Following Nana's hanging in Chapter 5 of A
Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam returned with Jalil to his home. It appeared
that Mariam is going to be a part of Jalil's larger family, and he has ordered a room
prepared for her upstairs. Mariam remained in her room, eating alone. On the second day
of her stay, a little girl came into the room. It was Jalil's eight year-old daughter,
Niloufar; her mother is Afsoon, one of Jalil's wives. She showed Mariam her gramophone
and played a song for her. Then Niloufar
readability="8">
... put her palms and forehead to the ground. She
pushed with her soles and then she was standing upside down, on her head, in a
three-point stance.
Niloufar
offered to teach Mariam how to stand on her head, but Mariam didn't seem interested.
Niloufar then told Mariam that her mother
readability="5">
"... says that a jinn made
your mother hang
herself."
Mariam's stay in
Jalil's home would not be permanent, however. A few days later, it was decided that
Mariam would be married to a suitor--a shoemaker in Kabul named
Rasheed.
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