A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Nayeri Dina

Author:Nayeri, Dina [Nayeri, Dina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary, General Fiction, Cultural Heritage, Family Life, Fiction
ISBN: 9781594632327
Google: CbHQD9_in-8C
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 17271467
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2013-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

String-Fingered Dallak (Khanom Basir)

T he Hafezis were book types and strange; there was so much they didn’t teach those girls. Once, when they were nine years old, they got into trouble for shaving their legs to the knee and plucking three hairs from the space between their eyebrows. Three hairs. I wanted to ask Bahareh why she was so strict with woman things, but you know how it is—ask the camel why it’s pissing backward and it says, “When did I ever do anything like anyone else?” Bahareh thought she was teaching her girls to be important.

They weren’t allowed to shave anything, or perfume anything, or pluck anything. She didn’t want them to grow up too soon or become women before she was ready. The only grooming they were allowed was to rub the bottom of their feet with a pumice stone—because soft feet were the sign that they were Hafezi daughters and not one of their fieldworkers: important. Their mother checked their legs every day, especially after the revolution, to make sure they weren’t breaking her rules. Be strict with the small rules, and teach them to risk their necks breaking the big ones. Such craziness! Sometimes I thought I was the only sane person in twenty kilometers.

What pointless rules! Northern girls are hard workers and not at all plagued by vanity. When Gilaki women talk about indulgences, we mostly mean food. But then one day Bahareh told her daughters to avoid riding bikes, which is necessary with all our hilly roads. Most normal children ride because they have to earn a living. “You’re young women,” she said. “You will tear your curtain.” Even with her modern ways, her Western clothes, Bahareh followed the old when it came to sex and raising girls.

“What curtain?” Saba asked, and her mother said to stop asking questions. Apparently some stupid girl had used the bike story on her wedding night, and the Hafezis didn’t want their daughters to have any excuses. Ridiculous. Girls will always have excuses. A fox will always have his tail as a witness.

Even with all her medical books, their mother didn’t tell them about men and women and such things. On the day Saba began to bleed, it was I who had to tell her she wasn’t dying. You see, Bahareh was afraid that they would discover boys and turn their backs on her grand Western dreams. She wanted her twins to stay young and untouched forever. Bookish, full of plans and ambitions, forever be longing only to her.

And so they grew up strangely, with almost no information about their own bodies. I wonder how Saba is managing now that she’s married. Probably the old man doesn’t have many needs that require womanly skill or scrutiny. You see, they are a good match.

One day Bahareh and I were in the private hammam in the Hafezi house while she was getting her string treatment, her preferred method since she hated the smell of the pastes. We didn’t hear Saba searching the house for us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.