Characterization of the narrator

The female narrator is the main character in the short story “She Shall Not Be Moved” by Shereen Pandit. 

The narrator appears to be of immigrant descent. This is for instance indicated when the narrator thinks that the two white women cannot rightly claim that the bus driver is “taking sides with the Somali women just because they’re both black”. These lines mention two women. It indicates that like the Somali woman with the pram the narrator must also be Somali, or at least black. Furthermore, her daughter is named Mariam which is a common Muslim name.

The narrator used to be a political activist. It is suggested that she left her native country because she got in trouble for her activism:

I’m only living in this miserable country because I’d got into trouble back home, fighting for our rights. There are political posters and slogans all over the house. One of them’s got Pastor Neumuller’s speech: ‘First they came for the Jews...’ and all that. (ll. 121-124)

In this context, her inability to speak up for the Somali woman shows tha...