Act Two: Scene Four

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Afzal’s kitchen.

Mahwish stands across from her father, Zarina’s manuscript open before her.

She is reading aloud.

MAHWISH: Do I still treat him like a boy? he wonders as he pushes open the door to the courtyard. Is that the cause of his strife with Zaynab? I know her feelings for me; I know my own for her. He stops. It is wrong for you to want her like this. There is something wrong with you.

AFZAL (Underneath): Tauba, Allah, Tauba…

MAHWISH (Continuing without interruption): Approaching the door, he hears something inside. “Zayd?” he calls out to his son. There is no answer. He knocks. The door yawns open. There is Zaynab. Scurrying through the room, undressed.

Mahwish stops. Looks up at her father, alarmed. Then goes on, suspiciously.

MAHWISH (CONT’D): “Come in, Father,” she says. He has no words to reply. His stomach hurts with the pain of not having her. Through the window, he sees her, her breasts, full and startling…

(Stopping)

Oh my God.

MAHWISH (CONT’D): Dad. What is she thinking?

AFZAL: She’s not thinking. I’ve been too soft on that girl. Letting her pine away in that ivory tower.

Mahwish puts down the manuscript.

As if it were something unholy.

AFZAL (CONT’D): What did you know about this?

MAHWISH: Nothing.

AFZAL: You knew nothing?

MAHWISH: Dad. Of course not.

AFZAL: You mean to tell me you never asked her…?

MAHWISH: I did. She never wanted to say much.

AFZAL: Now we know why.

Beat.

MAHWISH: The most I ever got from her was that it was gender politics.

AFZAL: Gender politics?

MAHWISH: Relationships between men and women.

AFZAL: What does that have to do with politics?

MAHWISH: It’s just a term, Dad.

AFZAL: It was something to do with politics?

MAHWISH: No, it’s not—

AFZAL: You should have told me. I’m your father.

MAHWISH: I’m sorry.

AFZAL: You never told me your sister was sex-crazed.

MAHWISH: I mean… she’s not.

AFZAL: Then why is she writing these things? Hmm?

MAHWISH: I don’t know. We have to talk to her.

AFZAL (Over): It’s unacceptable! Completely unacceptable! I won’t stand for it!

MAHWISH: Calm down, I’m sure she’ll—

AFZAL: In Pakistan? She would be killed for this. Killed. If anybody gets their hands on this, God forbid…

(Getting emotional)

If anything happened to her, to either of you…

MAHWISH: Dad. Stop it. It’ll be fine.

AFZAL: How do I know that?

MAHWISH: Nothing’s gonna happen.

AFZAL: How do you know that?! Can you promise me that? Can you? Hmm?

All at once, Afzal looks as though he’s on the verge of a panic attack.

Mahwish goes to him.

Just then, we hear sounds offstage.

Zarina and Eli appear.

MAHWISH: Zarina, you have to talk to him—

ELI: I think I may have left something—

AFZAL: You didn’t leave anything. I took it.

ELI: You went into my bag…?

MAHWISH: Have you read this?

ELI: Yes I have.

AFZAL: You know about this and you carry it around in your bag? What kind of man are you? What kind of Muslim? You know about it and you do nothing to stop her?

ZARINA: Stop me?

AFZAL: What is wrong with you, man?

ZARINA: There’s nothing wrong with him.

AFZAL: For God’s sake, Zarina!

(Taking up the manuscript)

This? About the Prophet?! Have you lost your mind?

It’s clear Afzal’s anger is having an effect on his daughter.

ZARINA: Have you even read it, Dad?

Afzal stares at her for a long beat, then looks down at the manuscript and turns a few pages. He begins to read aloud now, his quiet voice trembling with anger.

MAHWISH: Dad, please don’t.

AFZAL: She lowers her head to offer her bare neck.

MAHWISH: Zarina, get him to stop!

AFZAL: She leans against the wall as he leans against her. He grows against her body—

MAHWISH (Over): Stop!

AFZAL:kissing her skin. She closes her eyes and moans, pushing into him, her neck against his mouth. His hands cup her breasts.

MAHWISH (Over): Dad, stop reading!

AFZAL (Throwing the manuscript at Zarina): This is the Prophet!—peace be upon him—What did I do to deserve this!?

ZARINA: Dad, you can’t just read a few sentences and think you know what it’s about.

MAHWISH (Coming in): What’s it about, Zarina?

AFZAL: I don’t care what it’s about!

MAHWISH (Emphatic): No! What’s it about?!

AFZAL (To Zarina): And for your information, I read more than a few sentences. God being a woman? God having breasts?

ZARINA: That’s not what’s in—

AFZAL: It is. I read it.

ELI: It’s a metaphor, sir.

AFZAL: I don’t care what it is! God does not have breasts!

ELI: I’m just trying to help.

AFZAL: Nobody asked you.

ZARINA: It’s about the Prophet, Dad. And the Quran. And how what we think we know about those things is not real. Not human.

AFZAL: What nonsense are you talking…

MAHWISH: Dad. Let her speak.

ZARINA: I’m telling the story of when he married Zaynab bint Jahsh. She is the reason for the revelation of the veil.

MAHWISH: The veil?!

ZARINA: We don’t understand so many things about our own history and traditions.

AFZAL: Where your mother came from, I don’t even want to tell you what they would do to you.

ZARINA: This is not Frontier Province, Dad.

AFZAL: If anyone sees this, you will never be able to go to Pakistan. We will never be able to go to Pakistan. Never again.

ZARINA: That’s what you care about?

AFZAL (Yelling): That’s not what I care about! You are what I care about! You think they can’t hurt you here? Hmm?

ZARINA: Then so be it.

MAHWISH: What are you talking about?

ZARINA: We can’t keep not saying things because we’re afraid of what somebody’s going to do.

Beat.

AFZAL: Behti, are you so unhappy that you don’t care what happens to you?

ZARINA: You know what you said to me the night I told you I wanted to marry Ryan? You told me a story about the Prophet’s daughter—

AFZAL: I know what I said, for God’s sake!

ZARINA:—about how she gave up the man she loved because he wouldn’t become a Muslim. Do you remember?

AFZAL: Just let it go!

ZARINA: You said the Prophet’s daughter had done it and so should I.

AFZAL: Would you forget it!

ZARINA: The story you told me wasn’t even right, Dad!

AFZAL: I don’t know what you think—

ZARINA: You didn’t even have the story right!

AFZAL: So what’s the story? This pornography about the Prophet?!

ZARINA: Dad—

ELI: It’s not pornography, sir.

AFZAL: Shut your bloody mouth!

ELI: I’ll shut my mouth when you calm down, Afzal—

AFZAL (To Eli): Call yourself an Imam. What kind of Imam doesn’t care about his wife writing such things about the Prophet?!

ELI: I’ve got a congregation I have to worry about.

AFZAL (To Eli): Bloody fake is what you are!

ZARINA: What you did with that story is what we do. Distort these tales. It’s what we’ve done with the veil for a thousand years.

MAHWISH (Dumbfounded): What do you care about the veil?!

AFZAL: I never made you girls wear anything like that! It has nothing to do with your life!

ZARINA: Nothing to do with my life? You covered me up, Dad. You erased me.

AFZAL (Shocked): I did what?

ZARINA: And I let you.

Beat.

AFZAL: You write such filth about the Prophet, peace be upon him, and then you put the blame on me?

ZARINA: That’s not what I’m—

AFZAL: You make me regret the day you were born.

ZARINA: Abu… Please…

MAHWISH: How can you do this to him?

(Beat)

Reading this actually makes me want to start wearing a veil. Just to purify myself of it.

ELI: Mahwish…

ZARINA: Purify yourself?

MAHWISH: And all these years, I’ve been taking your advice? Like you know something?—

ZARINA: Stop it.

MAHWISH (Continuing): You know what? There’s actually something wrong with you.

ELI: That’s not helping.

MAHWISH: I don’t have to listen to you!

(Snapping back to Zarina)

And you can pretty it up with a lot of expensive words and fancy books, but it’s just filth.

ZARINA: Filth?

MAHWISH: That’s all it is. Thank God Mom’s not here to see it.

ZARINA: And what would she think of you having ten years of anal sex so your boyfriend wouldn’t break up with you?

AFZAL: What?

MAHWISH: I don’t know what she’s talking about.

ZARINA: I’ve stood behind you since you were like, what, sixteen? For your sick I’m-so-dependent-on-a-man-that-I’ll-let-him-violate-me-so-I-never-lose-him.

AFZAL (To Mahwish): What is she talking about—

ZARINA: This is my thanks?

MAHWISH: She’s lying.

ZARINA (To Afzal): You never really liked Haroon for a reason, Dad.

MAHWISH: She’s the one writing blasphemy!

ZARINA: He’s a scumbag.

MAHWISH: She couldn’t be with the man she loved so she sits around masturbating to the Prophet in a public library!

AFZAL: That boy made you do what with him?

Speechless, Mahwish breaks down. All the verification Afzal needs. He turns to Zarina:

AFZAL (CONT’D): Do you see what this is doing? Don’t you see it?

(Beat)

When that cancer had finally eaten your mother alive, behti, when she was dying… I promised her. She was the center. I promised I would be the center to hold the family together.

(Pointing at the manuscript)

Don’t you see what this is?

It’s like that goddamn cancer!

ZARINA: Dad… how can you say that?

AFZAL: I have made so many sacrifices for this family. I have sacrificed so much for the two of you. For you to be happy.

(Beat)

You have to destroy this book.

Reaching the manuscript out to her.

ZARINA: You haven’t heard anything I’ve said.

AFZAL: You’ll write another book, behti. With more wisdom. I know you will.

ZARINA: It’s four years of my life.

AFZAL: Something that will bring light into the world. Not this cancer. This darkness.

ZARINA: Don’t ask me to do that.

AFZAL: I’ll never ask anything of you again. You have to destroy it.

ELI: Absolutely not.

AFZAL: You again?

ELI: You made her act against her heart once before, but you won’t do it again.

AFZAL: I told you to shut your bloody mouth!

ELI: Calm down, sir!

AFZAL: I’m not going to calm down!

ELI (Suddenly shouting): Yes you are!

AFZAL: You nonentity!

ELI: What she’s done is important! She’s reminding us that the Prophet was just a man—

AFZAL (Over): Us? You’re no Muslim.

ELI (Continuing): We say we don’t worship him, but we do!

AFZAL (Over): Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!

ELI (Continuing): And we’re worshipping a fiction! We have no interest in knowing who he really was…

AFZAL: I know who he was!

ELI: No, you don’t! None of us do! And all your daughter is doing—

AFZAL: Blasphemy.

ELI: No, testimony. To a complicated and remarkable man with conflicting emotions.

Afzal turns to Zarina. And finds her looking at Eli.

AFZAL: Don’t tell me.

ELI (Continuing): That’s it. That’s all it is. And her courage is one of the many reasons I’m so in love with your daughter.

AFZAL (Coldly): Zarina.

Zarina, are you listening to me?

Zarina continues to hold Eli’s gaze.

ZARINA (Still looking at Eli): Eli. Let’s go.

Eli goes to her. She takes his hand.

AFZAL: Zarina!!

He breaks down, at once imperious and vulnerable.

AFZAL (CONT’D): Behti, don’t.

(Struggling)

If you love me, behti…

ZARINA (Emotional): Dad.

AFZAL: If you love me…

ZARINA: I do, Dad.

AFZAL: If you do—

ZARINA: I love you so much…

Zarina and Eli exit. As they go:

AFZAL: Zarina!

They are gone.

Long beat.

Afzal goes to a picture on the wall of his elder daughter. Turns and throws it into the sink, violently.

He looks up at Mahwish.

AFZAL (CONT’D): That girl. I don’t ever want to hear her name in this house again.

(Off Mahwish’s silence)

Do you hear me?!

(Still no reply)

I said do you hear me?!?

MAHWISH: Yes.

AFZAL: She is dead to me. Dead.

Afzal moves to go. But before exiting:

AFZAL (CONT’D) (Quieter): Whatever you did with him, I don’t want to talk about it… You don’t have to go back to that bastard. You can have your room, behti. However long you need. Whatever you want.

Afzal goes.

Mahwish takes Zarina’s picture from the sink and leaves.

End of Act Two.