Across a language, in a third one

Noor holds the international circles and paired them on the basis of a shared frustration rather than a shared geography: both had found that almost everything written about these medicines assumes a health system neither of them has.

Writing in a third language turns out to be an advantage. Both of them are slower, plainer and less able to hide behind a phrase, and both have said the messages are more honest than they would be in Persian or in Dutch respectively.

The substance is mostly access and supply, which look completely different in their two countries and are difficult in both. Soraya has had long gaps she did not choose. Marit has not, and is careful never to offer advice that assumes a pharmacy that is simply there.