“Grief was what you owed the dead for the necessary crime of living on without them.”
The Pasha family have known grief from the death of their parents at a young age to the loss of the twin brother Parvaiz in adulthood. The sisters particularly the twin sister Aneeka is greatly devastated by Parvaiz’s death and willing to compromise her safety to give him a proper burial. As such, she contemplates the concept of grief and its meaning especially when the status of the deceased is complicated, in this case, an enemy of the state. The siblings are the only ones aware of their brother’s predicament before his death thereby seek to exonerate his name. Akin to its inspiration Antigone, the narrative explores the journey of seeking justice and last respect to a loved one despite the adversities.
“For girls, becoming women was inevitability; for boys, becoming men was ambition”
The narrative largely dwells on the relationship between fathers and their sons and the conflicts that emanate from it. The inability to find a close male figure forces Parvaiz to follow in the footsteps of his dead jihadist father. While the sisters embrace their womanhood with ease and grace, he struggles to transition and find purpose without help. Boys have to create themselves and carve their truth through the guidance of another male figure in order to become men. Case in point, Eamonn struggles with his manhood once he renounces his father as his role model as he initially did. Thus, he goes on to pursue a path that criticizes his father’s policies and advocate for the exact opposite. It is a clear example of finding purpose as a man hence becoming his own person.
“She has been abused for the crime of daring to love while covering her head, vilified for believing that she had the right to want a life with someone whose history is at odds with hers, denounced for wanting to bury her brother beside her mother, reviled for her completely legal protests against a decision by the home secretary that suggests personal animus.”
The main focus of the story is British Muslims and the complexity in reconciling their Muslim identity taking into account the political climate. The Pasha family embraces their cultural heritage which is accompanied by instances of profiling and social alienation. For instance, Isma is singled out and detained at the airport as a result of his cultural attire, which sets up the premise of the narrative. The Lone family on the other hand have abandoned their Pakistani heritage due to societal pressure and for political reasons. The agenda against the Pasha family becomes personal for the Home Secretary as it aims to solidify his political stance. As such, the conflict between the two families expounds on the social difficulties that plague British Muslims.
