Sittee Haram

Khadijah bint Soraya

Born in 1897 somewhere in the Levant, before borders hardened and maps decided where one country ended and another began, Khadijah bint Soraya grew up in a world where faith was meant to guide people.

Not rule them.

People call her Sittee Haram.

The name began as an insult.

In Arabic, Sittee means grandmother.

Haram means forbidden.

The phrase was meant to shame her.

The grandmother who had crossed a line.
The woman who no longer knew her place.

Khadijah did not argue.

She kept the name.

Now men whisper it instead of speaking it aloud.

Sittee Haram lives at the edge of a small village beside an ancient olive grove.

Her home is modest.

Stone walls.
Low roof.
A door that is rarely locked.

Women come there when the night becomes too heavy.

They sit.
They drink tea.
Sometimes they weep.

Sittee listens.

She does not ask many questions.

But sometimes she rises before dawn and leaves the house without a sound.

Later, men are found.

A judge.
A militia commander.
A husband who believed that honor lived in a blade.

Sometimes they are discovered seated neatly, as though in prayer.

Sometimes they are never found at all.

Beside them there may be a verse written in dust,
or ink,
or something darker.

Sittee Haram never raises her voice.

Her anger moves quietly.

Among the Grannies she is the one who still prays.

Her element is water.

And when she speaks the word haram,

no one mistakes what it means.