Chapter 2, pages 86-96 Summary and Analysis

The time comes for Firdaus to shed the last grain of virtue, to become aware of the truth and recognize what she wants. She realizes that men deceive women, marriage is a system built on the most cruel suffering for women, and the prostitute is the least deluded of all women. In the quiet streets at midnight, Firdaus is filled with tranquility like a woman free to do what she wants and fearless because she has already undergone everything which can hurt her. She opens her arms wide to embrace the night and sings "I hope for nothing I want nothing I fear nothing I am free" (p. 87). When she goes home with a man in a car, she realizes revolutionary men are no different from the rest.

Firdaus meets Ibrahim four years after he marries and...