“It was one of the many intolerable burdens of their womanhood that plagued their existence, and one which they continued to inflict on their own daughters despite all the misery it caused them in every stage of their lives.” WomenWomanhoodCircumcision Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“When girls were married they suddenly became important and relevant. Not as important as the older women or –God forbid – the men, but still higher up on the food chain than unmarried girls.” WomenWomen S RightsWomen S Liberation Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“Whoever had decreed that men shouldn't cry had obviously never lost a child of their own.” MenChild Loss Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“As the death of a parent either brings families together or breaks them apart, their motherless family eventually drifted away from each other, each sibling searching for their worth in a family of their own.” LossFamilyMotherhood Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“When Nyamakeem looked into Sulafa’s anguished face that afternoon, she saw herself. She felt her own heart breaking at the loss of the child, the son of the man who had killed her son. She looked at Sulafa and felt the fire in her heart die.” LossAnguishLoss Of A Child Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“She had never spoken that way with her cousin before, or with any other male member of her family or community. This wasn’t the kind of village where girls spoke freely in the presence of men. It wasn’t even the kind of village where girls and women walked in public with men; the small back alleys and streets that lined the houses were how they got about, staying out of the men’s way as much as possible.” CommunityInequalityWomanhood Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“Fatima was dragging her feet. She hated houses of mourning. And the only thing worse than a house of mourning was a house that was waiting for a body to appear because without a body, the actual mourning could not begin or end.” HatredMourning Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“The river was like a bit of string, following her through time and place, anchoring her here – to a village that she hated with all her heart – but also moving her along.” HopeJourneyRiversHatred Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt
“So much nonsense decreed from generation unto generation of what "should" be done, what was "right", how things should be. So much nonsense that determined each person's worth and where they were placed in the hierarchy of life. Who was the highest, who was lower than who, and who was at the bottom, where their very right to life was dictated by those above them.” Hierarchy Among PeopleHierarchical Systems Book:A Mouth Full of Salt Source: A Mouth Full of Salt