Against the Loveless World

With some difficulty, Nahr is able to enter Palestine. The border guards refuse to recognize her new identification card and issue her a tourist visa instead. Nahr is to stay with her mother-in-law and brother-in-law, Bilal.

Bilal apologizes for the way that his brother Mhammad treated Nahr, and does his best to make sure that she is comfortable. He explains to her that the Oslo Accords divided the country into different zones, and that the zone where he and his mother live is being heavily colonized by Israeli settlers. So far, they have managed to keep their house, but they are the last Palestinians in the area. It is not likely that they will be allowed to remain for much longer.

Bilal arranges for Nahr to visit her mother’s childhood home in Haifa. There, in the garden, the home’s Jewish occupier begins screaming at Nahr in Hebrew. She slaps Nahr, and Nahr repeatedly punches her in response. Nahr’s driver helps her out of the garden and back into his car. He explains that the woman first approached him with a story of another Arab woman who had visited a couple of months ago. The Arab woman had been crying, and the Jewish woman responded not with kindness, but anger. The Arab woman had been Nahr’s mother, overcome with emotion upon visiting her childhood home.

Nahr spends more time with Bilal, and begins to suspect that he is part of the Palestinian resistance movement. She confronts him and finds out that he, not sure of her motives, has been spying on her. The two argue, but Bilal decides that he trusts her. His friend Jumana invites Nahr to one of their group’s meetings.

Nahr attends a resistance meeting. It is in a secret network of rooms and tunnels below the beauty salon that Jumana operates. A small group of people has gathered, and they share a meal with Nahr. They explain to her that, because she has a tourist visa, she is allowed to enter Jerusalem. They would like her to transport weapons for them: As Palestinian locals, they are not allowed to enter the city, nor are they allowed inside of cars with special license plates that denote free movement.

Nahr does not want to take this risk, so she gets up to leave. Jumana then makes a disparaging remark about Nahr’s sex work, and Nahr flies into a rage. She tells Jumana that it is only privileged women who get to choose how they make money, and that a “truly revolutionary” ideology is to relinquish the idea that it is appropriate to judge another woman for her actions. Jumana begins to cry, and Nahr, still in a rage, exits.

Nahr wants to immediately leave Palestine, but Bilal asks her to stay so that they can talk. He tells her that he thinks that she is more courageous and revolutionary than any of his friends, and that even when rumors began to circulate about her after the divorce, he and his mother quelled them. Bilal then reveals that Nahr’s husband Mhammad has always been secretly gay, and that he left Nahr because he did not want to be married to a woman. Bilal tells her that he once discovered Mhammad with his lover, an Israeli soldier, and that two other Israeli soldiers also stumbled upon the pair right after Bilal did. Bilal and Mhammad killed the two soldiers, but the incident forever altered their relationship and they do not have contact. Nahr is relieved to finally understand the dissolution of her marriage, and heads back to Amman.

There is a camera in the top of Nahr’s Cube. Sometimes Klara, the friendly prison guard, comes to her cell. The two are not able to talk very much. Nahr shares that because her muscles began to atrophy, the guards began to take her, blindfolded, on walks. Sometimes she is even taken outside. The sun, even through a blindfold, is beautiful.

Jehad is waiting for Nahr upon her return to Amman. She has been gone for nine weeks, and much has changed. Her grandmother has come into a sizeable inheritance, with money arranged for her through an organization interested in archaeology in her home village. Nahr’s mother has, after years of finding work only as a seamstress, found a desk job. She is filled with a newfound sense of dignity and pride, and is happier than she has ever been.

Nahr also finds a new job, but the pay is abysmal, and she is miserable in Amman. After receiving an email from Bilal, she decides to return to Palestine. Israelis murder Bilal’s friend, also a shepherd. Nahr is not sure that a happy life awaits her in Palestine either, but she feels that it is her destiny to return. After standing up to Jumana, she feels empowered and free.