Zain didn’t tell her grandmother she wanted to go there to say goodbye. And her grandmother, for her part, didn’t tell her that the old ladies in Ziqaq Al Yasmin didn’t want to see her anymore. As far as they were concerned, Zain had corrupted the other girls in the neighborhood by saying that when any of them got married, she should have her right to initiate a divorce written into the marriage contract so that if things didn’t go well, her husband couldn’t demean her or force her to stay with him against her will and best interests. The neighbor ladies had even gone so far as to call down God’s mercy on her late mother who, as they put it, “was so meek and mild she would have let the cat eat her dinner without saying a thing!”
With Zain supporting her grandmother on her arm, they made t
