Dr. Mohamed Mukhtar Hussein can be reached at m_m_hussein@hotmail.com. This material is protected by copyright laws. It may not, therefore, be posted at websites or published in any other way without a prior written permission from the author. Individual users are granted permission for fair use. 3 Book Details: List Price: $14.95, Paperback: 244 pages, Publisher: Authorhouse; (July 2005). The book may be ordered at Amazon.com.
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Nevertheless, the two, like butterflies, enjoyed each other's companionship. In doing so, like Ammu and Velutha in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, a novel about the caste system in India, Safi and Haroon broke an un-codified law. Haroon seemed to enjoy women regardless of their clan affiliation and Safi, despite her deep feelings of hurt with the meaning and the restriction of the Midgaan concept, pinned her future on trust for Haroon's ability to reject this misguided Somali faux pas. However, Haroon, had "no personality to crash the tribal taboo". Su'aad, the other main protagonist and the only child of Haweeya and Diirshe, orchestrates Haroon's rejection of his daughter and his wife. To advance her project, Su'aad connives and convinces her mother that she needs Haroon to help her with her school work at home. Like a Confessor, late at one night, Su'aad navigates Haroon's hand and lays them "on the line dividing the two blades of her chest" and seduces him "You … honey … press here .., press not hard". Haroon falls on her "much the same way a tree axed from the bottom inclines to kiss the sand". For a while, her additive and subtractive powers collude to control Haroon. Their relationship, however, did not last. The narrative composes intricate tales of love, of crime, of extra-marital affairs and of political assassinations. Su'aad's life was caught in the middle of all these. Safi's parents did not know the secret love affair their daughter had with Haroon and felt all when they noticed a bulge in her stomach: Bad. Sad. Mad. Soon after, the family dignity began to plummet as people spread "rumors that were licking" Safi's "reputation like a fire in the bush". Her father, Gaduur, cognizant of honor killing, settles to kick her out of the house and threatens to kill her if she ever comes home. She pleads her innocence and challenges his rationality. Her words provide us a powerful "second handle on reality" of the damage prevailing tribal laws can cause in the lands of the Somali:

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