“ In the course of nearly two decades, the streets have been turned into a war zone, where young women who disobey the rules are hurled into patrol cars, taken to jail, flogged, fined, forced to wash the toilets and humiliated, and as soon as they leave, they go back and do the same thing ” (page 83, lines 49-53). This quote is important because it tells the reader how Muslim women are being treated in Iran just because maybe they have makeup on or because they don’t have their clothes wrapped around them right. It is also important because it means that men have so much more freedom than women because they don’t need to cover their bodies up or put their head down when they walk, just to not be seen. “ In the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities are patrolled by militia, who ride in white Toyota patrols, four gun-carrying men and women, sometimes followed by a minibus. They are called the Blood of God. They patrol the streets to make sure that women like Sanaz wear their veils properly, do not wear makeup, do not walk in public with men who are not their fathers, brothers, or husbands ” (page 82, lines 16-22). This is important because in Iran, they control the women so much and the women have so many restrictions. These women would be beat to the point of death if they are so much as even a little bit out of …show more content…
“ We sang the national anthem. Eight months ago some young protesters from the 6 April Group had been arrested in Alexandria for singing the national anthem; it was ‘instigatory’ the prosecution said. We sang it. On 28 January, standing at the momentous crossroads, the Nile behind us, the Arab League building on our left, the old Ministry of Foreign Affairs to our right, seeing nothing up ahead except the gas and smoke and fire that stood between us and our capital, we stood our ground and sang and chanted and placed our lives, with all trust and confidence, in each other’s hands. Some of us died ” (page 76, lines 74-83). This is important because these people stood up for what they believed in, they stood up for their own freedom. It is also important because all of those people were willing to put their lives on the line and their lives in other people’s hands, to make the Government stop controlling them. “ For twenty years I have shied away from writing about Cairo. It hurt too much. But the city was there, close to me, looking over my shoulder, holding up the prism through which I understood the world, inserting herself everything I wrote. It hurt. And now, miraculously, it doesn’t. Because my city is mine again ” (page 75, lines 44-48). This is important because Soueif says that she was scared to write about what happens in her city because it hurt her. She also