My mother did the best she knew how. The Arab world has never put much value on education for women.

Everybody knows how the more traditional — that is to say, more backward and unregenerate — Arab men treat their wives and daughters. Their camels get more respect. Now, in the big cities like Damascus and Cairo, you can see modern women wearing Western-style clothing, holding down jobs outside the home, sometimes even smoking cigarettes on the street. In Mauretania, I’d seen that the attitudes there were still rigid. Women wore long white robes and veils, with hoods or kerchiefs covering their hair. Twenty-five years ago, my mother had no place in the legitimate job market. But there is always a small population of lost souls, of course — people who scoff at the dictates of the holy Qur’an, men and women who drink alcohol and gamble and indulge in sex for pleasure. There is always a place for a young woman whose morals have been ground away by hunger and despair.

When I saw her again in Algiers, my mother’s appearance had shocked me. In my imagination, I’d pictured her as a respectable, moderately well-to-do matron living in a comfortable neighborhood. I hadn’t seen or spoken to her in years, but I just figured she’d managed to lift herself out of the poverty and degradation. Now I thought maybe she was happy as she was, a haggard, strident old whore. I spent an hour with her, hoping to hear what I’d come to learn, trying to decide how to behave toward her, and being embarrassed by her in front of the Half-Hajj. She didn’t want to be troubled by her children. I got the impression that she was sorry she hadn’t sold me too, when she’d sold Hussain Abdul-Qahhar, my brother. She didn’t like me dropping back into her life after all those years. “Believe me,” I told her, “I didn’t like hunting you up, either. I only did it because I have to.” “Why do you have to?” she wanted to know. She reclined on a musty-smelling, torn old sofa that was covered with cat hair. She’d made herself another drink, but had neglected to offer me or Saied anything.