Page 247 - A Woman Is No Man

Respected? Accomplished? Tell me, do you?”
“No.”
“How is that not hurting me? That’s why I refuse to listen to my family

anymore.”
Isra stared at her in horror. “What are you saying?”
Sarah looked briefly at the door before whispering, “I’m running away.”
There was a moment of silence as Isra registered the words. She opened
her mouth to speak, stopped, felt herself choke. Then she swallowed.
“What, are you crazy?”
“I don’t have a choice, Isra. I have to leave.”

“Why?”
“I . . . I have to. I can’t live like this anymore.”
“What are you saying? You can’t just leave!” She reached for Sarah’s
arm, clutched it. “Please, I’m begging you, don’t do this!”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, shaking her arm free. “But nothing you say will
change my mind. I’m leaving.” Isra opened her mouth to speak, but Sarah

cut her off. “And you should come with me.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Says the girl who ran out the basement window in the middle of the
night.”
“That was different! I was upset. I didn’t plan to run away . . . and I
came back! Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. I have daughters to think of.”
“Exactly. If I had a daughter, I would do anything to save her from this.”

Deep down, Isra knew her daughters would live out this same life. That
one day she would become like Fareeda and push them into marriages, no
matter how much they hated her for it. But that wasn’t a reason to run away.
She was a foreigner here, with no money or skills, nothing to live on,
nowhere to go. She turned to Sarah. “What will you do? How will you
live?”

“I’ll go to college, get a job.”
“It’s not that easy,” Isra said. “You’ve never even spent a night away
from home, let alone lived on your own. You need someone to take care of
you.”
“I can take care of myself,” Sarah said. Then, in a softer voice, she
added, “You can take care of yourself, too. We can take care of each other.”
Their eyes met. “If you’re not strong enough to do it for yourself, then do it

for your daughters.”