iran
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A Fine D’Artagnan
Salty Eye, Sweet Play. Written in Four Vignettes, No. 4. “You always get to be D’Artagnan!” cried Morteza. “Well, I am the oldest,” said Mehdi. “No, you’re not. Niku’s the oldest.” “Niku’s a girl! A girl can’t be one of the three musketeers!” “D’Artagnan isn’t one of the three musketeers, Mehdi,” said Niku coolly, leaning…
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Notes on Hammam Days
There is a Persian saying, بکشید و خوشگلم کنید (bokoshid o khoshgelam konid), meaning “kill me and make me beautiful” that immediately sprang to mind when I was researching the ingredients in vajebi, a traditional depilatory powder used in Iran. The ingredients in traditional vajebi are calcium bicarbonate, arsenic sulfide and clay. In recent years,…
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Hammam Days
Salty Eye, Sweet Play. Written in Four Vignettes, No. 3. Thursday afternoons at the public hammam were hot and uncomfortable and to be avoided at all costs. Besides the white veil of steam that cast a certain mystery over the otherwise simple old bath house, the hammam was not half as romantic as the European…
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Notes on The Ameh Shokat Doll
Or rather on “the eye.” In my family, the eye, cheshm in Persian, was not evil; it was shur, salty. A salty eye could be directed at anyone, either intentionally or unintentionally. Although often springing out of Envy’s poisonous bosom, it could also be transmitted quite innocently, in passing, from a half-sincere compliment bestowed out of thoughtless civility. Every so…
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The Ameh Shokat Doll
Salty Eye, Sweet Play. Written in Four Vignettes, No. 2. Niku licked her new doll on its button eye. It was as cold and tasteless as the shop windows she and her brothers stuck their lips against on Jaleh Square, and it was her last hope. For weeks now, she had overheard neighbours and relatives…
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Fet-Fet
Salty Eye, Sweet Play. Written in Four Vignettes, No. 1. “That child has a salty eye, I’m telling you.” The two neighbours who wore too much makeup crossed their fat nylon calves and exchanged lipstick-smudged theories between bites of lipstick-smudged halvah. “Sameni women have always brought on bitter ends. It’s all the black they wear. …
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The Rook
Divinities: Tishtrya, God of the Rains Month: Tir Zodiacal Constellation: Cancer Manthra: To Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star; to the powerful Satavaesa, made by Mazda, who pushes waters forward; to the stars, made by Mazda, that have in them the seed of the waters, the seed of the Earth, the seed of the plants;…
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White Mulberries
The story of my great-grandmother, Khanum Bozorg. Written in two vignettes, No. 2. Ever since she fell off her horse and broke her nose into a calligrapher’s mim, Khanum Bozorg lost the ability to smell and taste food properly. She couldn’t tell the difference between rotten meat and fresh meat, wouldn’t know it by the sweet…
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Leila Mishmast
The story of my great-grandmother, Khanum Bozorg. Written in two vignettes, No. 1. Before her three sons and three daughters gave her grandchildren, Khanum Bozorg was not Khanum Bozorg at all. She was Leila Mishmast and she was a “fire-whirl.” At least that’s what her mother used to call her. Her mother’s entire life revolved…
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Shuku and Niku
Mahin Banu’s Baby. Written in four vignettes, No. 4. Shuku propped the bisque-faced doll up on her lap. It was an ugly doll. Nothing like her delicate, golden-haired bébé. Flat, black eyes covered half its vacant face. Its painted eyebrows stretched from one temple to another, like the shadow of a bird in flight. Its…
al-majus 