Literature

Flora emerges as a recurring motif running through this work. Flowers, for Issa, are loaded symbols of migration and survival. She reflects on the way they take root in unexpected places, the way they bloom despite, or perhaps in defiance of, human intervention. The Majnoona (bougainvillea), a tough, untamed bloom that thrives in dry, inhospitable environments, recurs throughout her work, its name—Arabic for ‘crazy’ or ‘hysterical’—a gendered marker of unruliness. The Majnoona, with its ability to flourish in adversity, brings us back to the title.