Amina's Voice

This chapter introduces Amina’s Islamic Center, where she and Rabiya are attending Sunday school. Sunday school classes are organized by advancement in the Arabic language and Quran passage (or surah) memorization, and Rabiya is in a higher-ranking class than Amina. Amina confesses that she has some trouble with Arabic: “my brain doesn’t register the way the letters change when they connect to one another, and I get them wrong all the time” (47-48).

During the lunch break, Amina admires her friend Dahlia’s pretty hijab. Dahlia wears the hijab at all times, and Amina cannot imagine being the only one at her school to wear the hijab, as Dahlia is at her middle school.

Amina, Rabiya, and Dahlia also discuss their teachers. They agree that Sister Naima’s Arabic is perfect because she is from Egypt. Dahlia is also from Egypt. Rabiya asserts that Imam Malik, who isn’t from Egypt and who grew up in Florida, also speaks perfect Arabic, but Dahlia contends that Imam Malik’s parents are Arab, which automatically renders his Arabic subpar: “No offense, but people from Pakistan don’t really know how to pronounce Arabic the right way” (47). Amina is not offended by this, as she is aware that most people from Pakistan, her parents included, do not enunciate the Arabic language in the same way as people from Egypt.

Back in class, Sister Naima tells Amina’s favorite story from the Quran: that of “Prophet Yusuf and his jealous brothers who threw him into a well” (48). Amina fleetingly wonders if she is jealous of Emily, and wrong to want her to go back to her friends.

After class, Amina goes to the mosque for the closing prayer. On the way there, she stops at the bathroom to do wudu, a ceremonial washing. When she arrives at the mosque, she finds that Rabiya has saved her a spot on the lush green carpet, and she also sees her mother reading the Quran with Auntie Salma and others. Amina feels at peace: “A familiar calm washes over [Amina] […] in the hush of the prayer hall, with its crystal chandelier, gold trim, and big plaques with Arabic calligraphy decorating the walls” (49).

After prayers, Imam Malik tells the parents not to forget to sign their children up for the mosque’s state-wide Quran recitation competition, which will take place on November 15th. Amina wants to stay as far away from the competition as possible. 

Mr. Khokar and Mustafa yell at the football game on TV while Mrs. Khokar folds laundry. Amina is reading armchair Life on the Oregon Trail  hoping it will give her project team an advantage. The book is composed of first-person primary source accounts of the Oregon Trail, and Amina feels that its stories of hardship, disease, and death are both horrifying and captivating. The stories make her life look like a cakewalk in comparison.

Amina goes to her room to practice a solo for the winter concert, “A Change Is Gonna Come,” performed by Aretha Franklin. Singing the song makes Amina feel empowered, and she briefly imagines herself as a mousy and shy The Voice contestant who transforms into a superstar. When she thinks about losing her voice to stage fright, she turns off the song.

Mrs. Khokar assigns each family member a cleaning task to prepare their home for Thaya Jaan’s visit. Mrs. Khokar herself begins furiously cooking. She explains that, because she does not want Jaan to eat leftovers on days she cannot cook, she is pre-freezing surplus meals. As she cooks, Amina is thankful that her bedroom door has been securely closed. Once, when she let the aromas of mother’s cooking permeate her clothing, the school bully, Luke called her “Hunan Express.”

Mr. and Mrs. Khokar discuss Jaan’s visit. While Mrs. Khokar is worried about making sure that the accommodations are perfect, Mr. Khokar is “worried that [Jaan] won’t like the way things are here or the way we live” (59). Amina wonders what is wrong with her family’s way of life, and Mrs. Khokar asserts that there is nothing wrong with the way the family lives. Mr. Khokar clarifies that he feels worried because his brother is a very religiously conservative, black-and-white thinker who worries about people straying from Islam. Amina anxiously asks if she will still be allowed to trick-or-treat if Thaya Jaan is visiting during Halloween. She and Soojin have already decided to dress up as matching ketchup and mustard bottles. Her father assures her that she will still be able to celebrate Halloween.

Mr. Khokar announces that he has signed Mustafa and Amina up for the Quran recitation competition. Imam Malik asked Mr. Khokar specifically to sign Amina and Mustafa up. Amina intimates, “Baba isn’t about to take a request from the imam lightly […] he’s a good friend of Baba’s, and he used to visit us often before he got married last year” (62). After some fruitless resistance, Mustafa leaves the room. Amina privately vows to find a way out of participating in the competition.

Amina has come over to Soojin’s house after school. Amina feels comfortable in Soojin’s house, as it reminds her of her own: no one wears shoes inside, and there is always the subtle fragrance of food in the air. Kyung Mi, Soojin’s younger sister, is not home. When Soojin’s grandfather begins watching a loud Korean drama, the girls retire to Soojin’s room. There, Amina looks at the framed Korean script that hangs over Soojin’s bed. Together, the two characters spell Soojin’s name, which means treasure. Amina gave Soojin a necklace with a treasure chest charm as a gift for her 10th birthday. Amina wonders if these things will change when Soojin changes her name.

Amina and Soojin commiserate about having Bradley in their wagon trail project group. Soojin asserts that Emily has been a good group member. Amina asks Soojin if she wants to be Emily’s friend, and Soojin says that Emily has changed. Amina feels alarmed and confused by this, but she’s relieved when Soojin says that she probably won’t be going to Emily’s house this week to work on their project. 

Two days later, at school, Soojin excitedly announces that her family has received the date for their swearing-in as American citizens: October 20th. Soojin has also landed on the name she wants: Susan. “Why don’t you just stay Soojin?” (72), Amina asks, but when Soojin has a bad reaction to this question, Amina immediately changes her tack and tries to be supportive. She eyes the treasure chest charm necklace hanging around Soojin’s neck with consternation. When Soojin and Emily start discussing Soojin’s swearing in, a persistent unease creeps into Amina. It lasts for the entire day. Bradley has more bad news to deliver during social studies: “Amina has cholera. And our wagon has lost a wheel” (73).