Against the Loveless World

“Eastern dance, what people who don’t know better call ‘belly dancing,’ might look like controlled, orchestrated movement, but it is actually the opposite. Our dance is about chaos and anarchy. It’s the antithesis of control.”

Nahr speaks of the disparity between Western conceptualizations of the Arab world and the reality of life in Palestinian culture. Nahr comes into contact with a series of people who view her through the lens of bias and stereotype, and this anecdote about Eastern dance encapsulates the problematic way that many Westerners view the Middle East.

“Palestine remained the old country in my young mind, a distant place of my grandmother’s generation.”

Nahr grew up in exile from her family’s Palestinian homeland, in Kuwait. Her family was forced off of their land during the 1948 Israeli occupation that would come to be known as the Nakba (See: Background). Since Nahr’s generation grew up scattered throughout the diaspora, they struggle to maintain a connection to their homeland and their identity as Palestinians, reflecting The Impact of Displacement and Diaspora.

“Palestinians learned the first time in 1948 that leaving to save your life meant that you would lose everything and could never go back.”

The trauma of the Nakba and its continued impact on successive generations runs throughout the narrative and connects it to other works of Palestinian literature, most of which also engages with displacement and diaspora in some way. Nahr’s family loses a home which their family had owned for many years, and in doing so they also lose their possessions, their bank accounts, and their identities. They are forced to move to Kuwait, Jordan, and other areas where they grow up with only a shaky connection to Palestine.

“Here in the cube, I contemplate every decision I ever made. Turning to Um Buraq stands out as pivotal in altering the course of my life.”

It is through writing about herself that Nahr comes to understand the decisions she made, why she made them, and how they impacted her life. Her relationship with Um Buraq is complex and multifaceted, and it is only through reflecting on it that she is able to make sense of it. Her prison cell, “the cube,” also functions as an important symbol in the text (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“God didn’t make us just to have babies and serve the needs of men while they run around and do whatever they want.”

Um Buraq’s defiant statement here speaks to her complex characterization. Although she coerces women into sex work, she does so because she feels it is a more empowered alternative to marriage—a relationship in which women have no agency and are stripped of the freedom to make their own decisions. Um Buraq’s perspective helps shape Nahr’s developing ideas about The Complexities of Sexuality and Women’s Autonomy.

“Um Buraq loved me, at the same time she used and exploited me.”

This line speaks to the complex sexual politics of the novel as well as the complexity of Um Buraq’s characterization. Although she does seem to care about Nahr, she nonetheless exploits her. However, Um Buraq sees men as universally antagonistic toward women, and in her eyes, sex work is an opportunity to use them and extract as much money as possible. To Um Buraq, the only alternative to this kind of life is marriage, an inherently unequal relationship which disempowers women.

“Visitors and guards have told me that the cube is a technological marvel, the first of its kind. As an almost completely automated solitary cell, it has made me famous in ‘security circles’—private prison corporations, surveillance tech companies, and various ancillary suppliers of bondage.”

The Cube where Nahr resides for 16 years inside of an Israeli prison functions symbolically within the narrative. It represents the way that the Israeli government and its army have squeezed the Palestinian people into increasingly small portions of what was once their ancestral home, effectively imprisoning them in places like the Gaza Strip (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“When the American invasion was clearly imminent, I stopped reading and watching the news.”

Nahr, like many other Palestinians, initially tries to ignore the news. The incursion of geopolitical events into everyday lives becomes impossible to ignore, and as the invasion draws on, it is clear to the Palestinian community in Kuwait that yet another advancing army will have an impact on their lives. This kind of scene will be repeated over and over within the novel, and will result in Nahr’s family fleeing multiple countries.

“This Country will never be the same without Palestinians. Look at all these empty buildings.”

This line speaks to the novel’s interest in the geopolitical events that have impacted the Palestinian diaspora. Here, the Palestinians who fled to Kuwait because of the Israeli occupation of their lands are once again forced to leave during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait (See: Background). Since Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has sided with Saddam and his invading army, Palestinians like Nahr are subject to even more discrimination than usual. Already unwelcome as foreigners in a small, oil-rich country, they are now seen as collaborators with the enemy.

“Everywhere I turned in Amman, there was a reminder of loss.”

Nahr here reflects upon The Impact of Displacement and Diaspora. Having been forced out of Kuwait, Nahr must adjust to a new country and feels even more isolated and lonely than before.

“Everything is different, Mama told me upon their return to Amman. All the checkpoints, Jewish settlement construction, foreign Jews everywhere. I hardly recognized the place. I felt like a stranger in my own country.”

Nahr’s mother visits Palestine and feels alienated even when back in her home country. As she explains to Nahr, the Israeli government’s occupation is expanding in Palestinian territory, and while Israelis can move freely through the territory, Palestinians like her face many restrictions.

“Here is where we began. Where our songs were born, our ancestors buried.”

Although Nahr struggles to feel connected to Palestine before visiting due to The Impact of Displacement and Diaspora, once she is there, her appreciation for her family’s homeland deepens and she realizes that she is indeed part of the history of the country. Part of her decision to join the resistance will be rooted in this renewed spirit of connection.

“I wondered if Bilal wasn’t still part of the resistance, but he ignored my questions about the mysterious meetings. I didn’t ask again.”

The importance of the resistance movement becomes more apparent to Nahr as the novel progresses, coinciding with her growing intimacy with Bilal and her rediscovery of her Palestinian identity. Bilal’s commitment to the resistance speaks to the theme of Resistance in the Face of Occupation and Oppression.

“What’s truly revolutionary in this world is to relinquish the belief that you have a right to an opinion about who another person chooses to fuck and why.”

Nahr says this to Jumana, highlighting The Complexities of Sexuality and Women’s Autonomy after Jumana judges Nahr for her past sex work. Here, Nahr argues that women should refrain from passing judgment on one another and that sexual autonomy is often linked to privilege, not to personal choice.

“It was deliberate. Jandal had been murdered. And as with thousands of Palestinians just like him, there would be no accountability.”

The Israeli army murders Jandal, a kind and gentle man who is Bilal’s friend. Bilal and his family are the last to remain in their home in an area increasingly targeted by Israeli settlers. Bilal regards Jandal’s murder as a warning meant to scare Bilal and his family away.

“Men have a way of speaking to women as if we’re children.”

Nahr is particularly attuned to gender-based discrimination, and she is willing to speak her mind to point out these moments of injustice. Although this does make her unpopular with conservative people, it earns her respect amongst the resistance fighters whom she begins to work with in Palestine.

“Israeli settlers setting fire to trees during the harvest had become so commonplace in the past ten years that international aid organizations had been established for the sole purpose of defending Palestinian farmers.”

Nahr’s eventual commitment to Resistance in the Face of Occupation and Oppression is fueled by her experiences witnessing various injustices in Palestine. Here, she reflects upon the dangers faced by Palestinian farmers during harvest season, something she herself experiences directly.

“Only Arab killers are Israeli heroes.”

The novel suggests that the glorification of death and violence spurs further violence, with each side becoming increasingly unable to see the other as anything more than a faceless enemy.

“I love it! You’ve been a rebel and a revolutionary your whole life!”

Bilal says this to Nahr, demonstrating the depth of his love for her as well as how he does not judge her for her past sex work. Where others look at Nahr and see little more than a scandal, Bilal sees a beautiful, complex, multi-faceted individual. He is the first man to see her with real humanity.

“I don’t see how anyone can survive colonialism.”

Nahr and her fellow resistance fighters regard the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine as a form of colonialism. Their fears that they might not “survive” the occupation in spite of their efforts to resist speaks to the theme of Resistance in the Face of Occupation and Oppression.

“They were newcomers, mostly from the United States, who had been given government subsidies to live on confiscated Palestinian land.”

Nahr here reflects on how, while Israel prohibited Palestinians from returning to Palestine for many years once they had left, it encouraged migration into the area by Jewish men and women from Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. Bilal’s family farm is in danger of being taken over by settlers, even though they have owned the land for generations.

“I did what Bilal would have done. I colonized the colonizers’ space of authority. I made myself free in chains and held that courtroom captive to my freedom.”

Nahr responds to her conviction and imprisonment with defiance, speaking to her ongoing Resistance in the Face of Occupation and Oppression. While being imprisoned means that Nahr can no longer actively participate in the resistance movement’s activities, she nevertheless continues to assert herself, which she regards as its own kind of “freedom.”

“Whatever happens in this ungenerous world, we’ll meet again, my sister.”

Nahr forms strong bonds with people like Jumana and Um Buraq in part because they share the experience of The Impact of Displacement and Diaspora. In this way, exile becomes both a source of trauma and a source of strength: Nahr and women like her know that they have the resilience to maintain their humanity and their friendships in the face of systemic mistreatment.