The Hour Past Midnight by Salma

Author:Salma
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: feminism, women, gender, fiction, novel, muslim women, literary fiction, award winning
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2013-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Rahima handed Amina an invitation, saying very affectionately, ‘You are the first person I’m inviting in this town. You must come, most definitely.’ Firdaus squatted next to the doorframe. There was a look of disinclination on her face, which made Rahima wondered whether she disapproved of Sikander.

Amina, accepting the wedding invitation, caught hold of Rahima’s hands and said, ‘I would love to accept and attend the wedding. But I don’t know how to manage it.’ She stopped short. Her brown eyes rested on Firdaus for moment, and then returned to Rahima.

Rahima understood what she wished to say and, in order to stop her words, she pressed Amina’s dry and withered hands between hers. ‘That is no problem at all. You must have no hesitation or worries about anything; you must come, I insist. What has happened in your family is nothing so unusual in this world. Because of that one thing, how long will you confine yourself to your house, without joining in with the community, its celebrations and sorrows? If people want to gossip, let them. Allah will look after us. You mustn’t worry like this and ruin your health.’ Rahima spoke very gently, consoling Amina.

Firdaus bowed her head even lower than before. She looked closely at herself for a moment, at the faded blouse and sari that she was wearing. She felt ashamed. Every time Rahima glanced at her, she lowered her eyes and gazed at her own hands. She twisted the border of her sari around her finger. She could see from Zohra’s expression that she felt humiliated by the state of her sister. However close she was to Rahima, Zohra would not like her sister-in-law to assume that Amina’s family was close to poverty.

Zohra now intervened before Amina could reply to Rahima. She needed to establish to Rahima that the family was not in such dire straits. She burst out angrily, ‘Amma, why are you keeping her in this beggarly state? As if she comes from a poor family and has nothing of her own?’

Rahima was quiet, she understood from Zohra’s look of discomfort why she was so angry. But it struck her as foolish of Zohra to reprimand her mother in this way, and to try and insist on her family’s honour. Rahima was embarrassed by it.

Amina’s wrinkled face became even more wizened when she heard Zohra’s question. She turned to Firdaus and drove her away from there, ordering her sharply, ‘You go into the kitchen. There’s plenty of work for you there.’ Firdaus said nothing, but rose quietly and went. It was not a new experience for her to be humiliated by her mother, but for her to do it in front of Rahima made her deeply resentful.

After Firdaus went away, Amina gripped Rahima’s hands once more, and spoke in vindication of her position. ‘Rahima, you tell me yourself. Have you seen how beautiful she is? She’s like the fourteenth day’s moon. Has the light left her face, in spite

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