An INDY JOURNALIST’S BLOG

“Tequila Leila” is immortalized beyond time

By Diane Walsh

(c) mediageode June 2024

Elif Shafak’s novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, tells the story of “Tequila Leila.” Leila is a murdered sex worker inhumanely deposited in the gravel on the outskirts of Istanbul. “Covered with clumps of sagebrush, nettles and knapweed, and enclosed by a wooden fence with missing posts and sagging wires, this was the most peculiar cemetery in Istanbul…and somewhere in this unholy mess, among the hundreds and hundreds of untended graves, there was one freshly dug. This is where Tequila Leila was buried. Number 7053” (Shafak 256).

The protagonist, Leila, discarded and dumped in a “Cemetery of the Companionless,” is not actually companionless. The novel’s plot reveals to the reader that Leila not only has companions, but that they believe she does not belong in such an anonymous state cemetery, and that they do something about it. Five of them—Sabotage Sinan, Nostalgia Nalan, Zaynab 122, Hollywood Humeyra, and Jameelah—vow to right the murderous wrong imposed on Tequila Leila’s life. The novel asks the reader to question the cruelty of Leila’s murder as a marginalized sex worker and the subsequent invisibility of her death. A space is made for the reader to understand her friends’ desire to give her the right of recognition as a worthy human being in society.

“On average fifty-five thousand people died in Istanbul every year—and only about one hundred and twenty of them ended up here in Kilyos” (258). Disturbed by the knowledge that Leila is cast away in this forsaken graveyard so inhumanely because she was a sex worker, despite also being a murder victim, the five friends seek to challenge this compounded social injustice. First, however, looking into Leila’s personal history gives insight into how she ended up discarded in such a manner.

The novel’s protagonist is already deceased when the novel begins. In the first ten minutes, her brain remains active with memories of her past. “In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila’s consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away” (11).

Sifting through her memories, Leila recalls her two mothers. Oddly, the biological one is called “Aunt.” The other woman is ascribed maternal rights, the implication already laid out early in the novel that Leila is the victim of rejection, emotional child abuse, and sexual abuse by her uncle on her father’s side (Mehdi 2022). Emotionally estranged from her father, Leila effectively flees from her family, fractured and alone as a teenager. At sixteen, she is in Istanbul, where, through her marginalized circumstances, she becomes a sex worker. Leila writes to her family several times but never hears from them. “There has to be a place, an obscure address, for letters that remain unwelcome and unread” (Shafak 57).

This summary of Leila’s recalled memories clearly speaks to her marginalization as a human being. Her family’s refusal to respond represents their bold rejection of her. All of Leila’s personal circumstances are predictors of her ultimate social rejection. Ultimately, Leila is murdered, a victim of both familial and social rejection.

As the novel evolves, each minute after Leila’s death describes friends who try to create a consciousness for her (Jilani 2019). “She had never told her friends this, not in so many words, but they were her safety net. Every time she stumbled or keeled over, they were there for her, supporting her or softening the impact of the fall…” (Shafak 183).

The novel further takes the reader into Leila’s thoughts, as if she allows a separate and better fate to unfold. The friends to whom she refers do not accept Leila being disrespected beyond the grave, held hostage in the “Cemetery of the Companionless,” where “almost everyone is an outcast, who has been shunned by family or society at large” (256). Leila’s fate is glaringly unacceptable. The friends’ plot is to rescue her body. “It had few, if any, visitors. Even veteran grave-robbers gave it a wide berth, dreading the curse of the accursed” (255).

The friends are unafraid. “Disturbing the dead was fraught with danger, but to disturb those who were both doomed and dead was an open invitation to disaster. Almost everyone interred in the Cemetery of the Companionless was, in some way or another, an outcast” (255).

“There were many suicide victims in the Cemetery of the Companionless… Number 7063, the grave to Leila’s north, belonged to a murderer” (256). This passage exposes the injustice of it all. Even suicide victims were dumped in the cemetery. Leila, a murder victim, is buried next to a murderer, which deeply offends her friends’ sense of humanity.

They are determined to exhume her and give her body a dignified funeral. They believe she is now, with her life companions, by no means companionless. She has a name: Leyla Afife Kamile Akarsu (188). She has friends. She is not abandoned in death. The friends are emotionally wounded by the unnecessarily ruthless infliction of systemic violence on Leila in death (Apostolides 2019).

Like “Tequila Leila” in the “Cemetery of the Companionless” (189), “many had been shunned by their family or village or society at large…” (255). The five friends appoint themselves as companions. Rightfully and vehemently angry, they decide to insert a new reality into events.

The remedy for the injustices against Leila—exhuming her—is not decided lightly. The friends deliberate carefully. In discussing Leila’s death and what they could do for her, Zaynab 122 says, “Why don’t you pray to help her soul—yours too?” Nalan responds, “Why pray when God is no good at listening? It’s called divine deafness… Leila deserved a great life and she didn’t get it. At the very least she deserves a proper burial. We can’t let her rot in the Cemetery of the Companionless” (231).

The strength of the friendship supporting Tequila Leila after death is evident in Nalan’s plan. Zaynab 122 says, “We all love Leila… she has brought us together” (234). Nalan adds, “How can she rest in peace if she is in an awful place?” (244). She further strengthens the case, questioning whether they can accept the way Leila was mistreated on earth (244). This plan speaks to the redemption Leila deserves as a human being, and which the state denies.

Leila’s murder exposes social injustice through stigmatization, marginalization, and violence against sex workers (Wandira 2023). A deputy police chief states, “All the victims were streetwalkers. Normal citizens have no need to worry about their safety” (Shafak 217). This passage exemplifies stigma. Nalan reacts angrily, calling the statement deeply disrespectful to the dead (217).

The novel asks the reader to question the cruelty of Leila’s fate and reveals that her lack of a proper burial stems from her being a sex worker. The morgue administration, representing state protocol, shirks responsibility for affording her human decency: “Look, that has nothing to do with my institution,” the director says (195). Yet some justice emerges through her friends, who alone provide Leila with recognition. The state sees her only as a number. “There are cemeteries reserved for such people” (196).

Nevertheless, restoration occurs. Her friends’ actions override the injustice of her fate in the Cemetery of the Companionless. They imagine and pursue her right to a proper burial, ultimately reuniting Leila with the Bosphorus and “the Blue Betta Fish” (303), an image she loved. Through this, the friends create belonging and a better memory.

The novel tragically illustrates how state injustice extends even into death, perpetuating exclusion and cruelty. Yet it also shows how friendship—existing within the same oppressive environment—can risk everything to restore dignity and humanity to a marginalized and murdered friend, offering more compassion than an unfeeling mercenary society ever could.

WORKS CITED

Apostolides, Zoë. “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, by Elif Shafak — A Review.” The Spectator, 13 July 2019.

Jilani, Sarah. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. NI Syndication Limited, 2019.

Mehdi, Muntazar, Uzma Moen, and Shanza Abbasi. “Abjection and Marginalization of Females: A Critical Review of Leila’s Character in Elif Shafak’s Novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.” Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 22, no. 1, 2022, pp. 67–82.

Shafak, Elif. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. Viking, 2019.

Wandira, Diah P. A., Rizal O. Datau, and Nur Wulan. “Understanding Intersectionality through Tequila Leila’s Experience in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (2019).” Poetika (Online), vol. 11, no. 2, 2023, p. 96.