Mariam

Mariam, daughter of Nana and Jalil, was born in Herat in the spring of 1959. Her father, a wealthy man who owns a cinema and other businesses, is married to three wives and has ten children excluding Mariam and her mother. Once a week he comes to visit Mariam at her home located on the outskirts of Gul Daman. He tells her stories of past events and talks of his cinema and from time to time he brings her a gift. Mariam doesn’t know much of Jalil other than what she hears from him and her mother who very much despises him. According to her, he is the most awful man that she has ever known. She had worked for him as a servant and while she was his employee he had an affair with her. Upon news of her pregnancy, Jalil had her leave and built her a house outside Gul Daman. After this she was furious with him for not taking responsibility for what he did, and so she told Mariam stories of him that made him seem like a very terrible man but, Mariam liked him anyway. It wasn’t until her 15 birthday that Mariam changed her opinion of Jalil. She asked that he take her to a movie at his cinema for her birthday, he was reluctant at first but just as he was leaving he told her to meet him outside her house the next day. He never showed. Mariam decided that instead of waiting she would go to his house herself and after a long walk she arrived to his home only to be denied entrance and left outside. Jalil’s butler later gave her a ride home, on arrival she found her mother hanging from a rope tied to a tree. She then lived with her father for a week before her father had her married to a shoemaker in Kabul named Rasheed. Mariam was unhappy at first with being a wife to someone she didn’t know but she became more comfortable with it after some time. The two tried a couple of times to have a child but unfortunately the baby always died before birth. Rasheed became upset with her over this and rarely talked to her from then on. He also lashed out at her quite often, mostly over little things. One night he claimed that she had cooked his rice wrong and as punishment he forced her to chew on rocks until her teeth broke, saying that that is what it’s like eating her rice. This is full of information and well written. Try using paragraphs next time though.