The importance this statement has to the reader is very significant. The statement is used to sum up Firdaus' entire life. Every experience with a man has led Firdaus to believe ever stronger that only men can be labeled `criminals' and that all men are criminals. It was this statement that Firdaus had fought her whole life to find, a statement that suits the way females are oppressed in her society. Her life was lived for her by this statement; she can apply it to all of her experiences men, and her failed attempts to find love.

By modern western standards, Firdaus is a criminal. She chose to kill a man, and in doing so, sentenced herself to death. She went to school, and therefore ought to have known the consequences of her action. In her eyes, she was not a criminal. It was impossible for a woman...