Nargis

Nargis is the youngest of Jalil's three wives, a figure who appears only fleetingly in Mariam's story but whose position within the household—and her role in the decision to marry Mariam off to Rasheed—crystallizes the gulf between Jalil's legitimate family and the daughter he kept hidden in the kolba.

Identity and Position in Jalil's Household

Nargis is introduced as Jalil's third wife, the one who is expecting her third child when Mariam is still a young girl living with Nana in the clearing. During Jalil's Thursday visits to the kolba, Nana, through Bibi jo's gossip, learns of Nargis's pregnancy and pointedly asks Jalil, "How many is that for you, now? Ten, is it, mashallah? Ten?"—a question that deliberately excludes Mariam from the count of his children. Nargis, along with Khadija and Afsoon, represents the legitimate domestic sphere that Mariam can never enter. When Mariam finally arrives at Jalil's house after Nana's suicide, she is given a guest room, but the wives' presence is a constant, silent reminder that she does not belong. It is Nargis who, during the family meeting, tells Mariam that she has seen nine-year-old girls given to men twenty years older than Mariam's suitor, adding, "What are you, fifteen? That's a good, solid marrying age for a girl." She also mentions that Rasheed has suffered a great loss—his wife died in childbirth and his son drowned—as if to make the match more palatable. Nargis's words are part of the collective pressure that leaves Mariam with no choice.

Role in Mariam's Marriage and Aftermath

On the morning of the nikka, it is Nargis who arranges the green veil on Mariam's head before the ceremony. This small, practical gesture is the closest Nargis comes to any form of care toward Mariam, yet it is performed within the context of a marriage that Mariam has been forced into. After the ceremony, Nargis is present at the table when the marriage contract is signed. Her role is that of a functionary of the household, carrying out the will of her husband and the other wives. She does not appear again in the narrative after Mariam leaves for Kabul, and her fate—like that of Jalil's other wives and children—is never revealed. Her significance lies in what she represents: the legitimate, protected world from which Mariam is permanently excluded, and the collective, unfeeling machinery of the family that disposes of Mariam as a solution to its own embarrassment.