I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister: Last Half

The last half of I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister was even more heartbreaking than the first.

The novel focused a lot around the two sisters’ struggles to express what they felt their freedoms should include. Sohane was expelled from her school just because she wanted to be proud of her religion and wear a headscarf. Djelila on the other hand was murdered for not wanting to be proud of her religion, and wearing tight clothing and makeup to school. Towards the end of the book Sohane starts to tell us how she has come to the realization that rather than trying to protect her sister from her “habits”, she should have been supporting her for being who she wanted to be. After reading Sohane’s  thoughts on this, I immediately started to feel so much sympathy for her. She clearly loved her sister and just wanted what was best for her. Both of the girls just wanted to express who they are as individuals, yet they both had to face consequences.

I also thought it was interesting that Sohane was denied into a public group speaking that was about her sister’s death, all because she was wearing her headscarf. The ladies running the speaking were unaware the Sohane was Djelila’s sister when they turned her away. The woman who turned her away explained to Sohane that her headscarf meant that she was not proud of her freedoms as a woman. I thought that Sohane should have fought back at this point. She should have explained how she felt about the scarf, how she was the sister of Djelila, and how her sister loved her even when she was wearing it.