The Septembers Of Shiraz

Isaac is taken to a cell where he finds the boy Ramin and a man called Mehdi, who has bandaged feet as a result of foot lashings. Mehdi has spent eight months in the prison and explains that he is a communist, like Ramin’s mother. The communists had been fighting against the Shah’s old regime and are now fighting against the new Islamic one. Lying awake at night, Isaac recalls his troubled childhood and then whispers goodnight to Farnaz, imagining her scent of orange blossom.

The perspective shifts to that of Farnaz, on the same night. She lies in bed pondering the breakdown in her relationship with Isaac, wondering why even a dog “could make Isaac’s eyes laugh in a way she herself had not been able to do in months” (22). Suffering a migraine, she goes outside and is terrified by an imagined vision of a man hanging from a tree in the garden.

The next morning, she explains to her Muslim housekeeper Habibeh, that Isaac has been arrested. Habibeh reassures her and says she will pray for him. She tells Farnaz that she should drink less, since alcohol is illegal now. Farnaz wonders: “when did Habibeh become so law-abiding?” (25). Farnaz dresses in modest clothing and covers her hair, ready to take her daughter Shirin to school and then start looking for Isaac. She contemplates how life goes on around her while her world is collapsing.

At the entrance to one prison, the young guard refuses to help her and tells her to get lost.

The focus returns to Isaac in prison, where the call to prayer draws the men to the mosque. Isaac decides to attend, like Mehdi, in the hope of improving his situation, and a fellow prisoner shows him how to perform his ablutions before prayer. However a guard yells at Isaac—unless he wants to convert to Islam, he must go back to his cell. There, Isaac recalls losing his virginity at the age of 18 to an American girl, after a night of drinking the strong liquor arrack with a group of off-duty American soldiers. Despite the girl’s refusal to see him again, the memory of the experience is pleasant, and he values the confidence and belief in a life of exciting possibilities that it instilled in him.

In Brooklyn, New York, Isaac’s son Parviz is feeling lonely and missing his parents, with whom he has not talked for a month. He receives a short letter from his sister but is disappointed that it doesn’t contain the usual coded message that his parents are sending him money. Parviz’s basement flat is shabby, and his kitchen contains only a little food. His landlord visits to ask for the overdue rent, and then invites Parviz to the family Sabbath meal. Parviz reflects on the busy family life above him, and how his own home life in Tehran was so much easier and more luxurious than his current life. His landlord’s Hassidic Jewish family is kind and welcoming, but Parviz feels repugnance towards them and vows not to visit their home. He calls home and Habibeh answers, telling him his father is on an “unexpected trip” (42), which Parviz knows means trouble. Parviz remembers with fondness his father’s study full of antiques and then their sad farewell as he left for the US a year earlier. Nostalgic for each member of his family, Parviz addresses his father: “Baba-jan, I am not happy. Where are you?” (45).

Shirin, the Amins’ nine-year old daughter is very worried: It has been two weeks since Isaac disappeared, and also her mother’s ring and silver teapot have disappeared and Shirin fears that she may have stolen them without realizing. Her mother reluctantly suspects Habibeh. At school, Shirin retreats from her classmates’ games, feeling tired and anxious. Her friend Leila reassures her that the objects at home have probably just been misplaced, and Shirin tells herself that her father will probably return, along with the missing items.