November 15, 2023 • 33 mins
For this month's pick, we dig into Nayrouz Qarmout's The Sea Cloak, a collection of powerful fictional short stories about growing up in Gaza.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and come with Steffan
never told your production if I heard radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And we are doing our month the book club. Yay.
We have chosen a short story collection and it is
by a Palacitian activist and writer, Nauru's Karmat, titled The
Sea Cloak, and if you have an opportunity to read it,
you should is it is a very short but heavy read.
Speaking of which content warning there is mentioned of rape, definitely, death, war, colonization,
(00:43):
and genocide. And though the stories are short, the book
itself is less than eighty pages, the words are profound
and powerful. There are some stories that had to be
read by me a couple of times for me to
get the depth and the meaning behind it. I even
had to see some research still didn't quite get a
lot of some of it. Rather, and speaking of which
(01:03):
being completely transparent, there's a lot of things I do
not know about the Palestinian culture or even the area.
I do know the gist of it, and it was
not so long ago that I even began to understand
the depths of what is happening in the Gaza area.
So some of the contexts in the stories were unfamiliar
(01:24):
to me, but it is still a powerful story and
the conversation of not only the state of what is
happening there and the match gen aside and displacement, but
also the need for gender equality and protection. Just also.
This book was published in twenty nineteen, and yes it
has won several awards. It is also a translation, so
(01:45):
with that translation, much like our feminists around the world,
we're going to try our best with pronunciations. There are
gonna be mistakes that we make, probably some romanization, English
translations and pronunciations that it is not completly correct. If
you are understand the correct pronunciation or of those origins
(02:08):
and you want to correct us nicely, that would be lovely,
just so you know.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
But yes, there's a lot happening, and of course we
always want to highlight those who have been working to
create change and speak out, and this is one of
those books that does talk about a lot of the
ins and outs and the ugliness of what is happening there.
And by the way, here's a bit about the author,
Karmat herself from the Comic Press, which is what the
(02:37):
press that was used for the book. The release of
the book, Naarus Karmat is a Palestinian writer and activist.
Born in Damascus in nineteen eighty four as a Palestinian refugee,
She returned to the Gaza Strip as part of the
nineteen ninety four Israeli Palestinian Peace Agreement, where she now lives.
I don't know how dated this is, so she gradual
(03:00):
weight from Alizar University in Gaza with a degree in economics.
She at the time of this publishing worked in the
Ministry of Women's Affairs, raising awareness of gender issues and
promoting the political and economic role of women in policy
and law, as well as the defense of women from
(03:20):
abuse and highlighting the role of women's issues in the media.
Her political, social and literary articles have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines,
and online. She has also written screenplays for several short
films dealing with women's rights. She's a social activist and
a member of several youth initiatives campaigning for social change
in Palestine. I don't know where she's at today. I
(03:43):
think she does have some social media, so not sure
what she's up to with what is happening since she
was a resident of that area. So we'll look into
that later. So for this we are going to go
story by story, as each story as an independent, unique tale,
with a small excerpt of each story if we can find,
(04:03):
and some of them are so small and so just intense,
we might not have one. We'll just give a brief
explainer and then we'll discuss the themes as we go.
So per book, we'll discuss about it because obviously we
can tie it all together at the end, and we
probably will, but with short stories, we'd like to give
attention to each one. So we are going to start
with the first story, The Sea Cloak, which is the
(04:25):
title of the actual book, and the story is of
a young woman going with her family to the beach
and she nearly drowns because of the amount of clothing
that binds her in the water, but it's rescued by
a stranger. Here they look at not only the implications
of what the women and the young girls have to wear,
but her interactions with boys in general, in which she
(04:47):
is chastised at the beginning of the story for flirting
with a young boy intent because she was chastised in
she is afraid of being chastised again after being touched
by the man who rescued her from drowning, which he
doesn't get chastised. He gets thank you, thank you so much,
rather for rescuing her. But it is an interesting interaction
(05:09):
between her mind and figuring out, oh God, did I
do something wrong versus her life essentially right. And here's
a quote from the story that is just the way
Gaza is a young girl yet to learn the art
of elegance, a young girl who has not yet developed
her own scent, and is still willingly or not perfumed
(05:30):
by all around her. And in that context, she's talking
about being affected by the culture, by ideals and traditions
and rules of the place, as well as the five
people's own assumptions of her. I thought it was very pretty.
The entire book is beautiful, just fy, and very poetic
and sometimes really very deeply thought provoking, which meaning like
(05:54):
what did that just say? Type of level and I've
had to backtrack what just happened? Here's another quote. She
drifted toward it, carried like a mermaid by the breeze,
her thoughts entirely immersed in the ways before her time
was stealing her steps away, and the sea, without her realizing,
had already snuck into her memory, and it was just
(06:15):
such a vivid line about how memories are created in
that moment and you know when you are they're just
like this is going to be one of those things
I think gone forever. And it was a gorgeous like
look as well as like right before oh my god,
I think I might die a moment for her.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah. I found that a lot of the so much
of the environment was described so well, and so much
of the water specifically to see the feeling of the sea,
even if you're not necessarily near it, but just like
this in the air, you can feel it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
The oughts.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
That really painted a great picture of the area, the environment,
and that shone through in that one. The next story
is called Black Grapes, and this is about a friendship
between a Palestinian and a Jewish settler. A man is
trying to provide for his family, including his mother, who
owns a land with grapes growing on it, but it's
(07:13):
not really doing well, so he works for a man
named David, who defends him against others that insult him.
His name is Hammood, but after a small argument over
wages in labor is overheard by a bystander, kind of
an annoyed bystander outside Hamoud is shot after someone called
in saying that he was a terrorist. And that one's
(07:37):
sort of a circular, like you start at the end
and then get the painting of what led up to
that moment. And yeah, it was upsetting because they at
least had somewhat of an amicable relationship and then this
guy was just annoyed and called in. I mean, he
did overhear some stuff, but he definitely was like annoyed
(07:58):
and called in.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
He took an opportunity. But the kind of the bigger
theme of that, and I think one of the things
she was leaking to was the power that the Jewish
settler had. David had over the situation just because he
said the word terrorist and that was enough to get
him killed without any other conversations. And then of course
(08:20):
he regrets it and literally like screams, we were just
he he didn't get paid, That's all he kept saying
in his heartbreaking because you know, the father's loss and
the mother. We left a lot of this out because
it's such a such a suisting story that it was
just a lot, but like talking about trying to take
care of the mother, her mother refusing to give up
the land even though David really is trying to get
(08:42):
that land. And then that's kind of a big implication
of the story in general, between the Jewish settlers and
then some of the people who come through that area
versus the Palestinians who lived there. So yeah, definitely a lot.
The next story is the Mirror. We see a woman
(09:03):
named Laila and her niece Dahlia pretending to watch TV.
And this is again one of those that had to
come back and read twice because I was like, what
just happened? Pretending to watch TV in a mirror with
a key fob. I'm thinking they're at a refugee camp.
I can't quite grasp what's happening because it's not or
just a ruined, desolate building. And so they sit pretending
(09:26):
to watch TV. The niece gets excited tries to get
her aunt to come down, and which y'all, yeah, obviously
my hard hearts. But as the young niece is using
her imagination to remember her favorite TV show and character,
we read have a throwback to a harrowing incident of
Laila being raped as a child and her trying to
(09:46):
protect her herself and her niece from that type of
darkness in general. During the time of the incident, Leila
had her own favorite character, much like Dahlia, and she
used her favorite character as a way to protect her.
And here's a quote she remains afraid of. That's their case,
her entire life. She has nightmares for many years about
the shadow that can make hands appear out of nowhere,
(10:08):
grabbing her. But she always kept Lady close, Lady who
runs through green orchards. She remains Leilah's favorite cartoon character
even into adulthood. In nightmares, she too runs for the
comfort of those green meadows, keeping the sunlight on her
face rather than darkness.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, and that one was really powerful too, because I've
spoken about that before too, about using fictional characters to
get through dark stuff. So that one was really moving
and painful. The next one is called the Pen in
(10:51):
the Notebook, and this one we see three brothers, am
Asad and Adam, who travel with their donkey and kart
to collect rocks to sell for the day. And here
we witness the daily lives that the brothers trying to
help their family. Carmott does a beautiful job showing their
life as they travel through the town and then back
into their home, and she ends the story in a
(11:12):
way that shows how the warmth can be felt with
their family. And here's a quote about that the warmth
of her body seemed to restore them from the chill
that had crept in since that evening sun had set.
I am withdrew the crumpled twenty shekel note from his
trouser pocket and placed it in his mother's hand. Her
eyes glistened, and he gave her a kiss on the forehead.
(11:34):
Of the four shekels that remained, he gave two each
to his brothers. Don't forget what I told you. Buy
a notebook and a pen so you can learn to
write like me, he said, in his most paternal voice.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And obviously this is kind of I think this is
a theme in general about the fact that the young
children are having to play parents and caregivers. The father
had gotten shot by what they say, is in a
more American bullet and is paralyzed in bedridden, and so
he's taking care of all of them. But one of
the most important things that he teaches them is to write.
That they need to read and write. Yeah, so I
(12:08):
think that in itself has its own big themes.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yes, that is definitely throughout. I would say children are
present in most of these, if not all of these.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Right as we know, the majority at least, like they said,
forty six if not more percent are children. Not sure
the numbers now? Then the next story is the White Lilies,
and the story begins with an exchange between the flower
shop assistant and a man with a thick French accent
(12:39):
talking about the area and about flowers for Mother's Day,
and the flower shop assistant tells him white lilies are
for Mother's Day and he buys, and the frenchman buys
that and leaves. Later, we find out that the flower
shop assistant is an orphan teenage boy named Ali who
finds out that his neighbor just had a daughter, and
he suggests naming her Zara, which they do. Zara is
(13:01):
like a daughter to Ali and has been uh and
he has been a part of her life. She's a
sweet child who we are introduced to officially when she
talks about mosquitoes that often bother her hearing and while
she's studying, and how these mosquitoes can launch rockets as
well as pesticides to quote unquote help the plants, and
then we in this conversation to talk about drones as
(13:22):
well as part of the mosquitoes. Her father tries to
reassure her that they don't do the rockets, they're just
there to help plants, and she is sent off to
school reassured, where she waits for Ali. Ali is heading
to the school to give her a white lily for
Mother's Day. All the while, a man with a thick
French accent that works for the military is order to
(13:44):
neutralize the target after hearing the phrase the lilies have blossomed.
Ali is time and then we soon read Ali is blasted, slash,
knocked down and killed in front of Zara, who gets
a part of that blast as well. But she I
guess is okay, who had been waiting for him to
arrive in front of the school the entire time.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yep. And then the next story is called Our Milk.
We learn of two different instances, one occurring in nineteen
forty six and another in two thousand and one. The
scenery begins at an elegant restaurant with a young blond
woman waiting for her milk as part of her breakfast,
but as she waits, an explosion occurs, killing her and
many others. Jump to two thousand and one. A young
(14:29):
man is being driven to an area with a ukulele
case and a camera bag. He is dropped off downtown
at a cafe named Sabarros. There with a young boy
and his mom, a worker, and another customer, a bomb
goes off, and here is a quote from that. As
the kitchen clock ticks noon, the white sauce sprays upwards,
mingling for a frozen nanosecond with the red. The little
(14:52):
boy with freckles daydreams for the last time about learning
the guitar. The old man taps his foot to one
last beat. The woman with the long legs takes her
last sip of orange juice. In a tornado of spaghetti
and wood and stone. Tables fly and the roof collapses.
Blood and bone are scattered in the dust of the
young man's curious gaze. Nothing remains.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yes, now, the beginning scene really does make you think
of I guess it was before the official colonization slash
displacement in that area, but still obviously socioeconomic divide with
the whole like waiting for milk being really annoyed, waiting
(15:38):
for that milk, which was a luxury at that time,
to her being bombed. And then it flipped into the
incident in which the journalists who had been reporting all
these horrific things finally joins the cause. Slash joins the
fight and delivers the young teenage boy to bomb the Saborrows,
(16:01):
which I'm guessing it's the piece of place. Says they
do discuisse pizza and Italian food, So it sounds like
maybe a connotation about yeah, English or Americanized restaurants.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, yeah, but also just kind of that mirror of
like time of like this instance in this sistance and
how they kind of reflect each other.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Then we have fourteenth of June or
June fourteenth. So here's a quote about the date. That
is the title, so it says the back as a note,
the title refers to fourteen June two thousand and seven,
the day in which Palestinian President Mamouda Boss announced the
dissolution of the Unity government and declared a state of emergency.
(16:53):
It occurred at the height of a Battle of Gaza,
also referred to as Hama's takeover of Gaza, which was
June tentheenth in two thousand and seven, which followed FATA
losing the parliamentary elections of two thousand and six. Harmas
fighters took control of the Gaza Strip and removed FATA
officials from the political and administrative positions, resulting in the
(17:16):
defective division of the Palestinian territories into two entities, the
West Bank governed by the Postinian National Authority and Gaza
governed by Hamas. And The story follows a family watching
the chaos happening around them as the city grapples with
the current state, trying to remain safe from protecting their homes,
(17:36):
we see the mother trying to find her husband as
well as trying to protect the daughters. An uncle involved. Somehow,
it did a double take on that, so I was
kind of confused. Here's quote, images flashed through her mind
like lightning, and this is I think this is the
perspective of a daughter. How many times has she jumped
out of bed thinking that a bullet has punctured her window?
(17:57):
How many times have she and her sister thrown themselves
into their mother's arms or huddle together at the foot
of the bed on hearing an RPG mortar screeching towards
the building on the square, and that's kind of the
chaos that is happening, as well as men coming in
and taking over places as well as stealing things. But
she's able to hold tight. She's able to keep our
(18:19):
family fed, and she's able to hail her hair from
our husband to know that he's alive.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
The next story is called The Long Braid, which is
about a young lady who is proud and outspoken, even
if she is scared or nervous. She loves to sing
and dance and is willing to stand up against those
who try to shame her for that. Here is a
quote This triggers in turn something else, and she feels
tears stinging her eyes, like the ones she tried so
desperately not to shed that day she was excluded from class.
(18:49):
With each new sting, she writes down another word on
a blank page of the notebook, a word that describes
her love for her country, a word that stands in
defiance of all meaningless symbols her mass teacher on the
board that day. This episode might bring tears to her
eyes later that night in her room, but she knows
she has faced worse than this, like the time he
kicked her out of class for standing up to him
(19:10):
when he said women who called themselves emancipated were sluts.
She is proud of the restraint she showed that day,
despite her anger, despite his humiliation of her in front
of the other girls. She can feel the same tears
prickling her eyes as she felt then tears she refused
to shed for his ignorance. She left the classroom that
(19:31):
day without giving him another look. The god I know
pays no resemblance to the monster you rant about, she
says with a smile, and proceeded to skip all the
way down the corridor and out into the courtyard of
the Zatan Preparatory School for Girls.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, this was a beautiful story. I think she does
a really good job of making these young women or
girls really strong. But at the same time that fear
that like, you know this, you're so upset that you cry,
but you know what you're saying is right, and even
though you're crying, you're doing something brave.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, Yeah, And just feeling that kind of love of
school or a love of dance, love of singing or
whatever it is, and being told like no, that's wrong,
and being like no, I'm good at it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
As well as like she loves her country and she's
singing and even though some of the old school thought
is you shouldn't be doing that as a woman, she's like,
but I love doing this and this makes me more proud.
I think there's a lot to be said to that
as well. It was really good. And of course the
long braiden is referencing her hair, so that it's that conversation.
(20:41):
She doesn't really talk about the head coverings at all
much hajabs or anything, so I'm not really sure if
she was implicating that or just like braids in general,
but that is that conversation about her hair being shown,
and he does make mention of that as well, essentially
again calling her a slot for doing such a thing,
(21:03):
which I think it was like a powerful statement in
that self. And the next story is the Anklet of Mayomas.
I hope I'm saying that right. And in this story
that threads quote together The Lives a Young Woman. I
got this from a review Together the Lives of Young
Women across sentries and their parallel desires and all those
(21:25):
times and places for love, for freedom, for escape. This
is one of those that I had to research because
it is a lot. There's a lot to this story
that jumps kind of all over the place. Also involves
the sea, and we get to have like that moment
of like the sand and conversations about what that felt like,
the smell of hay, great, great imagery. The story flows
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as we see tales of love and art as well
as loneliness and anger. A young girl dances in a
temple and watches as a sculptor works. A young man
is working and digging for something we don't know of
until the end, with the sea always in the background,
patiently waiting with those who are looking or waiting for
someone to come. Here's a quote. He remembers his girlfriend's
(22:11):
tearful words to him. When am I going to break
through that border? When will they give me a permit
to come and see you? Other voices crowd his mind,
like the sound of his father's voice. You don't have
to wait for her to come. You only spent a
few days in Gaza. How can you say you're committed
to her? The situation has changed, son, They have stopped
letting ordinary civilians pass through Arres. Our lives and our
(22:34):
work are here. I build the wall, and you build
the settlements. Wake up from your daydreams. Boy, there were
the other sounds crowded his thoughts as well, sounds he
wished he didn't hear, drums and whistles, the clamor of
festivities surrounding his eventual wedding to his cousin, So so
much happening. And the story ends with him shooting, not him,
(22:58):
one of the boy who had been trying today for
some things, shooting at a crowd. I say this talked
about Israeli couples across the wall and border. So there's
a lot, but there's all like this imagery of a
woman dancing, a princess dancing with her anklet chiming. And
then they compare the noise of the gunshot to the
chiming of anklets. So yes, a lot there.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, and again these are very short, like you, it's
it's a lot that uh yes, has managed to get
across in like literally some of these stories are three pages. Maybe,
so you really gotta you gotta pay attention. Yeah, in
(23:41):
a good way. It's great, Like the imagery is amazing,
it's really really powerful, but you do, you really gotta focus.
(24:02):
The next story is called Breastfeeding. This is the story
of a mother and daughter. Mother Yara dreams of continuing
her education and going to school in Cairo, but at
the age of thirteen, is told that she would be
marrying her cousin after having three kids, and her husband
just decides he wants a new wife. He says that
Yara's mother was a mother to him as well, since
(24:25):
she had breastfed him when he was younger due to
the fact his own mother was too weak at the
time to do so herself. He soon left Yara, but
Yara continued her life and provided for herself and her
family through sewing. So we later see Yara's daughter, Sarah,
getting ready to get married herself to a man she
(24:45):
had never met but talked to through the internet. She
was excited, even though he was a much older man
than her, she would be able to leave and move
to Paris. She was excited about that. Later, she moves
back with the child, saying that she was divorced and
needed to come back. The marriage had not been good.
He refused to let her leave and come home, and
(25:06):
she was unhappy the entire time. Yara declared it would
all be fine and that she would provide for them
through her sewing. So here's a quote from that one.
With that sound, she knows what she will do. She
will not despair or indeed look for a new husband.
She will just sew, stitch and sew and tear and cut.
The sewing machines were will ring in the ears of
(25:29):
all of her children through all of the years ahead.
It will drown out the sound of her own regrets,
and it will keep the house together. As long as
it's whirring deafens them. They will not hear the bitterness
of the mother that brought them into this world.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Collective side but no yet. It was this powerful story
because also she thought that she was going to get
this opportunity to go to Cairo because she was a
really smart girl. Her parents didn't want her to marry
the cousin, but the aunt was very, very insistent. And
then the daughter was trying to escape, thinking that she
was going to do have this amazing life, but was
(26:05):
literally in prison in her own home because her husband
would not let her out, and so she left after
the baby, which was good to see that she could
still return home. There was also the conversation of her
not being able to leave at that time on time
and it almost came to a divorce because they had
agreed to get married. I think they did get married,
but they hadn't met. And it took him almost a
(26:26):
year for her to leave because of all of the
technicalities and the hardships that she had to go through
in order to try to be able to leave in
the first place. So that all happened, and then it
ended up not being great for her either. But that
whole bastfaiting thing that was interesting because it also talks
about like the fact that through the Koran, like the
(26:50):
clergy essentially told him, you know, if you've been fed
more than four times, then yes, she could be considered
like a mother to you. And I was like, huh,
I don't know much about the Quran, so that was
very new information. I was like, that's an interesting, very interesting,
very specific technicality.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I feel like there's a bunch of those in religion
where it's like seven times in this.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Fair Yeah, the Old Testament, I guess the Torah for
some things like essentially the same things that are like, wow,
that is real specific with those numbers, which is why
I think one hundred and say one hundred and forty
four thousand is the number for heaven like that is
also very specific that, yeah, that's the case, like the
(27:37):
idea that it's going to be one hundred and forty
four thousand chosen. And I think the Son of Jacob
is the idea. This is a whole like kind of
Zionist ideas that's underneath that. But it is in the
Old Testament. But yeah, it's very specific. May also be
in the Revelation. No, I think about it because it
(27:59):
kind of tastes from the Ol Testament. Go back to
the religious thoughts. So we're in our final story and
I could not find Somemaland, so someone can tell me
if it's Somemaland or Samuel land Uh. The Somelan Moon
And it's a story about Rima and Ziad, a young
couple in love, and it's really cute to the first
(28:23):
time they profess to each other to eventually becoming engaged. However,
throughout their years they have grown different with different opinions.
After the death of Ziad's father, things had changed for
both of them. Rima was more open and they had
become more traditional. After a heated discussion and a car accident,
(28:45):
Ziad and Rema decide to go back to their spot
by the water, but it's soon targeted by an Apache
helicopter and their car is destroyed. However, they soon make
it to their spot, where they declare their love for
each other. Still here's a line For a moment, they
lie still in the street on opposite sides of the car,
(29:06):
gazing across at each other through its burning undercarriage. The
helicopter search light lights up Rima's face for what seems
like an age until she starts to move, at which
point it crosses back to the car still on fire,
then back to Rema once it finally sets off, taking
the blaze cacophony with it. Zod slowly gets to his
feet and staggers across to help Rema up. They steady
(29:28):
themselves for a moment and realize the streets are empty,
just as the beach at the end of the road
will be empty. And I think part of this is
Ziod has gotten into something that he knows he has
to leave. He's very angry about things that have happened,
including what has happened to his father, and is not
happy with the traditions being thrown out, while Rema is
(29:49):
all about letting go of traditions. But it was actually
really sweet ending even with all of that action fact
moment essentially to this talking about friends and talking about
have change and talking about how they still love each other.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Though yeah, yeah, And I feel like a lot of
the stories had that kind of vibe of like tragedy
and hope, but also definitely like children and loss of
innocence was throughout.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
But it was really I recommend it a lot because
it really was evocative of like the environment, and I
could like hear the sounds and feel the air and
like smell the sea. Like it was a really set
the place right, very very well.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
They do a great job in making sure they reference
any of the historical events and or terms that you
might not know. Not all of it, but a good
bit of it in the back. And I think it's
good to note. It's also good to note that the
entire areas that she's speaking of I have been completely
changed at this point in time. I had mentioned to
(31:04):
Annie we were talking before that the hospital she mentions
just was announcing that the entire ICU section had all
passed away because they had lost electricity and water and power.
So there's a lot of heaviness, especially right now. But
it's something that we who are not involved or have
(31:28):
not do, not have family or friends there can't ignore.
And I think many people say this have been saying
it when you feel helpless, that the best thing sometimes
that we can do, or the only thing sometimes that
we can do, is to be witnessed to it so
we don't forget it. And in these conversations, I think
that's important. The stories that she wrote, obviously things were
(31:51):
still happening then, tragedies were happening, Then displacement was happening,
then battles and deaths were happening then, and I think
it's something to remember. She does even mention Hamas and
what they did to the country as well, but I
think obviously there's a bigger conversation to be had about
how it led to that anyway. In all of that, again,
(32:13):
like I said, I think it's important that we make
sure we keep talking about it and not let people
not let be forgotten, as well as being really careful
of propaganda or conversations and having literature like this is
really really important, and having conversations that she has led
(32:34):
about gender equality and the gender violence that were happening
and what has been happening throughout is really important as well,
which she does a great job in talking about without
preaching about, because these are experiences that are very realistic.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah yeah, So definitely go check out this book. We
highly recommend it and as always, you can send us
any of your recommendations. You can contact us at steffmediamom
Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on
Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok
(33:16):
at stuff I Never Told You. We have a tea
puppet store and we have a book that you can
get where you get your books. Thanks as always to
our super producer go steenair executive producer Maya, and your
contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Stefan Never Told You is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts or my heart Radio, you can check out the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or where you listen to your
favorite shows.
Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and come with Steffan
never told your production if I heard radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And we are doing our month the book club. Yay.
We have chosen a short story collection and it is
by a Palacitian activist and writer, Nauru's Karmat, titled The
Sea Cloak, and if you have an opportunity to read it,
you should is it is a very short but heavy read.
Speaking of which content warning there is mentioned of rape, definitely, death, war, colonization,
(00:43):
and genocide. And though the stories are short, the book
itself is less than eighty pages, the words are profound
and powerful. There are some stories that had to be
read by me a couple of times for me to
get the depth and the meaning behind it. I even
had to see some research still didn't quite get a
lot of some of it. Rather, and speaking of which
(01:03):
being completely transparent, there's a lot of things I do
not know about the Palestinian culture or even the area.
I do know the gist of it, and it was
not so long ago that I even began to understand
the depths of what is happening in the Gaza area.
So some of the contexts in the stories were unfamiliar
(01:24):
to me, but it is still a powerful story and
the conversation of not only the state of what is
happening there and the match gen aside and displacement, but
also the need for gender equality and protection. Just also.
This book was published in twenty nineteen, and yes it
has won several awards. It is also a translation, so
(01:45):
with that translation, much like our feminists around the world,
we're going to try our best with pronunciations. There are
gonna be mistakes that we make, probably some romanization, English
translations and pronunciations that it is not completly correct. If
you are understand the correct pronunciation or of those origins
(02:08):
and you want to correct us nicely, that would be lovely,
just so you know.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
But yes, there's a lot happening, and of course we
always want to highlight those who have been working to
create change and speak out, and this is one of
those books that does talk about a lot of the
ins and outs and the ugliness of what is happening there.
And by the way, here's a bit about the author,
Karmat herself from the Comic Press, which is what the
(02:37):
press that was used for the book. The release of
the book, Naarus Karmat is a Palestinian writer and activist.
Born in Damascus in nineteen eighty four as a Palestinian refugee,
She returned to the Gaza Strip as part of the
nineteen ninety four Israeli Palestinian Peace Agreement, where she now lives.
I don't know how dated this is, so she gradual
(03:00):
weight from Alizar University in Gaza with a degree in economics.
She at the time of this publishing worked in the
Ministry of Women's Affairs, raising awareness of gender issues and
promoting the political and economic role of women in policy
and law, as well as the defense of women from
(03:20):
abuse and highlighting the role of women's issues in the media.
Her political, social and literary articles have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines,
and online. She has also written screenplays for several short
films dealing with women's rights. She's a social activist and
a member of several youth initiatives campaigning for social change
in Palestine. I don't know where she's at today. I
(03:43):
think she does have some social media, so not sure
what she's up to with what is happening since she
was a resident of that area. So we'll look into
that later. So for this we are going to go
story by story, as each story as an independent, unique tale,
with a small excerpt of each story if we can find,
(04:03):
and some of them are so small and so just intense,
we might not have one. We'll just give a brief
explainer and then we'll discuss the themes as we go.
So per book, we'll discuss about it because obviously we
can tie it all together at the end, and we
probably will, but with short stories, we'd like to give
attention to each one. So we are going to start
with the first story, The Sea Cloak, which is the
(04:25):
title of the actual book, and the story is of
a young woman going with her family to the beach
and she nearly drowns because of the amount of clothing
that binds her in the water, but it's rescued by
a stranger. Here they look at not only the implications
of what the women and the young girls have to wear,
but her interactions with boys in general, in which she
(04:47):
is chastised at the beginning of the story for flirting
with a young boy intent because she was chastised in
she is afraid of being chastised again after being touched
by the man who rescued her from drowning, which he
doesn't get chastised. He gets thank you, thank you so much,
rather for rescuing her. But it is an interesting interaction
(05:09):
between her mind and figuring out, oh God, did I
do something wrong versus her life essentially right. And here's
a quote from the story that is just the way
Gaza is a young girl yet to learn the art
of elegance, a young girl who has not yet developed
her own scent, and is still willingly or not perfumed
(05:30):
by all around her. And in that context, she's talking
about being affected by the culture, by ideals and traditions
and rules of the place, as well as the five
people's own assumptions of her. I thought it was very pretty.
The entire book is beautiful, just fy, and very poetic
and sometimes really very deeply thought provoking, which meaning like
(05:54):
what did that just say? Type of level and I've
had to backtrack what just happened? Here's another quote. She
drifted toward it, carried like a mermaid by the breeze,
her thoughts entirely immersed in the ways before her time
was stealing her steps away, and the sea, without her realizing,
had already snuck into her memory, and it was just
(06:15):
such a vivid line about how memories are created in
that moment and you know when you are they're just
like this is going to be one of those things
I think gone forever. And it was a gorgeous like
look as well as like right before oh my god,
I think I might die a moment for her.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah. I found that a lot of the so much
of the environment was described so well, and so much
of the water specifically to see the feeling of the sea,
even if you're not necessarily near it, but just like
this in the air, you can feel it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
The oughts.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
That really painted a great picture of the area, the environment,
and that shone through in that one. The next story
is called Black Grapes, and this is about a friendship
between a Palestinian and a Jewish settler. A man is
trying to provide for his family, including his mother, who
owns a land with grapes growing on it, but it's
(07:13):
not really doing well, so he works for a man
named David, who defends him against others that insult him.
His name is Hammood, but after a small argument over
wages in labor is overheard by a bystander, kind of
an annoyed bystander outside Hamoud is shot after someone called
in saying that he was a terrorist. And that one's
(07:37):
sort of a circular, like you start at the end
and then get the painting of what led up to
that moment. And yeah, it was upsetting because they at
least had somewhat of an amicable relationship and then this
guy was just annoyed and called in. I mean, he
did overhear some stuff, but he definitely was like annoyed
(07:58):
and called in.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
He took an opportunity. But the kind of the bigger
theme of that, and I think one of the things
she was leaking to was the power that the Jewish
settler had. David had over the situation just because he
said the word terrorist and that was enough to get
him killed without any other conversations. And then of course
(08:20):
he regrets it and literally like screams, we were just
he he didn't get paid, That's all he kept saying
in his heartbreaking because you know, the father's loss and
the mother. We left a lot of this out because
it's such a such a suisting story that it was
just a lot, but like talking about trying to take
care of the mother, her mother refusing to give up
the land even though David really is trying to get
(08:42):
that land. And then that's kind of a big implication
of the story in general, between the Jewish settlers and
then some of the people who come through that area
versus the Palestinians who lived there. So yeah, definitely a lot.
The next story is the Mirror. We see a woman
(09:03):
named Laila and her niece Dahlia pretending to watch TV.
And this is again one of those that had to
come back and read twice because I was like, what
just happened? Pretending to watch TV in a mirror with
a key fob. I'm thinking they're at a refugee camp.
I can't quite grasp what's happening because it's not or
just a ruined, desolate building. And so they sit pretending
(09:26):
to watch TV. The niece gets excited tries to get
her aunt to come down, and which y'all, yeah, obviously
my hard hearts. But as the young niece is using
her imagination to remember her favorite TV show and character,
we read have a throwback to a harrowing incident of
Laila being raped as a child and her trying to
(09:46):
protect her herself and her niece from that type of
darkness in general. During the time of the incident, Leila
had her own favorite character, much like Dahlia, and she
used her favorite character as a way to protect her.
And here's a quote she remains afraid of. That's their case,
her entire life. She has nightmares for many years about
the shadow that can make hands appear out of nowhere,
(10:08):
grabbing her. But she always kept Lady close, Lady who
runs through green orchards. She remains Leilah's favorite cartoon character
even into adulthood. In nightmares, she too runs for the
comfort of those green meadows, keeping the sunlight on her
face rather than darkness.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, and that one was really powerful too, because I've
spoken about that before too, about using fictional characters to
get through dark stuff. So that one was really moving
and painful. The next one is called the Pen in
(10:51):
the Notebook, and this one we see three brothers, am
Asad and Adam, who travel with their donkey and kart
to collect rocks to sell for the day. And here
we witness the daily lives that the brothers trying to
help their family. Carmott does a beautiful job showing their
life as they travel through the town and then back
into their home, and she ends the story in a
(11:12):
way that shows how the warmth can be felt with
their family. And here's a quote about that the warmth
of her body seemed to restore them from the chill
that had crept in since that evening sun had set.
I am withdrew the crumpled twenty shekel note from his
trouser pocket and placed it in his mother's hand. Her
eyes glistened, and he gave her a kiss on the forehead.
(11:34):
Of the four shekels that remained, he gave two each
to his brothers. Don't forget what I told you. Buy
a notebook and a pen so you can learn to
write like me, he said, in his most paternal voice.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And obviously this is kind of I think this is
a theme in general about the fact that the young
children are having to play parents and caregivers. The father
had gotten shot by what they say, is in a
more American bullet and is paralyzed in bedridden, and so
he's taking care of all of them. But one of
the most important things that he teaches them is to write.
That they need to read and write. Yeah, so I
(12:08):
think that in itself has its own big themes.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yes, that is definitely throughout. I would say children are
present in most of these, if not all of these.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Right as we know, the majority at least, like they said,
forty six if not more percent are children. Not sure
the numbers now? Then the next story is the White Lilies,
and the story begins with an exchange between the flower
shop assistant and a man with a thick French accent
(12:39):
talking about the area and about flowers for Mother's Day,
and the flower shop assistant tells him white lilies are
for Mother's Day and he buys, and the frenchman buys
that and leaves. Later, we find out that the flower
shop assistant is an orphan teenage boy named Ali who
finds out that his neighbor just had a daughter, and
he suggests naming her Zara, which they do. Zara is
(13:01):
like a daughter to Ali and has been uh and
he has been a part of her life. She's a
sweet child who we are introduced to officially when she
talks about mosquitoes that often bother her hearing and while
she's studying, and how these mosquitoes can launch rockets as
well as pesticides to quote unquote help the plants, and
then we in this conversation to talk about drones as
(13:22):
well as part of the mosquitoes. Her father tries to
reassure her that they don't do the rockets, they're just
there to help plants, and she is sent off to
school reassured, where she waits for Ali. Ali is heading
to the school to give her a white lily for
Mother's Day. All the while, a man with a thick
French accent that works for the military is order to
(13:44):
neutralize the target after hearing the phrase the lilies have blossomed.
Ali is time and then we soon read Ali is blasted, slash,
knocked down and killed in front of Zara, who gets
a part of that blast as well. But she I
guess is okay, who had been waiting for him to
arrive in front of the school the entire time.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yep. And then the next story is called Our Milk.
We learn of two different instances, one occurring in nineteen
forty six and another in two thousand and one. The
scenery begins at an elegant restaurant with a young blond
woman waiting for her milk as part of her breakfast,
but as she waits, an explosion occurs, killing her and
many others. Jump to two thousand and one. A young
(14:29):
man is being driven to an area with a ukulele
case and a camera bag. He is dropped off downtown
at a cafe named Sabarros. There with a young boy
and his mom, a worker, and another customer, a bomb
goes off, and here is a quote from that. As
the kitchen clock ticks noon, the white sauce sprays upwards,
mingling for a frozen nanosecond with the red. The little
(14:52):
boy with freckles daydreams for the last time about learning
the guitar. The old man taps his foot to one
last beat. The woman with the long legs takes her
last sip of orange juice. In a tornado of spaghetti
and wood and stone. Tables fly and the roof collapses.
Blood and bone are scattered in the dust of the
young man's curious gaze. Nothing remains.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yes, now, the beginning scene really does make you think
of I guess it was before the official colonization slash
displacement in that area, but still obviously socioeconomic divide with
the whole like waiting for milk being really annoyed, waiting
(15:38):
for that milk, which was a luxury at that time,
to her being bombed. And then it flipped into the
incident in which the journalists who had been reporting all
these horrific things finally joins the cause. Slash joins the
fight and delivers the young teenage boy to bomb the Saborrows,
(16:01):
which I'm guessing it's the piece of place. Says they
do discuisse pizza and Italian food, So it sounds like
maybe a connotation about yeah, English or Americanized restaurants.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, yeah, but also just kind of that mirror of
like time of like this instance in this sistance and
how they kind of reflect each other.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Then we have fourteenth of June or
June fourteenth. So here's a quote about the date. That
is the title, so it says the back as a note,
the title refers to fourteen June two thousand and seven,
the day in which Palestinian President Mamouda Boss announced the
dissolution of the Unity government and declared a state of emergency.
(16:53):
It occurred at the height of a Battle of Gaza,
also referred to as Hama's takeover of Gaza, which was
June tentheenth in two thousand and seven, which followed FATA
losing the parliamentary elections of two thousand and six. Harmas
fighters took control of the Gaza Strip and removed FATA
officials from the political and administrative positions, resulting in the
(17:16):
defective division of the Palestinian territories into two entities, the
West Bank governed by the Postinian National Authority and Gaza
governed by Hamas. And The story follows a family watching
the chaos happening around them as the city grapples with
the current state, trying to remain safe from protecting their homes,
(17:36):
we see the mother trying to find her husband as
well as trying to protect the daughters. An uncle involved. Somehow,
it did a double take on that, so I was
kind of confused. Here's quote, images flashed through her mind
like lightning, and this is I think this is the
perspective of a daughter. How many times has she jumped
out of bed thinking that a bullet has punctured her window?
(17:57):
How many times have she and her sister thrown themselves
into their mother's arms or huddle together at the foot
of the bed on hearing an RPG mortar screeching towards
the building on the square, and that's kind of the
chaos that is happening, as well as men coming in
and taking over places as well as stealing things. But
she's able to hold tight. She's able to keep our
(18:19):
family fed, and she's able to hail her hair from
our husband to know that he's alive.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
The next story is called The Long Braid, which is
about a young lady who is proud and outspoken, even
if she is scared or nervous. She loves to sing
and dance and is willing to stand up against those
who try to shame her for that. Here is a
quote This triggers in turn something else, and she feels
tears stinging her eyes, like the ones she tried so
desperately not to shed that day she was excluded from class.
(18:49):
With each new sting, she writes down another word on
a blank page of the notebook, a word that describes
her love for her country, a word that stands in
defiance of all meaningless symbols her mass teacher on the
board that day. This episode might bring tears to her
eyes later that night in her room, but she knows
she has faced worse than this, like the time he
kicked her out of class for standing up to him
(19:10):
when he said women who called themselves emancipated were sluts.
She is proud of the restraint she showed that day,
despite her anger, despite his humiliation of her in front
of the other girls. She can feel the same tears
prickling her eyes as she felt then tears she refused
to shed for his ignorance. She left the classroom that
(19:31):
day without giving him another look. The god I know
pays no resemblance to the monster you rant about, she
says with a smile, and proceeded to skip all the
way down the corridor and out into the courtyard of
the Zatan Preparatory School for Girls.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, this was a beautiful story. I think she does
a really good job of making these young women or
girls really strong. But at the same time that fear
that like, you know this, you're so upset that you cry,
but you know what you're saying is right, and even
though you're crying, you're doing something brave.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, Yeah, And just feeling that kind of love of
school or a love of dance, love of singing or
whatever it is, and being told like no, that's wrong,
and being like no, I'm good at it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
As well as like she loves her country and she's
singing and even though some of the old school thought
is you shouldn't be doing that as a woman, she's like,
but I love doing this and this makes me more proud.
I think there's a lot to be said to that
as well. It was really good. And of course the
long braiden is referencing her hair, so that it's that conversation.
(20:41):
She doesn't really talk about the head coverings at all
much hajabs or anything, so I'm not really sure if
she was implicating that or just like braids in general,
but that is that conversation about her hair being shown,
and he does make mention of that as well, essentially
again calling her a slot for doing such a thing,
(21:03):
which I think it was like a powerful statement in
that self. And the next story is the Anklet of Mayomas.
I hope I'm saying that right. And in this story
that threads quote together The Lives a Young Woman. I
got this from a review Together the Lives of Young
Women across sentries and their parallel desires and all those
(21:25):
times and places for love, for freedom, for escape. This
is one of those that I had to research because
it is a lot. There's a lot to this story
that jumps kind of all over the place. Also involves
the sea, and we get to have like that moment
of like the sand and conversations about what that felt like,
the smell of hay, great, great imagery. The story flows
(21:48):
as we see tales of love and art as well
as loneliness and anger. A young girl dances in a
temple and watches as a sculptor works. A young man
is working and digging for something we don't know of
until the end, with the sea always in the background,
patiently waiting with those who are looking or waiting for
someone to come. Here's a quote. He remembers his girlfriend's
(22:11):
tearful words to him. When am I going to break
through that border? When will they give me a permit
to come and see you? Other voices crowd his mind,
like the sound of his father's voice. You don't have
to wait for her to come. You only spent a
few days in Gaza. How can you say you're committed
to her? The situation has changed, son, They have stopped
letting ordinary civilians pass through Arres. Our lives and our
(22:34):
work are here. I build the wall, and you build
the settlements. Wake up from your daydreams. Boy, there were
the other sounds crowded his thoughts as well, sounds he
wished he didn't hear, drums and whistles, the clamor of
festivities surrounding his eventual wedding to his cousin, So so
much happening. And the story ends with him shooting, not him,
(22:58):
one of the boy who had been trying today for
some things, shooting at a crowd. I say this talked
about Israeli couples across the wall and border. So there's
a lot, but there's all like this imagery of a
woman dancing, a princess dancing with her anklet chiming. And
then they compare the noise of the gunshot to the
chiming of anklets. So yes, a lot there.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, and again these are very short, like you, it's
it's a lot that uh yes, has managed to get
across in like literally some of these stories are three pages. Maybe,
so you really gotta you gotta pay attention. Yeah, in
(23:41):
a good way. It's great, Like the imagery is amazing,
it's really really powerful, but you do, you really gotta focus.
(24:02):
The next story is called Breastfeeding. This is the story
of a mother and daughter. Mother Yara dreams of continuing
her education and going to school in Cairo, but at
the age of thirteen, is told that she would be
marrying her cousin after having three kids, and her husband
just decides he wants a new wife. He says that
Yara's mother was a mother to him as well, since
(24:25):
she had breastfed him when he was younger due to
the fact his own mother was too weak at the
time to do so herself. He soon left Yara, but
Yara continued her life and provided for herself and her
family through sewing. So we later see Yara's daughter, Sarah,
getting ready to get married herself to a man she
(24:45):
had never met but talked to through the internet. She
was excited, even though he was a much older man
than her, she would be able to leave and move
to Paris. She was excited about that. Later, she moves
back with the child, saying that she was divorced and
needed to come back. The marriage had not been good.
He refused to let her leave and come home, and
(25:06):
she was unhappy the entire time. Yara declared it would
all be fine and that she would provide for them
through her sewing. So here's a quote from that one.
With that sound, she knows what she will do. She
will not despair or indeed look for a new husband.
She will just sew, stitch and sew and tear and cut.
The sewing machines were will ring in the ears of
(25:29):
all of her children through all of the years ahead.
It will drown out the sound of her own regrets,
and it will keep the house together. As long as
it's whirring deafens them. They will not hear the bitterness
of the mother that brought them into this world.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Collective side but no yet. It was this powerful story
because also she thought that she was going to get
this opportunity to go to Cairo because she was a
really smart girl. Her parents didn't want her to marry
the cousin, but the aunt was very, very insistent. And
then the daughter was trying to escape, thinking that she
was going to do have this amazing life, but was
(26:05):
literally in prison in her own home because her husband
would not let her out, and so she left after
the baby, which was good to see that she could
still return home. There was also the conversation of her
not being able to leave at that time on time
and it almost came to a divorce because they had
agreed to get married. I think they did get married,
but they hadn't met. And it took him almost a
(26:26):
year for her to leave because of all of the
technicalities and the hardships that she had to go through
in order to try to be able to leave in
the first place. So that all happened, and then it
ended up not being great for her either. But that
whole bastfaiting thing that was interesting because it also talks
about like the fact that through the Koran, like the
(26:50):
clergy essentially told him, you know, if you've been fed
more than four times, then yes, she could be considered
like a mother to you. And I was like, huh,
I don't know much about the Quran, so that was
very new information. I was like, that's an interesting, very interesting,
very specific technicality.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I feel like there's a bunch of those in religion
where it's like seven times in this.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Fair Yeah, the Old Testament, I guess the Torah for
some things like essentially the same things that are like, wow,
that is real specific with those numbers, which is why
I think one hundred and say one hundred and forty
four thousand is the number for heaven like that is
also very specific that, yeah, that's the case, like the
(27:37):
idea that it's going to be one hundred and forty
four thousand chosen. And I think the Son of Jacob
is the idea. This is a whole like kind of
Zionist ideas that's underneath that. But it is in the
Old Testament. But yeah, it's very specific. May also be
in the Revelation. No, I think about it because it
(27:59):
kind of tastes from the Ol Testament. Go back to
the religious thoughts. So we're in our final story and
I could not find Somemaland, so someone can tell me
if it's Somemaland or Samuel land Uh. The Somelan Moon
And it's a story about Rima and Ziad, a young
couple in love, and it's really cute to the first
(28:23):
time they profess to each other to eventually becoming engaged. However,
throughout their years they have grown different with different opinions.
After the death of Ziad's father, things had changed for
both of them. Rima was more open and they had
become more traditional. After a heated discussion and a car accident,
(28:45):
Ziad and Rema decide to go back to their spot
by the water, but it's soon targeted by an Apache
helicopter and their car is destroyed. However, they soon make
it to their spot, where they declare their love for
each other. Still here's a line For a moment, they
lie still in the street on opposite sides of the car,
(29:06):
gazing across at each other through its burning undercarriage. The
helicopter search light lights up Rima's face for what seems
like an age until she starts to move, at which
point it crosses back to the car still on fire,
then back to Rema once it finally sets off, taking
the blaze cacophony with it. Zod slowly gets to his
feet and staggers across to help Rema up. They steady
(29:28):
themselves for a moment and realize the streets are empty,
just as the beach at the end of the road
will be empty. And I think part of this is
Ziod has gotten into something that he knows he has
to leave. He's very angry about things that have happened,
including what has happened to his father, and is not
happy with the traditions being thrown out, while Rema is
(29:49):
all about letting go of traditions. But it was actually
really sweet ending even with all of that action fact
moment essentially to this talking about friends and talking about
have change and talking about how they still love each other.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Though yeah, yeah, And I feel like a lot of
the stories had that kind of vibe of like tragedy
and hope, but also definitely like children and loss of
innocence was throughout.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
But it was really I recommend it a lot because
it really was evocative of like the environment, and I
could like hear the sounds and feel the air and
like smell the sea. Like it was a really set
the place right, very very well.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
They do a great job in making sure they reference
any of the historical events and or terms that you
might not know. Not all of it, but a good
bit of it in the back. And I think it's
good to note. It's also good to note that the
entire areas that she's speaking of I have been completely
changed at this point in time. I had mentioned to
(31:04):
Annie we were talking before that the hospital she mentions
just was announcing that the entire ICU section had all
passed away because they had lost electricity and water and power.
So there's a lot of heaviness, especially right now. But
it's something that we who are not involved or have
(31:28):
not do, not have family or friends there can't ignore.
And I think many people say this have been saying
it when you feel helpless, that the best thing sometimes
that we can do, or the only thing sometimes that
we can do, is to be witnessed to it so
we don't forget it. And in these conversations, I think
that's important. The stories that she wrote, obviously things were
(31:51):
still happening then, tragedies were happening, Then displacement was happening,
then battles and deaths were happening then, and I think
it's something to remember. She does even mention Hamas and
what they did to the country as well, but I
think obviously there's a bigger conversation to be had about
how it led to that anyway. In all of that, again,
(32:13):
like I said, I think it's important that we make
sure we keep talking about it and not let people
not let be forgotten, as well as being really careful
of propaganda or conversations and having literature like this is
really really important, and having conversations that she has led
(32:34):
about gender equality and the gender violence that were happening
and what has been happening throughout is really important as well,
which she does a great job in talking about without
preaching about, because these are experiences that are very realistic.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah yeah, So definitely go check out this book. We
highly recommend it and as always, you can send us
any of your recommendations. You can contact us at steffmediamom
Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on
Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok
(33:16):
at stuff I Never Told You. We have a tea
puppet store and we have a book that you can
get where you get your books. Thanks as always to
our super producer go steenair executive producer Maya, and your
contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Stefan Never Told You is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts or my heart Radio, you can check out the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or where you listen to your
favorite shows.
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