident ruse, hoping to shelter Deya and her sisters from the scorn of the community, but Deya insists she knows the truth; she shows Fareeda the news article and mentions Sarah as the source.

Unable to deny the truth any longer, Fareeda explains that she was only trying to protect the girls from shame and trauma, but when she confesses that she told Adam to run away after killing Isra, Deya becomes enraged that Fareeda “tried to cover for him” (266). Falling back on her old superstitions, Fareeda insists that both Isra and Adam were possessed. After the murder/suicide, Nadine and Omar moved away, and Ali followed, now living in Manhattan with a girlfriend. Deya calls Fareeda a hypocrite for treating Adam’s crime as more forgivable than Sarah’s running away. Fareeda sees the truth in Deya’s accusation, and she breaks down in tears.

Isra ponders her failings as a mother, and that night when Adam comes home, she admits to him her fear that their daughters will be trapped in the same cycle of marriage and child-bearing that Arab women have always been. He is not receptive to her argument. He accuses her of ingratitude and flies into a rage, beating her. He threatens further beatings in front of the girls if she brings up the subject again: “I’ll make sure they see what happens when a woman disobeys her husband” (274).

Desperate and terrified, Isra climbs out the window when Adam is in the bathroom and flees. Running through the streets of Bay Ridge at midnight, she encounters a stranger who notices her bleeding and tries to help. He leads her to a pay phone and tells her to call for help. With no other options, she calls Fareeda.

Fareeda and Khaled come to bring her home. Khaled is furious with her for running away, accusing her of seeing another man. The sight of Isra’s bloody head wound and Khaled’s unfounded accusations angers Fareeda. She turns on her husband, defending Isra (and by extension, all women), and asks why Khaled isn’t angry with Adam for beating his wife so brutally. Isra is stunned at Fareeda’s defense and wonders if maybe her mother-in-law loves her after all. 

As Deya continues to demand the full story, Fareeda confesses her own dark truth: When she delivered two girls to Khaled in the refugee camp, girls who would be yokes around their necks rather than sources of pride, she killed them; that sin haunts her in the form of the jinn that she believes possessed Adam and Isra.