When the Apricots Bloom

Ally Wilson is another protagonist, and she is loosely based on Gina Wilkinson herself. Ally is a journalist from Australia, though her mother, Bridget, was American, granting Ally dual citizenship. She is in Iraq with her husband, Tom, who is a deputy ambassador with the Australian embassy, and Ally is hiding her profession and nationality. She claims to be nothing more than a housewife, and she finds herself bored and alone in that role in Baghdad. Ally is inquisitive, and she wants to investigate her mother’s time in Baghdad in the 1970s. Her struggles in the novel relate to her negligent husband, the danger of concealing her occupation and nationality, and her desire to help Huda and Rania to escape the regime.

Ally defies the barriers placed on her by Iraqi society, and her resolution to learn more about her mother’s past combines with her relative ignorance of Iraqi culture to expose her to a number of dangerous situations as she pursues her quest for information. These investigations earn Ally criticism from friends and family, as she seems to ignore the danger that she puts herself and others in. Ally is determined and often returns to an area or person of interest to continue her investigations despite the risks. Over time, Ally relents and curtails her activities somewhat when faced with the oppressive atmosphere of Baghdad, refraining from recording her research or discussing her affairs because she realizes that the mukhabarat will only tolerate her diplomatic status to a point. Ultimately, Ally considers abandoning the plan to cross into Jordan, but she harnesses her resolve to help Huda and Rania, willing even to forsake her wedding ring if needed.

During her time in Baghdad, Ally faces frequent harassment from Iraqi men, who yell lewd comments at her and call her russee, meaning Russian prostitute. The sexual harassment that she faces daily emphasizes her strength in withstanding these attacks. This strength keeps her from giving up hope in strenuous situations, even with men like the Bolt Cutter, when the possibility of sexual assault and death are imminent. Ally’s struggle in Iraq is thus emblematic of the struggles that women face across the globe. Ally’s placement in Iraq serves to reveal the intensity of sexism that can occur when a woman is removed from her homeland, and her struggle as an Australian-American in Iraq mirrors the same struggles that Huda or Rania might face in a reversed role in America or Australia.

Like Huda, Ally is also a dynamic character in the novel, transforming from an alternately fierce journalist and timid housewife into a supportive friend and ally. She realizes that she does not need to tie herself to Tom alone and instead comes to develop her own sense of justice. By the end of the novel, she is alone in Jordan, and she has achieved both a sense of closure with her mother’s past and the satisfaction of having overwritten her mother’s failure by helping Huda and Rania.

Rania is another primary character. Like Huda, she grew up in Basra. Rania is the daughter of the former sheikh, and this political status gives her certain benefits and privileges, such as wealth and standing in society. Even though most of the wealth is gone, the name Mansour can still help Rania out of tight situations. Rania’s husband, Hashim, was killed only a year into their marriage, so she has been a single mother for the entirety of her daughter, Hanan’s, life. She is an independent woman, like Huda and Ally, but she does not have the hindrances that a husband might bring to her life.

Rania was involved in the opposition movement in earlier years, and when Huda threatens to report her to the mukhabarat, Rania uses the weak connections she still has to men like Basil and Kareem, who hold positions within the current iteration of opposition to the ruling regime. In past years, when the rebellion was crushed and Mustafa and Ali, Huda’s brothers, were killed, Rania was able to save herself and some of her connections using her father’s influence. However, she was not able to save Huda’s brothers because her father had caught her in a brief affair with Mustafa and saw no reason to save him. Connections to men for Rania are disappointing, even though she is not married. Rania’s father is dead, and she is now forced to sell his books to support herself. She can imagine her father’s disappointment at the sale, and the implication is that Rania had a strong connection with her father despite his stubbornness.

Rania’s main motivation in the latter half of the novel is protecting her daughter from Uday Hussein. Like Huda, Rania’s main loyalty lies with her child, and her goal is to get Hanan out of Iraq. Rania has the connections needed to get Hanan to London, while Huda must remain with Khalid in Jordan. Rania’s connections at the Alwiyah Club lead her to the information that Ally is American, and her connections with Kareem lead to the initial plan to betray Ally. Despite her strong influence on the overall plot, Rania is a fairly static character, for she begins the narrative as an independent woman with broader aspirations than Iraq could provide and ends with plans to join her daughter in London. The main change in Rania’s characterization comes with repairing her bond with Huda, which allows the two to reclaim some of the friendship that they possessed before Mustafa and Ali’s deaths.

Abdul Amir and Tom are the husbands of Huda and Ally, respectively. Each man serves the same purpose in that they are largely absent or negligent husbands. Tom is often busy with work or out of town, and he expects Ally to meekly accept life as a housewife so long as they are in Iraq. By contrast, Abdul Amir resents Huda’s success at the embassy, as well as her plans to remove Khalid from the country. Despite their differences, both men are more of a hindrance than an asset to their wives, and their problematic influences serve as a counterpoint to the feminist issues explored in the novel. Neither man places much stock in the success of his marriage, and this detachment plays a key role in their wives’ willingness to abandon them in pursuit of more important goals.

Abdul Amir clashes with Huda over her status as the primary income earner in their family throughout the novel. He has a master’s degree in finance but lost his job due to economic sanctions placed on Iraq by foreign countries. He is also a nationalist who expresses dedication to his country despite his hatred for Saddam’s regime. Though he likely loves his son, his focus is less on Khalid’s safety and more on how Khalid can function within the context of modern Iraq. When asked if it would be better for Khalid to become a murderer in the fedayeen or leave the country, Abdul Amir implicitly prefers the fedayeen, showing a general lack of regard for his son’s safety. In the end, Abdul Amir tries to ruin Huda and Ally’s plan by contacting Tom, but he fails and is forced to denounce his wife and son as traitors and flee to Basra. Abdul Amir is thus representative of a need for change that requires an abandonment of pride, and the consequences of clinging to his nationalistic pride are the losses of his family and his home.

Tom, unlike Abdul Amir, is hardly involved in Ally’s affairs at all. When he is informed of her plans and actions, he only intervenes to disagree with her. During the amnesty, Tom is out of town, leaving Ally to fend for herself in Baghdad, a situation that clearly demonstrates his dedication to his job over his wife. Like Abdul Amir, Tom’s lack of faith and attention for his wife leads to a sense of distance within his marriage. Accordingly, Ally resolves not to tell Tom of her plans to help Huda, and she even offers up her wedding ring to appease the Bolt Cutter. Each of these actions displays a divide in the Wilsons’ marriage, as Ally is not as close to Tom as she was when they first arrived in Iraq. However, the primary purpose of both Tom and Abdul Amir’s characters is to show how women must rely on each other, especially when faced with either male incompetence or meddling.