Transposed from "reading lolita in teran" by azar nafisi...
Her story was familiar. A fortnight earlier, Sanaz andfive of her girlfriends had gone for a twoday vacation by the Caspian Sea. On their first day, they had decided to visit her friend's fiance in an adjoining villa. Sanaz kept emphasizing that they were all properly dressed, with their scarves and long robes. They were all sitting outside, in the gardenF six girls and one boy. There were no alcholic beverages in the house, no undesirable tapes or cd's. She seemed to be suggesting that if there had been, they might have deserved the treatment they received at the hands of the revolutionary guards.
And then "they" came with their guns, the morality squads, suprizing them by jumping over the low walls. They claimed to have received a report of illegal activities, and wanted to search the premises. Unable to find fault with their appearence, one of the guards sarcastically said that looking at them, with their western attitudes... what is a western attitude? Nassrin interrupted. Sanaz looked at her and smiled. Ill ask him the next time I run into him. The truth of the matter was that their search for alcholic beverages, tapes, and cds had led to nothing but they already had a search warrent and didn't want it to go to waste. The guards took all of them to a special jail for infractions in matters of morality. There, despite their protests, the girls were kept in a small dark room, which they shared the first night with several prositutes and a drug addict. Their jail wardens came into their room two or three times in the middle of the night to wake those who might have dozed off and hurled insults at them.
They were held in that room for 48 hours. Despite their repeated requests, they were denied the right to call their parents. Apart from brief excursions to the rest rooms, they left the room twice. The first time to be led to a hospital where they were given virginity tests by a woman gynocologist who had her students observe the examinations. Not satisfied with her verdict, the guards took them to a private clinic for a second check.
On the third day, their anxious parents in Teran, unable to locate them were told by the concierage at the villa that their children might have been killed in a recent car accident. They set off at once to the resort town in search of their daughters and finally found them. The girls were given a summary trial, forced to sign a document confessing to sins they had not commited, and subjected to twentyfive lashes.
Sanaz, who is very thin, was wearing a tshirt under her robe. Her jailers jokingly suggested that since she was wearing an extra garment that she would not feel the pain, so they gave her more. For her, the physical pain had been more bearable than the indignity of the virginity tests and her selfloathing at having to sign a forced confession. In some perverse way, the physicasl punishment was a source of satisfaction to her, a compensation for having yeilded to the other humiliations.
When they were finally released and taken home by their parents, Sanaz had to deal with another indignity: her brother's admonitions. What did they ecpect? How could they let six unruly girls go on a trip? Would noone ever listen to him, just because he was a few years younger than his scatterbrained sister who should have been married by now. [It should be noted that the male speaking this is 19 years old. His sister is no older 22.. Maybe 23.]
[ there are several more paragraphs to transpose... please refrain fromcommenting until I add them. The story is severely lacking without them.]
Her story was familiar. A fortnight earlier, Sanaz andfive of her girlfriends had gone for a twoday vacation by the Caspian Sea. On their first day, they had decided to visit her friend's fiance in an adjoining villa. Sanaz kept emphasizing that they were all properly dressed, with their scarves and long robes. They were all sitting outside, in the gardenF six girls and one boy. There were no alcholic beverages in the house, no undesirable tapes or cd's. She seemed to be suggesting that if there had been, they might have deserved the treatment they received at the hands of the revolutionary guards.
And then "they" came with their guns, the morality squads, suprizing them by jumping over the low walls. They claimed to have received a report of illegal activities, and wanted to search the premises. Unable to find fault with their appearence, one of the guards sarcastically said that looking at them, with their western attitudes... what is a western attitude? Nassrin interrupted. Sanaz looked at her and smiled. Ill ask him the next time I run into him. The truth of the matter was that their search for alcholic beverages, tapes, and cds had led to nothing but they already had a search warrent and didn't want it to go to waste. The guards took all of them to a special jail for infractions in matters of morality. There, despite their protests, the girls were kept in a small dark room, which they shared the first night with several prositutes and a drug addict. Their jail wardens came into their room two or three times in the middle of the night to wake those who might have dozed off and hurled insults at them.
They were held in that room for 48 hours. Despite their repeated requests, they were denied the right to call their parents. Apart from brief excursions to the rest rooms, they left the room twice. The first time to be led to a hospital where they were given virginity tests by a woman gynocologist who had her students observe the examinations. Not satisfied with her verdict, the guards took them to a private clinic for a second check.
On the third day, their anxious parents in Teran, unable to locate them were told by the concierage at the villa that their children might have been killed in a recent car accident. They set off at once to the resort town in search of their daughters and finally found them. The girls were given a summary trial, forced to sign a document confessing to sins they had not commited, and subjected to twentyfive lashes.
Sanaz, who is very thin, was wearing a tshirt under her robe. Her jailers jokingly suggested that since she was wearing an extra garment that she would not feel the pain, so they gave her more. For her, the physical pain had been more bearable than the indignity of the virginity tests and her selfloathing at having to sign a forced confession. In some perverse way, the physicasl punishment was a source of satisfaction to her, a compensation for having yeilded to the other humiliations.
When they were finally released and taken home by their parents, Sanaz had to deal with another indignity: her brother's admonitions. What did they ecpect? How could they let six unruly girls go on a trip? Would noone ever listen to him, just because he was a few years younger than his scatterbrained sister who should have been married by now. [It should be noted that the male speaking this is 19 years old. His sister is no older 22.. Maybe 23.]
[ there are several more paragraphs to transpose... please refrain fromcommenting until I add them. The story is severely lacking without them.]
9005900:
Thanks for being here for me. You know who I am now.
