I gathered thyme, herbs, and wild figs. The bags were heavy. The paths were difficult. My whole body ached, but I carried everything to the market and sold it with dignity.
Philosophy
Some people bought me because they felt sorry for me.
Later on, they bought because they knew I had earned every penny with my own effort.
Years passed.
People came to hear my story. Mothers brought their daughters to me and said:
—Tell him what you survived.
But I never told my story just to make people cry.
She told the story so that women would understand that cruelty doesn’t begin in a field. It begins much earlier, in the anger that people justify, in the silence that women are forced to swallow, and in the first moment a wife begins to fear the man who should be protecting her.
Mehmet Ali had taken my hands away.
Military history.
But I hadn’t lost my dignity.
