The Who & The What

by Ayad Akhtar

Genres: Cultural Heritage; Family Life; Literary Fiction

Synopsis

The author of Homeland Elegies and Pulitzer Prize winner Disgraced explores the conflict that erupts within a Muslim family in Atlanta when an independent-minded daughter writes a provocative novel that offends her more conservative father and sister. Zarina has a bone to pick with the place of women in her Muslim faith, and she's been writing a book about the Prophet Muhammad that aims to set the record straight. When her traditional father and sister discover the manuscript, it threatens to tear her family apart. With humor and ferocity, Akhtar's incisive new drama about love, art, and religion examines the chasm between our traditions and our contemporary lives.

Release date: October 7, 2014

Publisher: Back Bay Books

Print pages: 128

Sample

Present day. Atlanta, Georgia.

A kitchen. In it:

Zarina—32, of South Asian origin—gimlet-gazed, lovely, though her appearance already lightly worn from worry. And…

Her younger sister, Mahwish—25—light and carefree. Even lovelier. A real knockout.

Both are American-born; both speak without any accent.

Zarina is in an apron, chopping vegetables.

MAHWISH: Stop changing the subject.

ZARINA: There was a subject?

MAHWISH: Zarina, did you get that link I sent you or not?

ZARINA: Wish. There is no universe. In which I start. Online dating.

MAHWISH: Z… if you don’t start showing some interest, Dad is not gonna let me—

ZARINA (Cutting her off): You don’t need me to get married for you and Haroon to get married.

Beat.

MAHWISH: You’re just flouting Dad.

ZARINA: Flouting?

MAHWISH: Because you can.

ZARINA: Do you even know what that word means?

MAHWISH: Yes, I know what it means. And I know it comes from a Dutch word that means to hiss at. In derision—

ZARINA (Impressed, lightly sarcastic): Wow.

MAHWISH (Over): Manuel says learning the words isn’t enough. You have to learn where they come from.

ZARINA: Manuel. Your GRE teacher.

MAHWISH: Yeah?

ZARINA: With the muscles and the tank top.

MAHWISH: So Manuel’s a stud? What does that have to do with—

ZARINA: Does Haroon know how you feel about Manuel?

MAHWISH: I don’t feel anything. I just think he’s hot—

ZARINA: I think it’s good. You’re acknowledging your desire for someone other than Haroon.

MAHWISH (Over): I’m not acknowledging desire. I don’t have any desire for Manuel.

ZARINA (Lightly taunting): Manuel. Manuel.

MAHWISH: You’re just trying to change the subject again…

I can’t get married before you do, Zarina.

ZARINA: That’s absurd. This is not Pakistan.

MAHWISH: It’s not what’s done.

ZARINA: Neither is having anal sex with your prospective husband so that you can prove to his parents you’re a virgin when you finally marry him.

MAHWISH: I can’t believe you just—

ZARINA: There has to be a better solution. Prick your finger. Bleed on the sheet—

MAHWISH: You’re disgusting.

ZARINA: You’re the one doing it.

MAHWISH: Here’s what I know about you. Anything I tell you, sooner or later, you will use against me.

ZARINA: I’m a Scorpio.

MAHWISH: It’s a character failing.

ZARINA: Shoot me.

MAHWISH (Suddenly): Why are you cutting an avocado?

ZARINA: For the salad?

MAHWISH: We hate avocados.

ZARINA: You hate avocados.

MAHWISH: Dad hates avocados.

ZARINA: I love them.

MAHWISH: See? Flouting.

(Pause)

I never told you this…

You know that book you have of the Prophet’s sayings about sex. On your shelf…

ZARINA: Yeah?

MAHWISH: One day I was in your room and, when I saw it there, I had this weird feeling like I should take it down and open it. So I did. You know what I opened to? The Prophet saying that wives are like farms. That husbands could farm them any way they wanted. From the front or back. But not in the anus.

ZARINA: So the sin is on the farmer. Not the farm.

MAHWISH: Really?

ZARINA: Wish, I don’t think any of us should be taking sex advice from the Prophet.

MAHWISH: Then why do you have the book?

ZARINA: If you’re so worried, stop doing it.

MAHWISH: He’s a man. If I don’t do something with him, he’ll find somebody else to do it with…

(Beat)

So you don’t think I’m gonna go to dozakh?

ZARINA: Wish, you know I don’t believe in hell.

MAHWISH: But what if you’re wrong? Manuel said there was this philosopher guy—

ZARINA: You and Manuel were talking about a philosopher?

MAHWISH: This guy named Pasta.

ZARINA: Pasta?

MAHWISH: Who said that he wasn’t sure if there was a hell but it was better to believe in one just in case.

ZARINA: Pascal.

MAHWISH: Okay. Whatever.

ZARINA: And that’s not actually what Pascal said.

MAHWISH: How are you not scared of hell?

ZARINA: I can’t be scared of something I don’t believe in.

MAHWISH: It’s in the Quran.

ZARINA: It’s a metaphor.

MAHWISH: For what?

ZARINA: For suffering. For the cycle of human suffering.

Mahwish considers her sister. Imp. . .