“Take the black one,” Mitra said, “the one like the
crow’s feather; you can tie your hair under it, and after
we use the hair dryer, it will be done and finished!”
“What about yourself? All you do is tell me what to
do,” Vanik replied
Mitra reached for her head and removed her wig.
She had shaved her head so closely that her white skull
was shining.
Both Vanik and Shahla looked astonished. Nastaran
looked at Mistra’s white skull in shock and amazement.
Shahla spread herself on the sofa. “You devil!” she said.
“I had no idea whatsoever that it wasn’t your own hair.”
“Hey you, what if we get caught?” Nastaran asked.
Mitra answered sarcastically, “Our mums will gath-
er in front of the detention center; nine months’ hun-
ger strike.”
“Our mums’ next move,” Shahla said, “would be to
tear their clothes and bare their breasts in public!”
The sound of the girls’ laughter filled the room.MOTHER SLAMMED THE refrigerator door shut.
“Why is it that you make such a fuss whenever she does
something wrong? Everyone in your family is perfect
and it’s the same when she gets top marks for her work,
but all the stupid and dim-witted ones belong to my
family? It’s an old saying that says everyone takes after
their father. She’s taken after you, my dear, after you. The
girl has turned out just like you, a dirty pervert. Last
night she was sitting with other girls watching a group
of naked women on television.
Father is banging on the door hinge with a hammer;
it seemed he had been listening to everything in between
banging the hinge. But then, as if he hadn’t heard clearly,
he said: “Where have there been naked women for me to
watch? The woman is talking nonsense.”
“This girl asked you two years ago to let her go and
do sports, but you wouldn’t let her. If you had let her
go, she wouldn’t spend all day sitting in front of that
damned television. There are twenty or so girls wearing
chadors and head scarves in that sports hall, running
after a ball! What was wrong with that was that you
stopped her; and now we have to confront and stop her
from watching naked women?”
“How dare she do these kind of things? Did Ghaza-
leh do stupid things like that when she was at home?
And how old were you when I came and asked you to
marry me?”
“I made a grave mistake; they won’t make those
kinds of stupid mistakes.”
“Whatever now. She hasn’t married anyway. She
should get on with her studies and maybe someonewill come and knock on this door and take her away
and we’ll get rid of her before she does some serious
mischief.”AT THREE O’CLOCK Nastaran had arranged to
see Shahla a couple of streets away, on the corner of
Saberi alley. If she didn’t get a move on, she would be
late. Without attracting the attention of her parents,
she put her rucksack over her shoulders and left the
house. Shahla was waiting for her. After Mitra arrived,
they took a taxi. All the way to Vanik’s house, there was
silence.
“How many hours before it starts?” Vanik asked,
once the girls arrived.
“At six o’clock the referee will blow his whistle.”
Vanik lit a cigarette. She stood up and opened the
window a little, blowing out the smoke. Turning to
Nastaran, she said: “You should shave your head, too.
Try to get your father’s sympathy through these child
cancer sufferers. And if he objects, tell him the children’s
prayers will be your salvation.”
Mitra came out of another room wearing boy’s
clothes, stood in the middle of the hall, turned around,
and asked, “Is this okay?”
There was the sound of thunder and lightning. It was
growing dark outside.
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s now raining in Karaj,” Vanik
said.
The girls sat on the sofa huddled up to one another.IT WAS A SHORT DISTANCE to the ticket kiosks. On
both sides of the eastern side of the stadium two long
queues had already formed, of men carrying horns and
blue and red flags as they approached the kiosks. They
were shouting, egging each other on and swearing.
Shahla was standing ahead of Nastaran in the queue.
Nastaran was very close to Shahla, and as they moved
forward every few steps, Nastaran was trying to put
a little distance between herself and the man behind
her. The man was looking at the red line Nastaran had
drawn with rouge on her cheek. “Haven’t you brought a
flag with you?” he asked.
Nastaran shook her head, indicating she didn’t have
a flag.FICTION THE WIGSepideh Zamani’s
first collection of short
stories, Barbuda,
was published in
Persian in 2016. Her
novel Ouroboros was
published in 2018.
Sleeping in a Dark
Cave and Women
Looking at the Sky are
forthcoming in 2019.
Born in Iran in 1973,
Zamani graduated from
law school in 1999 and
moved to the United
States a year later.
The soldier beckoned to
Nastaran to move farther
forward. Nastaran didn’t move.40 W LT SUMMER 2019