ASHA: Are you sick?

MIRIAM: No. I’m not sick. Thank you. You helped me.

ASHA: I’m not afraid of sickness. In the refugee camp many people were sick. But sick people don’t hurt you.

MIRIAM: Your mother is afraid of sickness.

ASHA: She’s not really my mother.

[... … …]

MIRIAM: There are powerful men back there, in my country, who won’t let women be teachers. We thought they had gone, but they came back. They punish girls who try to go to school. They kill teachers to stop them from teaching girls. That shows you how important it is to learn In England, no one will stop you.

ASHA: Yes. First I will give this letter to the Queen of England. And then she will give me a job. And then I will go to school.

Citation: Clare Bayley, The Container, NBH Modern Plays, 2007, pp. 21-26.