He
answered in an angry voice. I am her uncle and
she will be in
my care. Please pack whatever you have here.
What happens to Shiva; do you care? She just
lost her father, and
now you want to separate her from her mother?
He coldly replied, ?I am her father now and my
wife will be her
mother.?
I was the one who carried her in me and gave
birth to her, I was
the one who cared for her and raised her, now
your wife is her mother?
asked Talah incredulously.
"Yes, that is God's will. My wife will be her
mother" he said.
"God said that mothers have no rights? What
kind of God is he?"
she replied bitterly.
He said, Bite your tongue and do not
blaspheme. Since God is
great and He knows better than us, I am
obeying God's will that after
my brother's death I have custody of my
niece.?
She could not argue or say any more. She could
be whipped to
death if she told him what she felt. God is
not just and that's a fact, she
told herself. But then she remembered that she
would be burned in
hell if she continued to think that God was
not just and continued
to ask why women have to go through so much.
The way home seemed too long and the day was
too hot with the
black veil on her head and her face. ?What did
women do to deserve
such a harsh way of living? she asked
herself.? I have to be under this
black robe from my head to my toes. I have to
tolerate this heat and
tolerate the pain of being away from my child
because my husband
died. I have to be thankful and to surrender
and say nothing because
I am a woman!? Tears poured out of her eyes
and made her veil a little
Was Shiva aware of her rights as a mother? she
wondered. Shiva was
too young to understand the pain of being
separated from her child
but she soon found out the hard way.
One day Roozbeh came to the house in the
morning and told her
that she had no choice but to marry him.
What do you mean I have no choice? Talah
asked.
Well somebody has started a rumor that we are
having an affair.
And you know the law of the land, if we do not
get married soon,
they will .og us. It is supposed to be two
hundred lashes and I do not
think you can survive that!? he said hurriedly
and very seriously.
But we did not, and we are not having an
affair,? Talah said calmly,
How can they lash us when we did not touch
each other?
He shook his head and said, But nobody knows
that. The neighbors
signed a petition that I come to this house
everyday and you are
here too, so they have concluded that we are
having premarital relations,
which bears the punishment of two hundred
lashes.
Besides,
if we can tolerate the flogging what can we do
with the gossip of it?
Can we look anybody in the eye without shame?
Can you imagine in
this small town how people will react to our
flogging?
Talah could not believe this. She had heard of
the flogging and
stoning of adulterous men and women, but she
always thought they
had done something wrong. She never thought an
innocent talk with
a relative would cause public humiliation and
flogging. How could
they even think about this!
Once again she wondered about her rights as a
woman in this
society. How could he divorce me without my
knowledge? she thought.
Lady, can't you see that as a woman your life
and death, your wishes and
desires do not count? Don't you see that you
are the property of your hus-
band as soon as you agree to marry him? There
is no need to ask for a divorce
since you are his property and he can throw
you away if he wishes,
she told herself tearfully and in silent
anguish of realizing the truth.
There has always been a strong emphasis in the
Moslem population to fight
their sensuality. They always seem to find
themselves choosing between
their temptation and their faith. Babak was
not that devoted,
though. He was young and had a long time ahead
of him. He
Page 79
Then another thought came to his mind. The
same idle thoughts
that prevented him from becoming a cleric a
few years before. The
same kind of rage he felt when he was
prevented from going to
school abroad to study medicine. The same
questions which came
to his mind when his brother-in-law punished
him for drawing the
face of a human being. Why? Why is our
religion so hard to follow?
Why should it prevent you from any kind of fun
imaginable? What
is wrong with playing music or drinking a cup
of wine?
His answer came from the Persian poems of
mystic divinity:
But now Khayam?s idle poem came to his mind:
Put my lip to the lip of a goblet, drinking
greedily the wine
To find that ethereal mystery, the secret of
long life,
And to my lip came the lip of the goblet,
bringing me wine
With a whisper it said
Those who have died do not return to tell us
of the divine.11
He knew if Islam was hard to follow for men,
it was worse for
women. They did not care to drink, or play
tar, or music. All they
wanted was a loyal husband to be their own and
not to share with
anyone else. And if they were not happy in
their marriage they had
no choice but to stay.
Page 29
Do not scare me with God's punishments; he
already punished me
when he made me a woman.
You call our love a sin but you refuse to see
my marriage as a sin.
I was nine when I was sold,
this story should be illuminated; told.
In other parts of the world, this is not
acceptable,
and seems unnecessarily cold.
He bought me from my father in the form of
marriage of course,
Then without asking me, took me as his spouse,
And all these years I have been a prisoner in
a palace-like house,
All Moslem women are in prison of course,
But at least some have love and a warm loving
domain,
Page 48
Is it safe to sleep in this desert? his mother
asked.
Yes, ? Babak replied proudly. ?It had not been
possible before Reza
Shah. These roads have always been full of
robbers that were waiting
for prey but now nobody dares to bother
anyone. There are police
stations everywhere and they protect
passengers like us.? Babak was
right. Some called Reza Shah a dictator, but
he brought calm and
security to the country. The country had
started to show some
progress after almost two centuries of
idleness and backwardness. He
had shut down the small tribal authorities and
made a strong central
government, which was the dream of all
intellectuals at the time.
Furthermore, he ended the unwritten caste that
only privileged children
could read and write or get government jobs.
Anyone with some
literacy was able to get a job with the
government and although the
top-ranking jobs were still reserved for the
previous privileged princes
and clerics? sons because of their higher
education and influences,
normal people, Babak amongst them, were able
to acquire a government
job and a chance to exceed with ability,
rather than through a
relative's influence. Also, the introduction
of modern schools in every
town made it possible for all children, rich
or poor, to learn and be
literate.
Page 106
Well sir, with all due respect, you are a man
and can not understand the woman's world. We
are the property of
men. We can not decide for ourselves what we
should do. Look at
how the society calls us! I was Ali's daughter
before my marriage,
then I became Taghi's wife and when he died,
although my son was
only five years old, I became Akbar's mother.
See, people never referred
to me by my name but my relationship to my
male relatives.
We are not allowed to argue with our elders.
We are supposed to bow
and submit to our men. You can not expect any
girl or woman to try
and oppose a marriage against her father's
wish??
Page 54
see, we are trapped in these old spider web
customs of ours. You see so many books full of
beautiful poems, all
written by men for their lovers. It is okay
for them to spread the word
of their love. But if a family hears that
their daughter loves a man
they kill her, or worse, they force her to
marry her .rst suitor. It is
considered a shame for a family to acknowledge
that their daughter
is in love.
Page 115
His thoughts wandered to history and he
started to ask
himself, when had Persian women become
secluded from society? At
the time of Achaemenes, pictures showed the
queen with a crown on
her head. In Sasanid's era, a couple of women
had even become king.
Even now in remote villages no woman covers
her face or even all
her hair. Their clothes are colorful and
beautiful, he thought, they converse
freely with men, and there is no seclusion of
the sexes. But in cities we see
such different pictures. The women are hidden
in houses, covered from head
to toe with black robes if they come out in
the street. Is this going to be different?
Are they going to be able to participate in
all aspects of
