ABSTRACT
People who confront authority figures, especially senior authority figures at the top of the regime’s pyramid, face powers much greater than they themselves possess. Although aware that their chances of success are small, some nevertheless are full of optimism and have confidence in their own abilities to win, at least at the onset. Ibrahim in There Is a Man in Our House expresses this confident attitude thus:
Maybe this was the secret to his victory over them. He had felt that he was equal to them, equal to the government; as a matter of fact, he was stronger than the government. Challenging the government took nothing more than intelligence as if he were playing chess, where neither of the players has any weapon that the other does not possess.
(ʿAbd al-Quddus 1997: 106–107)