Bint Majzoub Character Analysis

Bint Majzoub is an elderly citizen of the village of Wad Hamid. Bint Majzoub is an example of an outspoken, independent woman in a deeply patriarchal and conservative community. She has had several husbands, and, as a result, a wide sexual experience that speaks openly about—something very unusual for a woman to do in that community. She also exhibits other unusual habits for a woman, such as smoking and drinking. She is good friends with the narrator’s grandfather, as well as with Wad Rayyes. Like everyone else in the village, she is devastated by Hosna’s murder of her good friend Wad Rayyes. However, she is the only one in the village who agrees to disclose to the narrator the full details of the murder-suicide. While Bint Majzoub’s uninhibited actions and behavior as a woman cast her as a free-thinking figure on one level, she, like the rest of the villagers, condemns Hosna’s actions, even though she acted in self-defense.