Chapter Six: The Forgotten Gate

"We must now slip through breaches in the wall, the forgotten openings...." (45). Ahmed, after his father's death, must consider a rite of passage in a young man's life: marriage. However, his wife may never know his secret. Ahmed chooses his cousin Fatima as a wife because she is sick and will be unable to ever produce children. More than a real marriage, this seems to be an arrangement to fulfill societal expectations.