Inshallah dozed off to sleep. The night was beautiful and the Iranian evening was full of a hidden secret, the kind that let lovers doze most splendidly. The moon shone brightly through the trees, the window, and onto the bed. Inshallah's left forearm was wrapped calmly over Hafez's torso. His fingers lay gently onto his lover's body as he quietly dreamed of better places.1
Inside his mind, there flashed scenes of great animation. He dreamt of flowing rivers and green pastures, of sheep grazing across the land. He dreamt of blue sky as pure as diamonds and clouds as white as snow. All was well in this mind, but in the ire of the Religious Police, a storm was brewing far off in the distance. For now, though, this storm was a long-ways off.2
Inshallah was a contented young man. He was a pious Muslim who did everything he could to worship Allah. He prayed five times a day towards Mecca, the most holy site to all Muslims.3
He was also a son and a brother. His father, Jalil, taught him how to do great things such as to read and write, such as math and Persian, the main language of Iran, and such as love and respect for one's friends and adversaries. His mother, Delbar, was a loving and compassionate woman who loved both her sons and did everything to help her family even though Iranian society looked down on women and kept them out of nearly all business opportunities.4
Inshallah's brother, Habib, was a person of great listening abilities. Habib spent most of his days trying to understand the great complexities in life, never knowing why or how things were the way they were, but always taking the moment to ponder or speculate on what the possibilities could be if only he could tap into some vast expanse of wisdom and knowledge.5
--6
To be continued at a later date...
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 10 of 10
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I think you should definitely continue this. I can understand the hesitation you mentioned but I think you do the story a disservice if you let it remain untold because of your fear.
Even if you cause your characters pain, even if they have to die, you have to let them *live*.
Hmm...I'm going to send you a link to a story of mine that takes place in a similar environment. I'd like your input on it. and if you have any questions or want to run something past me, please do. -
Time for this story to move on. It's high time you added to it. It would be nice if you could teach tolerance to the Iranian powers that be, but I'm inclined to think that that's a hopeless cause. Iran has got worse since these first few paragraphs were written. I ddon't want to influence the course of this story, but my own advice for Inshallah and Hafez would be to relocate as fast as possible to a more enlightened part of the planet.
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I'm afraid to move on with this story. How can I do the characters justice by moving them from their homeland, but suffer brutality at the hands of the state of Iran if they stay? I will have to plan this carefully.
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I understand your difficulty. If they moved away from their homeland, the story could no longer be about persecution of gay boys in Iran. And if they stay there, it can only end in tragedy unless they opt for a life where they cannot be themselves, a mechanical existence where they are dead from the waist down, and their souls will slowly wither away anyway.
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I'm afraid to move on with this story. How can I do the characters justice by moving them from their homeland, but suffer brutality at the hands of the state of Iran if they stay? I will have to plan this carefully.
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This feels really male oriented, almost homosexual. The 'hidden secret' you mention in the opening paragraph gives me this impression I think. I have no idea if the name Hafez is male or female, so perhaps I am reading too much there. Its good as is, but seems almost like a first draft in the sense of being only a layout of characters and not much more. I'll be interested in reading the continuation when its done. Best wishes for success with the story. WAM
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It is homosexual. The story is centered around the fact that homosexuals are executed in Iran. At the same time though, I am hoping to teach tolerance towards Iranians and Middle Easterners...something that many in my country, the U.S., greatly lack.
Peace be with you and thank you for commenting.
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you can use the word persian instead of farsi
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Ahhh. Thank you.
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I would say farsi was fine. Someone of that region is just as likely if not more likely to say Farsi instead of Persian. It's like Spanish and Espanol.
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