Every woman in this story had been treated unconscionably: Men snatching unsuspecting women to force them into marriage. Other women given as gifts, having just witnessed all of their loved ones slain and their city destroyed. The old man offering his virgin daughter, and the woman sacrificed by her husband to a feral mob, raped to death. The husband then—finding her fallen with her hands on the threshold of the door—responding with “Up, and let us be going.” I’d wanted to punch him or vomit every time I’d read the words. Others might place the blame upon the men in the story, but as a
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