Every triumph from patience springs,
The happy herald of better things...
Thirteen-year-old Zulaikha lives in the village of An Daral with her father, Sadiq Frouton, his second wife Malehkah, her fifteen-year-old sister Zeynab, her nineteen-year-old brother Najib, and her half brothers, nine-year-old Khalid and two-year-old Habib.
Malehkah is her father's second wife and is expecting another baby. Zulaikha's mother was always kind to Malehkah, helping her to adjust to life in their family. Now Zulaikha's mother is dead (we learn her fate later on in the story) Malekhak is not kind to her. Zulaikha's life is hard as she has had the misfortune to have been born with a cleft palate. This disfiguration makes it difficult for her to eat and speak and has opened her to taunts from adults and children alike. Zulaikha not only feels disgusting and ugly, but also intense shame. Their home is An Daral is "a one-story mud brick house with five rooms" that her father has painted blue on the outside.
The novel opens with Zulaikha walking to the bazaar to buy fresh naan. She's wearing a chador but when she uncovers her mouth to pay for the bread, the shopkeeper looks at her with disgust, quickly fills her order and orders her away so she won't scare off customers. On the way back to her home, Zulaikha is confronted by Anwar and his cousins, Omar and Salman, who taunt her about her mouth with its twisted teeth. Zulaikha's split upper lip makes it hard to speak properly and she also drools. The bullying by Anwar and his cousins stops when the American troops arrive in An Daral.
At home Baba reveals that Hajji Abdullah told him about the arrival of the Americans, that they will pay good money for welders and that they want to open a new school, one that allows girls to attend. Zeynab is astonished at this but Melahkah seems interested. Baba doesn't care as long as the rich Americans pay for everything. Baba arrives home joyfully telling Zulaikha and her family that he has won the contract to add to the American's military base in Farah and to build a school for Afghan children. This means they will have money to buy a car and perhaps even buy a welding truck with equipment in the back. He is so excited at the prospect of increased wealth that he states he may even take another wife, something that does not please Zulaikha.
Zulaikha is sent again to the market to get rice oranges and bananas and ask Khalid to come home. After making her purchases, Zulaikha finds Khalid scaling the wall of the old Citadel, a rock fortress that has existed for centuries. He is being harassed by Anwar and his cousins. Zulaikha helps Khalid out of a difficult climb but then they are chased by a policeman on the Citadel. While Khalid escapes, Zulaikha is only saved by an older woman who pulls her into her house.
That woman tells Zulaikha her name is Meena and before the Russians and then the Taliban, she was a professor of literature at the university in Herat. When the Russians came, they leveled Herat and Meena and her husband Masoud fled to An Daral. After the war, during the Taliban years, Meena ran a clandestine study group for men and women who loved literature and the ancient Afghan poets. Zulaikha remembers that there were strangers in her home reading books. Zulaikha refers to herself as only a girl and that she is not beautiful but Meena responds that her beloved mother adored the great Sufi poet, Jami and his famous poem, Yusuf and Zulaikha. Zulaikha remembers her mother teaching her to read but because her mother died when she was four years old, she can only remember a few words. Meena tells Zulaikha that she doesn't know about Afghan poets Firdawi, Jami, Hafez and Abdullah Ansari. Zulaikha knows only war. Meena recites a verse from Yusuf and Zulaikha, telling Zulaikha that her mother could remember many verses and wanted to memories the entire book so the Taliban couldn't take it from her.
When Zulaikha asks her to teach her to read, Meena agrees. Before Zulaikha leaves her house, Meena gives her a scrap of paper with the Dari alphabet written on it. In order to practice the alphabet she has been taught, Zulaikha, practices writing in the dirt - hence the title of the book. Howeever, Zulaikha finds it a struggle to visit Meena and also difficult to practice the alphabet because she has so many chores.
The following week, Zulaikha is taken by Najib to the American soldiers at the construction site where Baba is working. There she recognizes the African-American soldier who saw her face from his tank when he entered An Daral. Zulaikha meets Captain Mindy Edmanton, a medical officer who asks to see Zulaikha's mouth. Reluctantly but urged on by Baba, Zulaikha lowers her chador, revealing her split lip and twisted teeth. Captain edmanton takes a picture of her mouth. Zulaikha is shocked at the American woman's behaviour, shaking hands with the Afghan men and ordering the American men soldiers around.
When the Americans leave, Najib questions Baba as to what the Americans want. He tells zulaikha that the Americans want to fix her mouth and that if their doctor in Kandahar believes he can fix her mouth they will do the operation for free. Zulaikha is stunned at this news but Najib is happy and Baba tells her he will make all the arrangements.
Shortly after this Zeynab learns that she is to be married off, at fifteen, to Tahir, Abdullah Hajji's younger brother. Both Zeynab and Zuliakha are stunned as they did not expect this to happen so soon. Tahir is forty-five years old and he already has two wives. Zeynab will be his third and youngest wife. The marriage is to be held in three weeks and then Zeynab will move to Farah where Tahir lives. A week later Malehkah hosts the shirnee-khoree which sees many women attend, including Hajji Abdullah's first wife Gulzoma, but Tahir's wives, Leena and Belquis are strangely absent. The shirnee-khoree is upsetting to Zuliakha who has to endure comments by Gulzoma about her mouth.
After the shirnee-khoree, Zuliakha is able to visit Meena and is given a verse from Firdawsi's epic poem, Shahnameh to memorize and copy. Baba tells Zulaikha that he will drive her to Farah and then the two of them will take an American military helicopter to Kandahar where she will have the surgery on her mouth. A week later Zuliakha and Baba drive in their white Toyota to the American base in Farah where they once again meet the interpreter, Shiaraqa, Corporal Andrews the African-American soldier who saw Zuliakha, and Captain Mindy. Unfortunately, the American helicopter cannot flyout of Kandhar and Zulaikha and her father must leave to return home. Baba is furious as he's taken time off work but Zulaikha is devastated. At home she weeps for her lost opportunity and recalls the brutal murder by the Taliban of her mother who loved Persian poetry so very much.
Several weeks later, after the marriage of Zeynab to Tahir, Zuliakha is able to travel to Kandahar to get her cleft lip repaired. This time she travels with Najib and they have their first ride in a huge American helicopter. Zuliakha meets with Dr. and has the operation. After a day in the hospital she returns home to an ecstatic Baba. Life goes on at home with Zulaikha healing and now able to eat properly. With Zeynab gone, most of the household chores fall to Zulaikha. Eventually she visits Meena who tells her that she has applied to be a teacher at the new school in An Daral and was hired by her friend who works for the new Department of Education. Since Meena will be teaching she will not be able to teach Zulaikha. However her friend is so impressed with Zulaikha's story that she has offered to tutor her in Herat so that Zulaikha can get caught up and possibly apply for entrance to university. Meena suggests that Zulaikha could then become a teacher at a school or even university in Kabul or Herat. While Zulaikha believes her Baba will never agree to this, Meena encourages her to at least ask, as Afghanistan is changing.
One her way home from Meena's, Zulaikha has a surprise encounter with Zeynab who is in An Daral with her husband Tahir. Although she tells Zulaikha that her marriage is fine, Zeynab's unkempt appearance and her distracted manner suggest that something is not right. When she leaves, Zulaikha believes her sister is actually saying a final goodbye to her. Baba refuses to allow Zulaikha to visit Zeynab in Farah. What happens to Zeynab changes Zulaikha's life forever.
Discussion
Words in the Dust is set in Afghanistan in 2005, during the invasion of the country by the United States after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The novel is based on a real young girl Trent Reedy encountered while serving in western Afghanistan with the United States army. It was at this time that he met a young Afghan girl named Zulaikha who had a cleft palate. "My unit was on a mission to make contact with the elders of a village north of Farah. Our commanders wanted to ask the elders if there was any way the Americans could help improve the village. On this mission, one of the soldiers saw a young girl with a cleft lip. ...In addition her nose was disfigured and her upper set of teeth were badly crooked, some sticking out almost straight forward. " Reedy noted that not only would this surgery in Afghanistan be very expensive but also under the Taliban rule, this young girl would not have been allowed to see a male doctor. On a second mission to the village his unit's chief military officer was able to locate the Afghan girl whose name was Zulaikha. Reedy and his fellow soldiers pooled their money together to pay transport to the US airbase at Bagram, where a military doctor did the surgery for free. Inspired by Zualiakha's quiet courage and now understanding the obstacles girls and women face in Afghanistan, Reedy promised to write about her. In his Author's Note at the back of the novel, Reedy admits that while he is neither an Afghani nor a girl, he felt compelled to write her story, recognizing that in Afghanistan the majority of women are illiterate.
To help readers place the events in the novel into a historical context, a brief history of recent events in Afghanistan would have helped. In 1978, Afghanistan came under Soviet influence with the bloody coup that saw the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seize power and form the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. By 1979, Afghanistan, once a peaceful country, was now embroiled in civil war. Nur Mohammad Taraki who had led the country was assassinated and conditions deteriorated further, leading to the Soviet invasion in 1979. This led to the Soviet-Afghan war which lasted nine years, until the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1988. In 1994, the Taliban rose to prominence, having been supported by the Islamic madrassas in Pakistan as well as by the United States. It was this support that would come back to haunt the Americans. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and established an Islamic emirate enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. The Taliban treated people, especially women brutally. Under the Taliban, women were required to wear a full burqa, were unable to access health care and education and were not allowed to work. Women who help positions in government and education had to leave their jobs and were confined to home. Society became highly segregated, with men and women having separate areas at public events and in public buildings.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, America invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 hoping to capture Osama Bin Laden who was responsible for the attacks. The Americans were able to drive out the Taliban by December 2001, most of whom fled into the mountainous regions of Afghanistan or into Pakistan. Hamid Karzai became president of Afghanistan in 2002. During the period of 2002 to 2005, the Taliban reorganized and began to attack US forces and their allies. It is the end of this period that provides the setting of the novel.
The brutality of the previous Taliban regime is portrayed in the novel when Zulaikha recalls the murder of her mother by the Taliban. Books other than the Quran were banned during the Taliban reign and so Meena, a former literature professor at the university in Herat organized a secret book group for women. Zulaikha's mother was part of Meena's group who studied the works of famous Persian poets. Somehow the Taliban came to know that Zulaikha's mother had banned books. The Taliban broke into Zulaikha's home, beat her father, burned the offending books and murdered her mother after beating her. Zulaikha is well aware that even though the Taliban are gone, any learning or reading of literature must be done in secret. She doesn't tell even her own family that she is secretly meeting Meena. She later learns, after Zeynab's murder, that it was her father's second wife, Malekah who, by deliberately sending Zulaikha on errands gave her the opportunity to meet with Meena. Later she tells Zulaikha she did this because she felt there had to be something better than just being married off.
However, Islamic law still remains in Afghanistan in 2005. Girls cannot attend school. Women do not work, must wear a chadri, cannot be in the company of men who are unrelated to them, and are strictly segregated. However, the presence of the Americans is gradually bringing about change: Baba is helping to build a new school for girls in An Daral, and women like Meena are being allowed back into teaching. The novel serves to highlight the huge cultural difference between the Americans with their women soldiers who command troops and work as medics and the Afghanis whose women are illiterate and kept hidden.
Through the character of Zulaikha, Reedy introduces his readers to the literature of Persia. Meena tells Zulaikha her name comes from the poem Yusuf and Zulaikha written by Jami. Although Meena doesn't elaborate on it, this story is found in the Bible and the Qu'ran and is about Joseph who was living in the house of the Egyptian, Potiphar and whose unnamed wife attempted to seduce him. In the Bible the story is about Joseph's (Yusuf's) heroic virtue and Potiphar's wife's betrayal. Meena also introduces Zulaikha to Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), an epic poem written by the Persian poet Firdawsi. This epic poem touches Zuliakha deeply. "I looked down at the words I'd written on the paper. Words that were at once a thousand years old and yet completely new."
Words In the Dust also explores the problem of domestic violence within Afghan families. In Afghanistan culture, the lives of women are strictly controlled by men and a culture of honour. One issue explored is the practice of "bride burning" - a practice common in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Young brides are murdered because they are unwanted for various reasons: an insufficient dowry, inability to conceive or any other reason deemed sufficient. Often a young wife is taken to hospital with severe burns and family, police and medical personnel are told the young wife was injured by an exploding gas stove. However, the burns are extensive, very severe and not consistent with this kind of "accident". If the victim doesn't die, they are often terribly mutiliated.
In Words in the Dust, Zeynab is a victim of this type of domestic violence. Zulaikha's earlier encounter with Zeynab reveals that all is not well in her marriage to Tahir. Zeynab shows signs of abuse. Her normally clean and well made up appearance is in stark contrast to what Zulaikha sees, "...there were dark circles under her bloodshot eyes and her lips were dry and cracked..." Zulaikha notes that Zeynab's beautiful hair is matted and dusty. Zeynab tells her that Tahir wants her to have a son but that she is uncertain - suggesting that she is having trouble conceiving, even though she's only been married a short time. In the hospital at Farah, a badly burned and dying Zeynab states again that it was Tahir who says she cannot have a baby. Tahir refuses to allow the Americans to take Zeynab to their hospital and she dies. Although the American medical officer Captain Mindy Edmanston is aware of what has happened, Zulaikha says nothing. Tahir tells Zulaikha that the American woman, "She doesn't understand. She knows nothing. These things happen." but Zulaikha observes that Tahir hasn't cried and seems indifferent to Zeynab's death. "My sister was only one of his wives. He had two others. He was a rich man and could marry again."
Zeynab's circumstances serve to highlight not only domestic violence and the practice of bride burning but also child marriage. She was married at age fifteen to a much older man. The marriage was arranged by her father, not for care of Zeynab but to form an alliance with a wealthy man without consideration for his character. Zeynab had no say in the marriage, which she was conditioned by her culture to accept, without seeing her prospective husband and without even being present when the marriage was contracted.
The Taliban and cultural acceptance that a husband can physically beat his wife is shown when Baba strikes Malehkah across the face, breaking her nose and causing her to fall and hit her head on the concrete floor. Later on, Baba returns to his home but his apology is not really one, but a statement that shows he has the right to hit his wife. "Malehkah, please forgive me. I should not have hit you so hard."
Overall Words in the Dust is an engaging and well written novel. Younger readers should be cautioned that the description of Zeynab's injuries are very graphic and may be unsettling. This was not really necessary in a novel for younger readers. Older teens may find the frequent quotes from the poet Jami's work, Yusuf and Zualikha fascinating and want to read parts or all of the poem. This work can be found in partial form online through google books.
Trent Reedy, who was a member of the Iowa Army National Guard, was called up for active duty in Afghanistan in 2004 and spent a year serving overseas. While overseas, he became convinced that he would love to write books for children. Upon his return to the United States, Reedy received a MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Book Details:
Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy
Arthur A. Levine Books 2011
266 pp.
