Word: fatma
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...especially on the Arab Algerians of the cities. The Kabyles' history is old and militant: under King Jugurtha, they held off the might of ancient Rome for five bloody years; they battled the Arab and Turkish invaders of North Africa; led by a "Joan of Arc" called Lalla Fatma, they fought the conquering French longer than any other tribe in Algeria. Kabyles in the tens of thousands served in the French army in both world wars, and their fighters are considered the most spirited of the rebel troops...
...opposite sides of the barricade, rifle-slung Arab Legionnaires of Jordan and rifle-slung border guards of Israel enforce the division day and night in the name of their jealous sovereignties. One day last week, all Beit Safafa was excited by the wedding of two of its children-Fatma Bint, 20, and Moussa Ayasha, 23, a gardener at the Belgian consulate in Jerusalem...
When from across the border rose the rollicking sound of the bridegroom's party on its way to fetch Fatma to her new home, Arabs on the Jordan side began to stream from their houses. Fatma's Jordanian sister Zariphe left off wailing "Why can I not be at my sister's side on her great day?" and joined uncles and cousins of bride and groom across the wire from Fatma's house. They watched Fatma in her white organdy dress and thick rosy makeup as she was escorted to a waiting taxi, its roof piled...
...mournful song. The bridal procession, just about to turn away, halted. As the song faded, the gun-toting border guards of both sides all at once seemed to have shoelaces to lace up or some other reason for averting their eyes. Quickly Zariphe reached across the barbed wire to Fatma...
Sisters and brothers and cousins and uncles stretched out their arms across the wire to embrace, to bless and be blessed. The wedding party, silent now, turned toward the bridegroom's home, and the Arabs on the Jordan side watched until Fatma and her bridegroom were over the hill...