'I explained to him through the wall that he's not going to go mad and that he's not going to die.

The doctor said he tried his best to ease Mohamed's suffering. Adan Abokor, the director of that hospital that Mohamed had written that letter about, the letter that got them both thrown in prison. Mohamed now had a way to talk and be answered. 'I was frightened of going to a certain area in my mind where I would commit suicide without knowing, without wanting to.'įinally, one night, eight months into his prison sentence, as the guard is passing just out of earshot, an inmate in the next cell whispers to him. What did he think about her in those moments when he was blaming her for not visiting him? Mohamed says, 'I probably hate her at that particular time.' And, still, you blame her for not getting in touch with you.'

She's living her life, and I am in this place.'Īnd then he would tell himself, no, this is crazy to think about. 'You think she's probably enjoying herself. In the dark, in the silence, he started to resent her. They had only been married for a few months.

'The government was encouraging wives to divorce their husbands.' He started to wonder: Would she wait for him? 'I could not imagine how she is because there's no news from the outside world.' She was 20 years old, a teller at the state bank. In the silence, Mohamed is thinking about his young wife, Ismahan. Read and listen to stories in the series here. Join NPR in our exploration of anger and what we can learn from this powerful emotion. Anger can be a destructive emotion, but it can also be a positive force. It's in our politics, our schools and homes. There's no question we are in angry times. This story is part of a series from NPR's Science desk called The Other Side of Anger.

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