Mariam

"A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing."

"Endure, she said. Endure."

"I am like that, Mariam thought. Like a compass needle. Except I have no place to point to."

"Suffering and love were like that, she thought. They were like a single thing."

"There is no power on Earth that can undo what was done."

"But she supposed she had always wanted to know what it felt like to be important to someone."

"Do you ever think, Laila, that maybe we've been women too long?"

"Perhaps this is just how it has to be. Perhaps this is the life that has been written for me."

"If you're afraid of your reflection in the water, you should not look at it."

"She thought of her life in the hut, how she had lived on the margins of the world."

"She had become someone's mother, and in that lay a purpose she had never known."

"Forgiveness was not something she could give. Not yet."

"I finally knew what it felt like to matter to someone."

"She had lived so long in shadow that the light seemed unbearable."

"She had never known she was capable of such strength."

"I choose to remember the good things. It is the only way forward."

"Life had been cruel to her, but she would not be cruel to herself."

"Women like us, we endure. It's all we know."

"Grief is a luxury we cannot afford when survival is at stake."

"Motherhood is the only role society grants us, and yet it is the hardest we must play."

"A woman's tears are often mistaken for weakness when they are really evidence of her strength."

"Forgiveness is not about absolving the guilty; it's about freeing yourself from their grip."

"Patience is what we practice when we have no other choice."

"The past is a weight we carry, but it need not define our future."

"We are not the authors of our own stories, but we can choose how we respond to the words written for us."

"We learn that hope is not a destination but a daily practice."

"In despair, we discover strengths we never knew we possessed."

"The bonds between women can be stronger than any chain of blood."

"In darkest times, a simple act of compassion becomes a beacon of light."

"A mother's love is the only unconditional force in a world of conditions."