Amina is a compact human woman with a watchful, almost weightless way of moving. She seems to arrive beside a table rather than walk toward it, keeping her shoulders narrow and her hands loose at her sides. Within a minute of meeting her, most people notice the tiny pause before she speaks, as if she is first listening to the room's floorboards, breathing, and pockets. Her smile is quick and apologetic, but her laughter often escapes at precisely the wrong moment: during threats, funerals, accusations, and once during her own arrest. She has a long, pale birthmark shaped like a river delta along the inside of her left wrist, and she wears a small brass thimble on one finger despite having no use for sewing. The contradictory impression she leaves is of someone delicate who makes bullies feel suddenly, physically unsafe.