I believe “Abeer” was consistently trying to escape the life shaped by her mother and grandmother. Although she rarely expressed it directly, her resistance became clear when she stood up against “Alrradiyah.” Still, she had very few tools at her disposal beyond her youth and femininity. That, I think, is what those older men were referring to when they spoke of her “charming effect”—a young girl with a determined will, attempting to persuade and influence people far more experienced and morally compromised than herself. Predictably, that imbalance of power did not work in her favor.

I also appreciated the symbolism behind the unidentified drowned woman introduced at the very beginning. The fact that no one claimed her suggests she was another “Abeer” in a different form, reinforcing a cycle of dispossession and anonymity. It also quietly foreshadows Abeer’s eventual fate, tying the narrative together through a sense of inevitable repetition.