When Mariam was first married off
to Rasheed, she had to sign a legal document to seal the marriage. She signed the
legal document the way she was taught: first with the meem, then the reh, the ya, and the meem again.
“Mariam signed her name – the meem, the reh, the ya, and the meem again – conscious of all eyes on
her hand. The next time Mariam signed a document, twenty-seven years later, a
mullah would again be present. ‘You are now husband and wife,” the mullah said.
“Tabreek. Congrau
lations.” (Hosseini,
54)
Twenty seven years later, Mariam
shares a house with Rasheed and Laila, a younger wife that Rasheed picked up.
Rasheed is a man with a bad temper and he finds out that Laila has found her
long lost lover, Tariq. Enraged, he picks up a belt and beats her with it. She
tries to fight back but Rasheed just hits her and drops the belt to choke her. In
a panic, Mariam goes into the toolshed and gets a shovel. She first hits him
with the broadside. Rasheed stumbles off of Laila but the murderous intent was
still visible in his eyes. Mariam then turns the shovel on its blade and swings
down. Mariam decides that both she and Laila cannot escape because they will
find Rasheed sooner or later so she decides to take the fall.
“Before they led her out, Mariam
was given a document, told to sign beneath her statement and the mullah’s
sentence. As the three Taliban watched, Mariam wrote it out, her name – the meem, the reh, the ya, and the meem – remembering the last time she
signed her name to a document twenty
seven years before, at Jalil’s table, beneath the watchful gaze of another
mullah.” (Hosseini, 366)
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