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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 9 “Don’t you go anywhere,” Jensika urged. “The teacher would make a mess of things and would suspend you, and I don’t want you to get in trouble for my sake.” Everybody was silent for a while, until Mariella said to Jensika, “But in your opinion, is this really what the teacher thinks?” “What do you mean?” she asked. “I mean that maybe he is joking, and you just don’t realize it.” “That can’t be it…” Rahma started to say, but was immediately interrupted by Mariella. “No, no Mimmo, this is not the first time that this teacher has made racist jokes or jokes against women.” “Eh, he always picks women and foreigners, the other time he did it with me, remember?” said Rahma, who didn’t seem to give a lot of importance to the teacher’s opinions. “Yes, it’s true,” Jensika lamented, “and in that case I became angry for you. And then I was afraid when you responded to him in person that he would give you a bad grade.” “That could happen,” Rahma said. “When do I ever get a good grade in math?” “And that must be because you are a woman and come from an underdeveloped country, right?” Mariella said laughing. “Yea, that’s just it,” Rahma confirmed, joking. “But the idiot hasn’t thought about how much women in my country have fought for emancipation. It is true, tradition would subjugate us, and also my father has his ideas… like I don’t have to put make-up on, or that he can choose my friends, or that if he could, he would have sent me to an all-girls school. But, let’s consider my mom, for example. She was a great activist when she was still living in Tunisia and is still fighting now that she lives in Italy because she is convinced that women are not free even here, despite how things may appear. And, go figure, she did exceptionally well in maths in school!” Everybody laughed at Rahma’s comment, but Jensika, who didn’t smile at all because she was upset, started to speak again, “Well, I know I was wrong. I was wrong in my answer and I was wrong also for not having completed the homework yesterday. I don’t like maths, and so I don’t always study it like I should. I know