The Year of the Elephant, Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

Zahra went to the post office to fill out her divorce papers and get the small sum of money the law afforded divorced women, enough to live off of for a hundred days. She was humiliated with the process of standing in lines. Zahra visited the open-air market, and her spirit was oppressed by the place. She visited her faqih, and expressed her frustration and despair. She wondered what on earth she would do to survive, and she provided her own answer: she could spin wool, a skill she learned from her grandmother. Her spirits were raised by the prospect that she could actually make a living.

Zahra thought next about the first days of joining the Moroccan resistance movement. One day, a stranger named Faqih (not to be confused with...