Against the Loveless World

The Cube is a small, technologically advanced room in an Israeli prison. It contains a bed, a concrete sink, and a shower which Nahr has named “Attar.” The shower comes on intermittently, without any set schedule, and sprays water out for seven minutes exactly. She loves this shower, and is always grateful when she is able to bathe.

Nahr recalls a journalist once coming and trying to talk to her about Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. She reflects that the journalist’s worldview is biased and his understanding is limited. He thought that the invasion itself, and not what happened when Iraq withdrew, was horrific. He was also sure that the Kuwaitis held it against the Palestinians that Yasser Arafat had sided with Saddam.

Kuwait was once a small village in the Ottoman province of Basra. During the breakup of the Ottoman empire, the British noticed Kuwait’s strategic oil reserves and gave it statehood, reasoning that such a small, new country would be easy to exploit.

When Iraq invades, Nahr initially does not care about the politics of the invasion because the invasion saved her life from her attackers. Additionally, the Kuwaitis treat Palestinians poorly, as they resent the presence of foreigners in their country.