Three Daughters Of Eve

The Nalbantoğlus meet Shirin, a second-year student appointed to show them around campus. Shirin is beautiful and exuberant and dressed in clothes and makeup that Selma immediately disapproves of. In turn, Peri notices Shirin’s disdain for Selma and her headscarf.

As Shirin shows the family around campus, Mensur and Selma continually bicker. Shirin notices the tension between Peri’s parents and comments on it to her separately. She also describes how she is the oldest of four girls, born in Tehran. Her father disagreed with how Iran was changing, and the family moved across Europe, living in Switzerland and Portugal before settling in England. As a result, Shirin doesn’t feel a sense of home anywhere.

After the tour, Shirin bids the Nalbantoğlus farewell. She reveals to Peri that they’ll see plenty of each other, as they are both in the same housing building, with rooms opposite each other.

On her first day alone without her parents, overwhelmed by the silence at Oxford and missing the sounds of Istanbul, Peri cries in her room. Shirin walks in on her and, divining that she is homesick, proclaims her lucky to have a home to miss. She questions Peri about her religious beliefs and surmises that Peri is a “Muslimus modernus:” a modern Muslim who is afraid to completely abandon religion but refuses to relinquish certain freedoms.

Shirin describes the different kinds of students Peri can expect to encounter at Oxford, whom she demarcates into separate categories. One includes those like Shirin, who arrive at Oxford as one thing and transform into something else. Shirin credits her transformation to Professor Azur, a popular professor who teaches a seminar on God and whom Shirin thinks is “a bit like God himself” (117). Extremely talented and widely published, Azur is a “celebrity” whose seminar is both incredibly hard to get into and equally hard to complete. Shirin confesses she has a bit of a crush on Azur and encourages Peri to consider taking the seminar, too. When Peri brushes it off, Shirin remarks how Peri is so busy, “God will have to wait” (119). This perturbs Peri and sticks with her, becoming, in retrospect, a defining moment of her life.

In the narrative present, dinner progresses at the businessman’s house. The conversation turns to politics. Peri reflects on how the capitalist class in Turkey is outwardly conservative and supports the status quo but is secretly furious and frustrated with the state of the country. Despite how rich one was, one’s fortune depended on the whim of the state. Peri listens to the conversation, feeling a conflict of emotions inside her.

As a student at Oxford, Peri becomes a runner. Running every day becomes a habit and a way for her to “quiet her anxieties and dispel her fears” (125).

At Fresher’s Week in Oxford, Peri meets Mona, an Egyptian American student who wears a headscarf and introduces herself as a “Muslim feminist.” Mona was born in New Jersey. Her family moved to Cairo for a few years while she was growing up before they eventually moved back to the States.

Peri looks up the seminar Shirin mentioned and is both intrigued and repelled by the description, which notes that it may not be the right class for everyone. She thinks about enquiring more about it but forgets all about it in the early days of university.

In the narrative present, the dinner party discusses democracy and how it is unsuitable in the Middle East; several guests opine that Turkey would do better with a benevolent dictatorship. Unable to remain quiet any longer, Peri expresses her opinion that such a thing does not exist because “there’s no such thing as a small god. Once somebody starts playing God, sooner or later, things will get out of hand” (133). Even as others scoff at how democracy would not work in Turkey, she asserts that does not mean she will stop wishing for it.

At Oxford, Peri attends Shirin’s 20th birthday celebrations at a pub and is surprised to find Mona there. Mona reveals she didn’t know how to turn down Shirin’s invitation, and the girls leave the party together early as they know no one else there. Mona expresses her frustration and confusion about Shirin trying to befriend her even though she can see Shirin’s disdain for Mona’s headscarf. Shirin has also been recommending Azur’s class to Mona.

Peri recognizes that for her to excel at Oxford, she needs to improve her grasp of the English language. She begins to write new words and their definitions that she encounters on colorful sticky notes. Peri also discovers a bookstore named Two Kinds of Intelligences and befriends its owners, who invite her to read there whenever she likes. Peri reflects on how, unlike the Turks who memorized Arabic prayers to recite without knowing their meaning, she loves words in any language. She enjoys diving deep into their meanings and etymologies.

Selma raves about Hakan’s bride-to-be to Peri, calling her an “angel.” While Peri is traveling home for the wedding, Selma is annoyed that Peri will be missing the henna night before it. After her phone call with Selma, Peri sleeps fitfully and wakes up screaming from a nightmare that brings Shirin into her room. Peri reassures Shirin she is fine, confessing she is perhaps stressed about having to attend the wedding. Peri mentions that she looked up Azur’s seminar, and Shirin blushes as she calls Azur “charming.” Peri simply offers that she found the course description “interesting,” and Shirin warns her never to use that word in Azur’s classes if Peri takes his seminar.

In the narrative present, dessert is served at the dinner table. After eating a forced bite, Peri excuses herself to make a phone call. She checks in at home with Selma, who is watching the boys that night. She then asks Selma to look up Shirin’s number, listed at the back of the turquoise leather notebook she still has. Selma is suspicious about Peri wanting to contact Shirin. She asserts that Shirin was not a good friend to Peri; Peri privately muses about how she and Mona were, in fact, Peri’s closest friends: “The three of them: the Sinner, the Believer, the Confused” (152). Selma agrees to message Adnan’s phone once she finds the number.

On a winter day in the year 2000, Peri arrives in Istanbul for Hakan’s wedding. Umut, who has settled in a southern town after his release from prison and prefers a quiet life, is not attending. Selma is extremely taken with the bride, Feride, and her family, who are even more pious than Selma herself; Peri privately looks down on Feride for her reticence and lack of interest in anything beyond TV shows and her appearance.

At the wedding, Peri plays the role of the host as the groom’s sister while contemplating how she could never be such a bride herself and live an inhibited life like her mother. It crosses her mind that she ought not to marry a man from this part of the world. Following the celebrations, the newlyweds and the bride’s parents all spend the night at Peri’s house before the couple set out on their honeymoon the next day. On the way home, Feride’s mother ties a bright, red sash—the “Maidenhood Belt”—around her daughter’s waist, as was common practice in many parts of the country.

Peri wakes up in the middle of the night to discover everyone else in the house awake, and the bride is crying. Hakan has woken up his parents, convinced Feride is not a virgin. Her parents decide to go to the hospital and have the doctor settle the discussion.

At the hospital, Peri contemplates her shock at how her family has been dragged into this kind of virginity test that she has only heard happening in other families. She also reflects on the hypocrisy of her waiting alongside her parents and brother for such a test when she is not a virgin, having previously slept with her boyfriend.

The doctor emerges after an hour. She is contemptuous of what the families have put Feride through and how they have wasted the doctor’s time. She explains how some young women are born without a hymen or how a hymen can rupture with simple physical activity and without any bleeding. Peri seethes at the trauma Feride has been put through. She is angry with herself for not having spoken up, either.

On the way home, Selma reassures Peri that everything will eventually be fine, as marriages have survived much worse. For the first time, Peri contemplates what Selma’s marriage must have been like. She reflects on how faith and religion are a source of strength, rather than weakness, for women like Selma.

In the present, the PR woman approaches Peri, having just spoken to her brother, who was at Oxford. He remembers a Turkish girl who took Azur’s class, but Peri denies that it was her, claiming it must have been someone else. Peri refuses to indulge the woman further on the subject. Privately, she notes how it had indeed been a different person, “a different Peri from the woman she was today, who had once been Professor Azur’s favourite student and, later on, the cause of his ruin” (170).

On an evening run in Oxford, Peri comes across a poster advertising a debate on God being held that evening at the Museum of National History. Azur is one of the panelists. Unsure of whether she’d even be able to get in, Peri nevertheless decides to run there straightaway.

When Peri arrives, the debate is already almost over, and the attendants initially refuse to let her in without a ticket. However, she manages to slip inside when they move away. She witnesses the audience questions portion of the debate. The speakers answer questions on whether religion allows free discussion or if science and religion could coexist. Peri notices Shirin in the audience as she stands up and addresses Azur with a question.

Immediately after, one of the attendants who was outside, Troy, addresses another question to Azur, but Troy’s demeanor is angry; Azur calmly responds to him. As a final question, the panelists are all asked to share their favorite poem on God; Azur shares the poem by Hafez, which contains the line, “I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel or even a pure soul” (179).

Peri speaks to her advisor, Dr. Raymond, about taking Azur’s seminar. Dr. Raymond, who doesn’t seem to hold Azur in high regard, is wary. He tries to dissuade Peri, quoting Azur’s unorthodox teaching methods and the difficulty of his classes. Peri is undeterred, and Dr. Raymond acquiesces and suggests she talk to Azur himself.

In the narrative present, Deniz leaves early with a friend. Peri bids Deniz goodbye, promising her that her hand is fine and that she will not put herself in danger again like she did with the “tramp.” After Deniz and her friend leave, the businessman’s wife announces that a psychic she has invited is just 10 minutes away. The PR woman asserts her excitement at digging up some secrets.

Peri decides to look for a part-time job while at Oxford, and Shirin, insisting she needs a CV, creates one for Peri. Peri is aghast at what Shirin has put down on it, making claims like how Peri previously cared for an octopus at an aquarium. Peri manages to find work at Two Kinds of Intelligence without a CV. While leaving, she looks through a book of poetry by Omar Khayyam (“The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”) and reads the lines: “Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire / To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire” (190). Peri takes this as a sign to finally talk to Azur.