Feridon Rashidi

This collection contains diverse fables, allegories and tales. Through the fables animals, representing people, tell relate cultural characteristics, the ways of thinking and ways of communication among the Iranians with black sense of humour. What happens when a jackass is asked to judge which of two birds sing better. What happens when two hungry wolves try to explain the meaning of democracy to a na ve sheep How a smart crook preaches the folks in a mosque in the morning; becomes the chief of police and pockets the share of the booty given to him by the robbers; at dusk he becomes a beggar, sitting by the door of the same mosque and asks for alms, and after midnight he turns into a thief The Mice and the Cat, savagely satirises the fat cats of the repressive regime and the folly of the sycophantic 'little people' under their thrall. The unexpected twist in the tale leaves one breathless at its ruthlessness A henpecked man, bullied by his wife, falls in love with an attractive neighbour and disappears with her into the jungle of Tehran. An old village headman searches endlessly to find out about his soldier son during Iran-Iraq war...

Haaji Morteza lives with his wife and closest relatives in Tehran. As his wife, Ashraf Khanum, cannot have a child, his mother decides to find him a second wife. Her sights are set on Faati, the stunning but evil-tempered daughter of a bath house attendant. Haaji Morteza, secretly lusting after Faati's charms, finally, with her consent, marries Faati. Haaji orders a carpenter to make an extra-large bed for three people. The first night in the bed ends up with the two wives fighting over who is going to enjoy his body first. Haaji convinces Ashraf Khanum that he should sleep one night with Faati in a separate room and another with her. Faati wants the Haaji all to herself. After a chum recommends some sexual-potency enhancement potions, Faati soon falls pregnant and becomes the favourite wife. Ashraf Khanum, ignored by Haaji, resigns herself to the fate of a woman cast aside by him, finding solace in Islamic rituals. One day a squabble breaks out in the house between the other women and Faati over household chores. Bent on revenge, Faati asks her snake-charmer father for help. Soon things take a catastrophic turn ...

A year after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, a theatrical troupe tries to stage the Shakespearean play, Othello. Behrouz, a writer and producer of plays, bravely pursues his goal in spite of severe Islamic censorship. His amateur group faces numerous and often laughable problems when the mollah from the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance orders that the play be adapted to meet the requirements of Sharia Law. The actresses have to wear Islamic hijab and the sinful Shakespearean dialogue must be made more Islamic. At the end of the rehearsal the mollah decides to ban the play, ordering the arrest of the director and his troupe. Behrouz goes into hiding. He moves from one place to another, undergoing nightmarish experiences. His life in serious danger, clean-shaven and wearing an Islamic hijab, he escapes Iran. Despite the horrors of exile, he finally finds solace and a purpose in writing.

These evocative short stories put together in historical order, present a vivid mosaic of the dramatic, comic, lyrical, and tragic. Spanning 100 years, the tales are wonderfully diverse - a young girl is forced to marry a feudal lord much older than her, a village dandy falls in love with a beautiful woman in a foreign land, the treacherous role played by the people of Tehran when the democratically elected government of Dr Mosaddegh was overthrown by the help of the CIA, young boys in a remote village are asked to take part in horrific, absurd and comical religious ceremonies and festivals, a little boy who becomes intensely preoccupied with the secret lives of marionettes, a deeply religious adolescent who fails to have sex with a prostitute, a woman who is banned from singing under Sharia Law, a pigeon-fancier who falls in love with a young woman whose fanatic family cause a lot of problems for him - but together these tales create a sense of separate destinies entwined across time and space.

These captivating stories, by turn tragic and humorous, are about the lives of ordinary people in Tehran and in a remote, poverty-stricken village. A worn-out peasant, whose old mother is dying, snatches the only shabby ball from a small group of boys who play noisily in a dusty path outside his hovel, a henpecked man, bullied non-stop by his wife, falls in love with an attractive neighbour and disappears with her into the jungle of Tehran, a young woman, whose mother was murdered by her father when a small girl, finds happiness in a family, a young man retreats to his makeshift hut in the corner of a trash dump to read a book he has found somewhere, an old village headman searches endlessly to find out about his soldier son during Iran-Iraq war.

It is the summer of 1978 and ominous storm clouds are gathering over Iran and its ruler, the Shah. But Kazem, a young man in love, is oblivious to politics. Maryam, the girl of his dreams, will marry the man her father has chosen for her unless Kazem acts to prevent the match. Penniless and newly out of prison, he's not got much to offer a prospective bride. But that doesn't stop him from kidnapping Maryam and bearing her off to hide in the teeming streets of Tehran. Where Kazem discovers that the possible pursuit of her father, bent on revenge, is not the only problem that awaits him as events spiral beyond his control...