Honor

This chapter is the first of Meena’s first-person monologues, written in italics. She considers her husband, Abdul’s, death and her fear of filing a court case against her brothers. Castes are clearly demarcated in her Hindu village: Meena considers herself inferior and, at the time of filing, wanted to sit below the police officers present. However, her lawyer, Anjali, insisted she sit on a chair at the same level as the police. Her life as a woman has been difficult and full of mistreatment. Meena also reveals that she was pregnant at the time of Abdul’s death.

Meena speaks of her husband, Abdul, who was a good man. He saw their relationship as a sign of potential peace between Muslim and Hindu people. He had planned to move the family to Mumbai for a better life—however, men like Meena’s brothers saw her relationship and pregnancy as shameful. As for Smita, she compares her comfortable life in Brooklyn, where she worries about microaggressions, to Meena’s suffering. She is having difficulty maintaining a professional distance from Meena’s story and spoke to her editor about covering it more intimately. While she and Meena talk in the latter’s home, a Muslim village,