Virgins of Paradise

by Barbara Wood

Hassan al-Sabir, under secretary of defense, found murdered.

of Egypt's shameful defeat in the Six-Day War, in which fifteen thousand Egyptian soldiers had perished, and thousands more had been horribly wounded.

Israelis now occupied one of Islam's most sacred places, the Dome of the Rock, from where Mohammed had ascended to heaven.

But Zachariah knew. He had gone to paradise.

In fact, the girl's cousins teased Narjis about having taken a step backward, because she had adopted the new "Islamic dress" that some university women were starting to wear.

The reconciliation Camelia had hoped for between Umma and Dahiba had never materialized, each stubbornly insisting that the other must take the first step.

And it had struck her that there was an invisible war being waged in Cairo, a quiet, unseen, deadly war—between the past and the future, between East and West.

"Ma salaama.

never pay a compliment to a woman about her children."

Arab philosophy of bokra—tomorrow—

Islamic fundamentalist groups who

The Christians are a bloodthirsty people! They worship a man who is nailed to a cross! They must enjoy seeing people suffer! I hate them for what they did to you!"

"Because the Palestinian refugees are victims, and I know what it's like to be a victim."

"Are we not all People of the Book, Sayyida?

"Frustrating. And then I was assigned to the refugee camps in Gaza, which were worse. The world seems to have forgotten the Palestinians."

American volunteer who came hoping to convert the fellaheen to Christianity and had to be sent home after a week."

you once say that Arabic sounded like water flowing

thinking that the future was something that only happened to other people.

the area of Israel labeled "Occupied Palestinian Territory,"

The women laughed and agreed that all men were helpless, and Jasmine laughed with them, at her own joke.

Egyptians, who took neither themselves nor life too seriously,

she had seen the power of superstition

succeed where medicine had failed.

Men think they come and go as they please, but it is at our pleasure that they do so, although they do not know this."

"Zachariah? Oh, God, Zakki!" She looked at Declan. "He's my brother! This man is my brother!"

Belief in God's compassion and mercy was what made life bearable, otherwise how could one survive?

way she controlled everyone else.

I shall go to Al Tafla and punish her the way she should have been punished twenty-one years ago.

"It was written long ago when Sybil would die, just as my hour is written, and yours.

"Mohammed died a martyr's death, Yasmina. Those who saw it happen said that he tried to save the others. He must have seen the bomb, or saw it being planted, for he ran right toward it, shouting at everyone to get out.

freed me, and then he married me, and a year later I gave birth to Ibrahim."

"Because that wealthy merchant who abused me—his name was al-Sabir. Hassan was his son."

beautiful boy I had been betrothed to—Prince Abdullah—

you are Sharif, a descendant of the Prophet.'"

Nefissa was saying: Forgive me.

Jasmine nodded. The bomb, which had killed her son, a waiter, and two musicians. Omar, too, had died. The only other casualty had been the unborn child of Ibrahim's wife, Atiya.

"Bismillah! Am I dreaming? Or am I dead? Alice, is it you?"

"No, Papa. It's not Alice, it's Jasmine. Yasmina," she corrected herself.

A year later, on the night you were born, she gave me her son." He looked at Jasmine. "That was Zachariah."

"Everything we do was written long ago.

Camelia and Dahiba danced a duet that had been part of their act years ago, as Yacob watched proudly with their son Najib, now a pudgy, handsome eleven-year-old.

granddaughter, of the old astrologer, and there was a younger woman with her, also named Qettah.

That was when Ibrahim had taken a knife to him and, using

Amira thought: I will speak to his mother tomorrow. And then I will help them with an apartment, if the boy cannot yet afford one.