Janna waved her hands in the air. “Will I ever win this argument?”
“Not in a million years, honey,” I chuckled. I would give the sky to this little bundle of joy if I could.
Our playtime was so much fun that half an hour passed in a blink of an eye. It was crazy how time worked, a minute always feeling like ages if we were waiting for something, and never enough if we were enjoying something.
My favorite thing was to feed the little princess. She was just so adorable and I loved every tiny thing about her. Ten minutes after she finished her yogurt, she was passed out in my arms.
It was no bother at all holding her until she woke up, but I also wanted her to sleep comfortably, so I didn’t mind when Janna asked if it was okay for the nanny to take her and put her in bed.
“Kauther!” Janna called, and I frowned.
“A new nanny?”
“Yes, the other one is pregnant again.”
I nodded, handing little Marie to Kauther after kissing her cheek one last time for the day. She had the softest skin in the world.
“Why do I feel like I’ve met the new nanny before?” I wondered, because her face was so familiar.
“I’m not sure, but she’s Mona’s cousin and looks a lot like her. Maybe that’s why?”
“Oh, that’s true. She does look a lot like Mona.” I paused for a long moment as a thought crept into my head. I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it. I really wanted to know more about Mona’s husband.
Janna most likely knew everything about it. She always answered all of my questions any time I’d asked her. I had a strong feeling she’d tell me everything I was curious to know.
“Speaking of Mona, I was really sad to learn about her husband’s death,” I said, knowing very well that if Janna knew something, she’d start speaking right away. As a matter of fact, I might find it hard to stop her.
“Oh! But nobody else is.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Her husband was an evil, evil man. Actually, not a man at all. An animal. Even though I’m not being fair to animals by defining him as one.”
I had no idea what I should say to that. I was completely shocked. What could he have done to make her say such a thing about him? And why would Mona marry someone like that?
It was as if Janna knew what I was thinking, because she whispered, “He raped her, she almost died.”
“Oh, my God!” I gasped, my hand covering my mouth.
Janna nodded, and shook her head in sorrow. “It’s disgusting, I know.”
“How could a person rape his wife?” I asked in disbelief, not knowing how a man could force his wife whom he loved into something like that, and actually hurt her.
“She wasn’t his wife when it happened,” Janna said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.
“What?” I gasped once again. “Then why would she marry someone who raped her?” She clearly didn’t love him, or even like him.
“Well, that’s the point. He raped her,” Janna said, and the frown on my face deepened. “Sadly, it’s very common practice for the rapist to marry his victim. The rapist and the victim’s family make some sort of a deal – the rapist marries her so he doesn’t get charged for his crime, and the family’s honor will somehow remain intact. He gets his way, he doesn’t go to jail, and her family saves its honor.”
My eyes closed tightly. I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my sister-in-law’s mouth. It was so crazy to believe, so upsetting, and just plain disgusting.
It was about honor, of course.
“Is that a law, Janna?” I asked after a long pause of silence.
“Um, not really.”
My heart hurts. “This is not fair, at all. To force a girl who’s been to hell and back to be bonded for life to the man who raped her is almost as evil as rape itself,” I spoke my thoughts aloud, not believing that to save the family’s ‘honor’ they would put their poor daughter, sister, or even niece through something like that.
“No, it’s not fair. But they knew that no one would marry her after the rape. Or worse, if she gets married and they find out that she’s not a virgin … ugh! You know the drill.”
“This is awful!” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. “Poor Mona.”
It was always about protecting a hymen to keep the honor. Stupid!
“Yes, but she didn’t have to deal with him for long,” Janna said. “He was killed the day after the wedding. By her brother.”
My eyes widened again, then relaxed back on my chair. I was never one to encourage a vigilante, but this time, I couldn’t help but think how wonderful her brother was.
“Good!”
“Her brother was in prison for fifteen years. When Mazen found out from one of the royal guards who used to be her neighbor, he asked our father to give him a royal pardon, which he did.”
“Fifteen years?”
“Yes. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail, so …”
“This is just ridiculous. So, the man who raped her gets away with it, and the person who defended his sister’s honor gets sentenced for life?” this was making me mad. “Tell me you’re joking, please!”
“I’m afraid not, Marie.” She shook her head. “This has been the way since the beginning of time – still is.”
I slapped both of my hands on my knees in frustration. “This needs to stop,” I said through clenched teeth, and got up.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to change the law!”
No matter how hard I tried, I always came back to square one. No, scratch that – I always came back to square zero.
It was difficult and challenging to figure out how a law could be changed, but I wasn’t going to bail. I was determined to find a way to make things better for the victims of rape in the Kingdom of Alfaidya. After all, it was my responsibility.
Bugging Mazen with every small detail about the Kingdom wasn’t something that I liked to do. I only went to him when I needed something to be finalized. As for advice and opinions, I always found the best came from Prince Fahd and Rosanna. They knew the right answer to almost everything, and when they didn’t, they would guide me to where I could find the best solution, regardless of whatever matter I had in my hands.
This time, however, Rosanna couldn’t offer much help. She had no idea how I could change the law. She did tell me where to look for the best advice, though. But I saved that option for last. Surely, I would find a way soon without going there.
Mazen had a lot to deal with on a daily basis, and I wasn’t willing to put more weight on his shoulders by discussing my plans with him. At least, not until I had everything figured out.
The huge difference between ruling as a president in a democracy and ruling a monarchy, it’s that you couldn’t discuss many topics with just anyone – some topics had to be consulted with a family member, a royal.
That was why the princes and princesses would study management or business, and absolutely every one of the princes had served in the army at some point. It was one of the reasons why all of them had frowned upon Mazen’s choice to study medicine.
As the days passed, I ran out of options; I knew I had no way to get the advice I needed but from the best source – my mother-in-law.
The Queen Mother studied law for almost ten years; she wasn’t the only one in the family to do so, but I had no doubt she was the best. After all, she was the oldest among those of the royals who’d studied law, and she also had decades of experience.
I wasn’t above learning new things, not at all. I wasn’t ashamed of asking for advice, not even close. I just wasn’t comfortable meeting with Queen Mother Shams, which was why I had been looking for alternate sources to get the information. However, my duty and my stubbornness to get things fixed found me asking my private secretary to set up a meeting with Queen Mother Shams. I hoped I would get all of the answers I needed from that meeting.
My mothe
r-in-law was genuinely thrilled to see me in her quarters. She listened carefully to everything I said, and I could tell that she was truly interested in what I was trying to do. Her eyes held no judgment and her words were wise, which made me more open to sharing most of my thoughts.
“My point is, a man can commit such an awful crime and at the end he gets rewarded by marrying the victim, instead of prison, or even execution.”
“I do understand what you mean, Your Majesty,” the Queen Mother said, “but I’m not sure what it is exactly that you want to do.”
“I want to change the law, and I need you to, kindly, tell me where I should start.”
My mother-in-law paused for a second before replying. “You’ll find changing laws a bit tricky, Your Majesty, but it’s not impossible.”
I had to smile, thinking I’d finally get to do everything I needed.
“The thing is, there’s already a law in place.”
My smile dropped. “What do you mean?”
“The law in Alfaidya does judge the rapist with jail time or execution, that’s nothing new.”
I frowned. “Then how come all of the reported cases that I looked at ended up with the charges being dropped, and then the victim marrying the rapist?” I asked, because through all of my research, I found that none of the men accused went on trial, not one.
“Because just as you said, the charges are dropped before the case goes to trial.”
I blinked a few times as I started to understand what she was getting at – the cases didn’t get past a report to the police. “Why?”
“As you found out, Your Majesty, a deal is made when the criminal is caught, to save the family’s honor. Without that deal, the case would continue and he would be found guilty, but it never happens.”
“Because he marries her,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Exactly. You have to keep in mind that all Arabs put honor before anything else. Even before survival,” she said. I already knew that; I just had no idea to what extent.
“But how could any female feel safe when it’s always this way?”
“The same thing I just told you, Your Majesty – honor is more important than lives. In most cases, the rapist ends up being killed by one of the victim’s family members.”
“Most cases?” I asked in shock.
“Yes. Almost ninety percent.”
“And then the family member ends up in jail.”
“True, because it would be pre-meditated murder. It’s a sad fact, but there’s nothing we can actually do,” The Queen Mother said.
“There’s got to be something,” I said in frustration – it was like a never-ending cycle. “We could create a new law that prevents a rapist from marrying his victim.”
“Yes, that could happen. But then again, after the charges are dropped, there will be no rapist and no victim in the eyes of the law,” she explained, and my shoulders hunched forward in disappointment.
“There’s got to be something that I can do,” I said again, my voice low. “I can’t sit back and let this injustice go on in my Kingdom.”
I heard Queen Mother Shams sigh. “Laws can be changed, but traditions are impossible to break,” she said.
I guess my eyes lit up with the hope that I could somehow stop that tradition from happening, because the next thing I knew my mother-in-law was replying to my unspoken thought. “Traditions are the most respected thing in this Kingdom. Trust me, my child; blood will be shed if we go against them. Not only that of one person – it could actually start wars.”
The disappointment I felt was immeasurable. I really wanted to help. So badly. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t easy to accept that; I failed the women in my kingdom. My heart was sore.
As the days passed, I concluded that if there was something that could be done, Mazen would have done it already. He cared about everyone, and being a king enabled him to act on it.
I had to move on. I felt like a failure, but I moved on. Traditions in the Kingdom were sacred, and unfortunately, even those who claimed to be the most religious people you could ever meet often put tradition, no matter how barbaric, before the tenets of Islam.
Breaking a tradition or changing it would take years and years – it would take ages. Who knew if I could ever find a way to make things better? I just had to pray I would.
Donia’s wedding day was finally here, and I was almost as excited as she was. I was sure I’d see many interesting and entertaining things that Bedouins do to celebrate weddings.
I’d only realized how much Donia meant to me when she was suddenly gone. It would be another month before I’d get to see her again. She was too important to me. We didn’t talk all the time, or as closely as I could with Mona, but I always felt protective of her. I missed her and couldn’t wait to see her tonight.
Mazen’s and my schedules were cleared for the day, and we took the chance to just chill out a bit in our sunroom before we left. I had my nightgown and a silky robe on, while Mazen didn’t bother with more than his sweatpants. It was a sight that I would never get bored looking at.
We had breakfast and I was pretending to be a good girl to please Mazen, and asked for orange juice instead of coffee. My drinking coffee in the morning was equivalent to hitting him in the head. He hated it, and always went on and on about how it was bad for my health and sensitive stomach.
Oh, the joys of having a doctor for a husband.
“We really need a break,” Mazen said as he leaned his head back on the armchair where he sat across from me.
“We had one last month for your birthday. Already sporting a bad memory, old man?” I teased.
“Not that, chubby-cheeks pumpkin,” he said and I glared at him playfully. “It’s just that there is never enough time in the whole world when I’m with you.”
I couldn’t maintain my pout after those sweet words. I got up and walked straight to him, sat on his lap and laid my head on his shoulder. “You know I feel exactly the same way, angel.”
Mazen kissed my hair. “I know, princess.” He rested his chin right where his lips just had been, his hand rubbing up and down my arm in the sweetest way.
“Did I tell you how excited I am about the wedding?”
He chuckled. “About ten times since we woke up.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but don’t worry about it, princess. I understand. I’m excited to attend it, as well,” he said, squeezing my arm softly.
“How many Bedouin weddings have you attended?”
Mazen raised his left hand and I thought he meant five, but then he closed it to form a fist. I frowned as if to ask what he meant, and he replied, “Zero!”
My eyes widened. “Seriously?” I had no idea.
“It’s actually never happened before that royals have attended a commoners’ wedding, let alone Bedouins.”
“Never?” I asked in shock, and Mazen nodded in response. “But what’s the difference?” It was times like these that I felt so small and not worthy of being Queen. I didn’t always know everything about the Kingdom and its people. I would learn something new every day, but it seemed as though it was never enough.
I shrugged the feeling away – at least I was determined to learn – and listened to Mazen as he answered my question.
“Bedouins are the part of the Kingdom that rarely agrees with what my family does.”
“Oh! How come?”
“You see, a few hundred years ago, the Kingdom wasn’t ruled by my family. My great-great-grandfather was very wealthy, though. He married four women, each spouse came from one of the four largest tribes in the country. He had many sons from each of them. In a matter of ten years, he had helped almost everyone in the area, and had purchased land, countless miles. Eventually, the territory consolidated but needed a leader. He was crowned as the first king of this Kingdom, and named it after my family, Alfaidya.”
“Wow!” I had no idea about half of that stuff.
“Yes. The remaining tribes that my g
reat-grandfather didn’t marry into were the ones that didn’t want to be ruled by a king. They objected, but they were the minority and their objections didn’t last long. Or at least they didn’t show it as much as they did earlier.” Mazen shrugged one shoulder.
“So, I guess they are the Bedouins?”
“Yes. They’re a pretty closed community. They live under the Kingdom and my family’s rules and laws, but also have their own rules and laws which they’re more likely to follow, laws that we don’t get involved in, you know what I mean?”
“I guess,” I said, suddenly wondering if attending the wedding was a misstep on my part. I’d noticed the surprise in everyone’s eyes whenever it was mentioned, and the media was talking about it non-stop. I’d only thought it was because the King and Queen were attending a non-family wedding in the desert.
Mazen hadn’t objected when I’d talked to him about the whole thing, but I was starting to think that he was only doing it for me.
“Mazen, if it’s something you don’t want to do …” I trailed off.
“What? The wedding? Of course, I want to go. I already told you I’m excited about it,” Mazen said. “Why would you think I wouldn’t want to?”
“I mean, I didn’t know the history between the family and Bedouins. I don’t want to cause trouble by interacting with them.”
“Oh, please. I think it’s a great idea. We’re not at war with them or anything, that’s for sure. But you can feel the tension any time the two groups have to meet up. I believe the wedding will be a great opportunity to lighten that tension. I should be thanking you, princess.” Mazen smiled.
“Are you sure?”
Mazen chuckled. “Positive.” He pinched my cheek lightly.
“You’re welcome … I guess.”
You could feel the tension that Mazen had talked about from a mile away. It made me a bit nervous, but the feeling couldn’t persist when I had my loving husband right beside me
The weather was beautiful, just beautiful. The thing I loved most about the Kingdom’s weather was that it was always amazing in winter. A bit chilly since it was night time, with a slight wind, but that’s what made it utterly perfect.
Golden Chains (The Colorblind Trilogy Book 3) Page 7
