Page 89 - A Woman Is No Man

“But what if your parents find out that you disobey them?” Isra asked.
“Fareeda almost slapped you earlier. Won’t they beat you?”
“Probably,” Sarah said, looking away.

“Do you . . . Do they hit you often?”
“Only if I backtalk or don’t listen. Baba beat me with his belt once
when he found a note in my bag from my friend at school, but I try to make
sure I never get caught doing anything they won’t like.”
“Is that why you sneak your books home?”
Sarah looked up. “How did you know that?”
Isra gave another small smile. “Because I used to sneak books home,

too.”
“I didn’t know you like to read.”
“I do,” Isra said. “But I haven’t read in a while. I only brought one book
here with me.”
“Which one is that?”
“A Thousand and One Nights. It’s my favorite.”

“A Thousand and One Nights?” Sarah paused to think. “Isn’t that the
story of a king who vows to marry and kill a different woman every night
because his wife cheats on him?”
“Yes!” Isra said, excited that Sarah had read it. “Then he’s tricked by
Scheherazade, who tells him a new story for a thousand and one nights until
he eventually spares her life. I must have read it a million times.”
“Really?” Sarah said. “It isn’t that good.”

“But it is. I just love the storytelling, the way so many tales unfold at
once, the idea of a woman telling stories for her life. It’s beautiful.”
Sarah shrugged. “I’m not a big fan of make-believe stories.”
Isra’s eyes sprung wide. “It’s not make-believe!”
“It’s about genies and viziers, which don’t exist. I prefer stories about
real life.”

“But it is about real life,” Isra said. “It’s about the strength and
resilience of women. No one asks Scheherazade to marry the king. She
volunteers on behalf of all women to save the daughters of Muslims
everywhere. For a thousand and one nights, Scheherazade’s stories were
resistance. Her voice was a weapon—a reminder of the extraordinary power
of stories, and even more, the strength of a single woman.”
“Someone read the story a little too deeply,” Sarah said with a smile. “I

didn’t see strength or resistance when I read it. All I saw was a made-up