“Has your face been cut by a knife?”
Nastaran nodded, confirming the knife wound.
Mitra made her voice sound like a man’s and said: “Our
friend here has a toothache and can’t talk. Don’t worry
about him. If you want, you can come and stand in front
of us.”
She then changed places with Nastaran, putting her-
self between Nastaran and the man.
When they reached the ticket kiosk, once again
Mitra took Nastaran’s place and bought two tickets. At
the entrance, everybody was being searched. Mitra put
her hand around Nastaran’s neck and whispered in her
ear: “Don’t mess it up now. Why have you turned white?
Like this we will be found out and we will be fucked.
Laugh a bit, shout, shout loudly for the reds!”
“I can’t. I can’t breathe properly. For God’s sake, let’s
go back.”
“What, now? Now there’s no way we can go back.
Even if we want to leave now, we have to get in and then
leave from the exit. Why are you so pale? Oh, my God,
you are going to expose us; we are being exposed! Don’t
say anything. Keep your head down and be quiet and
follow me, and everything will be fine. For God’s sake,
don’t spoil it all, Nastaran. For heaven’s sake; only these
ten, twenty meters and once we get past, it will all be
over. Once we are in, nobody pays any attention to any-
body. Once we get in, you can go into the bathroom and
wash your face; you can even take your wig off; nobody
will have any suspicion that you are a girl. Come on,
start shouting.”
Nastaran stopped and said a few times very loudly:
“Go red go, go reds go!”
A few young men and boys followed Nastaran and
repeated what she said. Mitra clasped Nastaran’s hand.
Nastaran became a little more lively.
A few soldiers and petty officers were searching
people, one by one. Shahla and Vanik were ahead of
them. Nastaran hesitated and stopped. Mitra got hold of
her hand and pulled her forward. They were separated.
The solider searched Mitra very hurriedly and casually
and said, “Go ahead.” Then he pointed at Nastaran to
come forward.
Nastaran took a step forward. Mitra said, “Officer, he
is my friend, and he is deaf and dumb.”
The soldier beckoned to Nastaran to move farther
forward. Nastaran didn’t move. She turned and looked
behind her. She pushed a few people aside and began
to run.
The soldier shouted, “She’s a girl... She’s a girl...
Arrest her!”NASTARAN WAS RUNNING very fast. Shahla and
Vanik were watching from a distance. Mitra was shocked
and unable to move. They saw how Nastaran stumbled
a few times. Three or four soldiers were running after
her. They couldn’t see Nastaran anymore because of the
crowd; she had disappeared from view. Somebody from
the crowd shouted, “Is it an offense to God if they come
to watch football?”
The siren of a police car cut off the man’s voice.
Mitra, following the uproar, took her wig off and put her
knitted cap on. All three of them began to run after the
police car. Out of breath, they reached a group of people
who had gathered around a fire engine. The red light of
the police car and the red color of the fire engine had
turned the dusk to red.
Mitra looked at a young man who was making his way
toward the stadium. “What happened?” she asked him.
“Some jerk tried to catch her and pushed her,” the
young man said. “The poor girl fell and hit her head on
the fire engine’s bumper.”
Mitra went forward. She could see Nastaran’s cracked
skull and the blood running from her head onto the
ground. By the time Shahla and Vanik reached Mitra,
the sound of the ambulance’s siren was fading away.
When the girls heard the sound of the horns and the
cheering of the spectators, they turned and looked at the
stadium; the traces of blood could be seen all the way to
the entrance gates.Potomac, MarylandTranslation from the Persian
By Amir MarashiSomebody from the crowd
shouted: “Is it an offense to God
if they come to watch football?”After a career in
international law, Amir
Marashi decided to
pursue his first love,
literature. In addition to
a collection of his own
short stories, he has
published an anthology
of short stories by
contemporary Iranian
women writers as
well as translations of
several classical and
modern Iranian works.WORLDLIT.ORG 41