Beating, torture, and trafficking of women remain common and are broadly accepted. —The New York Times Grandma and I sit reading the New York Times,dusting the pages with powdered sugar from thejelly doughnuts we have smuggled into the House ofHealthful Eating. We exchange conspiratorialwinks as Grandma says, “What they don’t knowwon’t hurt them.” My mother is out. My father is, in his words,puttering. I lick powder from my fingers, turna page, reach for my mug of coffee, extra lightwith lots of sugar. And then I see the photoof Nadia with her staring eyes and her bandagednose. I tell myself not to read the story, butof course I do. In Afghanistan there is a girl named Nadia—only seventeen, not that much older than me—who had her nose and an ear cut off while she slept.Her husband was settling a dispute. Girls as young as six are forced into marriages,sold for a few hundred dollars to pay off the debtsof their drug-addicted fathers. And their mothershave no power to change how it goes.
