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#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody
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My Dreadful Body, chapter V: Shoulders. “My mother’s shoulders always drooped—she tried to be pleasant and amenable to those around her so no one would have any reason to insult her” 📚 #Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody #WomenInTranslation

I thought of both my grandmothers during these passages. #Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

I saw no future because my eyes could only see pain and another dead end for my body as it succumbed to slow disintegration. I felt like I was turning into a statue, ossifying from within and becoming desiccated stone, a vessel for fury.
#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

I'd noticed that before, but had never reflected on how' much people need a vessel for rage: an "other" is as necessary for those people as an empty beer can that can be kicked while walking or an old, scribbled sheet of paper that can be torn to shreds.
#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

That was when I realized that being a stranger means being hated, being a vessel for rage.
#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

Russia for Russians.
#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

My Dreadful Body, chapter IV: Mouth. Opens with a bang: “The mouth was not intended for speaking. None of the women around me ever said what they genuinely wanted to say and none interrupted men’s conversations” 🫦🙊📚 #Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody #WomenInTranslation

#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

"...all her words were turned into deeds, into the food she cooked, the laundry, the sewing."

3.

#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

...found resourcefulness of expression. Their work carried dignity, judgment, memory, affection, pride, even authorship. But again, sad that this "communication" had to be through domestic crafts deemed acceptable for women.

2.

#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

"All day long, the sound of her sewing machine, its pedal rhythmically hitting the floor, emerged from behind the closed door of her room."

I found this chapter to be sad and beautiful. Women were silenced, constrained and diminished by the social order, but...

1.

Dzekhiz #Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

Her words were shekarbura, thin kutaby pancakes with greens and cheese, 4 buglama meat stew, and chigirtma.' Whenever she wanted to say something, she prepared food.
#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody

#MyDreadfulBody #Djabbarova26

Hair

"Outside the car window, the vast, expansive wintry steppe was as uniform as a sleeping woman's calm breath."

#MyDreadfulBody #Djabbarova26

Hair

"...daughters were merely temporary inhabitants of the home and were nurtured for other families..."

My Dreadful Body, chapter III: Hair. “I was scared: I’d never cut my hair and was afraid I was committing a crime against all the women of my family line, destroying the memory of the ancestors who endured in my hair” 💇🏻‍♀️📚 #Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody #WomenInTranslation

#Djabbarova26 #MyDreadfulBody