Understanding Khadija

Since the beginning of the book, I’ve wondered and pondered about Khadija’s character in the book. She seemed to be one of the more peculiar characters in the sense that she was a very inexplicably angry and negative character. From the beginning her character struck me, reminding me of myself because of the anger that dwelled inside of her.

In this section, I began to explore her anger. There are times in the book where she admits her feelings of jealousy and hatred. Until this section in the book, I didn’t see the details of the things she hated so passionately. I see that she really does have issues that revolve around her insecurities about her nose, but I don’t feel this is the determining factor for her anger towards her sister and other siblings. I think it’s something deeper, but what that is, I haven’t figured out yet.

She could possibly be under the stress that her dad puts on her life. You can see that all of Ahmad’s children and his wife are afraid of him. Possibly this weight that is placed on her is due to having to constantly walk on her toes because she’s afraid of upsetting her father. She’s one of the most difficult people to understand because of her anger. In the situation where the children were deciding who should be the one to talk to their father to persuade him to bring his mother back to their homes. Khadija says, “I thought this was job more suitable for women” (214). This was her in efforts to evade the responsibility of being the one chosen to talk to her father because, later on, she confesses to being afraid ,of speaking to her father. She was even afraid to take on the responsibility of looking after Ahmad while the mother was healing.

Also, she is like the second mother in the house and bears some of the weight her mother does. She talks about how emotionally she was there for everyone and was like a mother for her family. I was thinking about how we put the emphasis on the parents role but I was thinking about what it’s like to be the oldest daughter in the family and what that job entails. I read a webpage that talked about the roles of different people in the family. The article talked about how people are responsible for there roles in the family and the children are to respect the mother and perform their duties (1). I thought this was interesting and kinda differed from the role that Khadija plays as sister and “second in command to her mother” (186). I think her role in the book is important but the way she feels about certain things still puzzles me now.

1. "What Does Islam Teach About the Family and the Roles of Men, Women and Children?"Sisters Area. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. .