Yara’s Journal

Summary

• Yara recalls her father's warning not to be like her mother when she was about fifteen years old.
• Yara is spending time alone with her father at the kitchen table while he eats dinner and her brothers play outside.
• Her father criticizes her mother's cooking and accuses her mother of thinking too highly of herself and acting erratically.
• Yara reflects on her mother's change in behavior after her grandmother's death and the increased frequency and openness of her parents' fights.
• When Yara suggests her mother might be tired or sad, her father dismisses it and says her mother has lost her mind and might be possessed by a jinn.
• The father uses the term "Magnoona," meaning "crazy," to describe her mother's state.
• Yara ponders the possibility of her mother being possessed by a jinn and the shame associated with such a belief in their culture.
• Yara considers whether her mother's defiant behavior might be due to a jinn and why no spiritual intervention had taken place.
• Yara is disturbed by the memory of her mother's sudden mood swings, contemplating if there's a supernatural reason for it or if she is genuinely ill.