Chapter 12 and Epilogue Summary and Analysis

In chapter twelve, Sultana and the sisters decide they must go to Riyadh to visit her sister in the clinic. Brother Ali drives them to the hospital, blaming Reema for her part in her own rape and lamenting that the timing of the rape is inconvenient, for he has his own problem. In a rage, Ali had divorced his wife Nada for the third time. Divorce (or the threat of divorce) is explained by Sultana as yet another way to oppress women in Saudi Arabia. According to Muslim law, a woman who is divorced three times must marry and be divorced by another man before the first husband can re-marry her. Ali urges his sisters to talk to Nada and talk her out of leaving him, after they have visited Reema.

The sisters are ushered to Reema's...