Summary

Raja begins this section in his ethics classroom, where he expects to revisit Mill and Kant. Instead, his privileged students are eager to gossip about his mother. A boy named Yusef announces that he has seen Zalfa at the protests, calling her “the oldest person there” and describing how she shouts, jokes, and brandishes scissors in the crowd (52). The class reports her outrageous protest signs, including “This Grandmother Wants the Regime to Fall” and “This Grandmother Wants All the Brothers of Whores in Jail,” along with a more pointed placard that reads, “Do Not Make Me Bring My Son to the Next Demonstration” (53). Embarrassed that his students know more about his mother’s political life than he does, Raja snaps, orders them back to Kant, and mutters inwardly, “I ought to kill my mother” (54).

That evening Raja confronts Zalfa, and their fight follows a...