Persian2English

Iran Negah conducts an emotional interview with a young girl in the south of Tehran who describes her family’s life in Iran.

Translation by SIAVOSH JALILI

Interviewer: Hello Madam. Is your mother home?

Girl: No.

I: Where is she?

G: She’s at work.

I: Where does she work?

G: On Vali-Asr Street.

I: In Tehran?

G: Yes.

I: What does she do?

G: She works in a manufacturing company. She sews overcoats.

I: What does your father do?

G: [inaudible]

I: Why?

G: Because I don’t feel like talking about it.

I: Come on, tell me.

G: My father is an addict. He injected drugs into another addict who died [of overdose]. My dad is now in prison.

I: For murder or addiciton?

G: For both

I: Did the vicitim’s family ask for Dieh (blood money in return for giving consent and sparing the life of the defendant)?

G: No, we asked them not to give consent [and insisted on Qesas, the death penalty].

I: You, yourselves, asked them not to give consent?

G: Yes.

I: Why?

G: Well, we didn’t like our father.

I: He wasn’t working?

G: No.

[They enter inside]

I: The home is quite cold inside.

G: We only have this one furnace to warm ourselves.

I: It looks very worn out and old. Do you have oil to fuel the furnace?

G: My mom works in the factory from Saturday to Thursday. On Fridays, she works at someone’s home. Whenever she doesn’t work there she goes and brings pits of oil. This last Friday, she went and got two of them.

I: What does she do on Fridays at their place?

G: She cleans their house. There are nights when we don’t have dinner and we go to bed hungry. But we never bring it up with my mother. We don’t want to belittle her. My dad was shooting up for two years. When they came from the police station, they said, “Do you know that your husband has contracted AIDS?”

We are three sisters and one brother. The eldest got married eight months ago. Her husband had an accident and now he sits at home [as the result of the injuries]. I have a younger sister who is ten. She was adopted by a family in Kashan. They were supposed to take me instead. I prepared myself, but then I thought it was more important for Azita to go. I stayed to take care of the household chores. The lady who adopted Azita harasses her. She does not let her talk to us. The way our sister talks to us has changed. In a phone conversation she said, “You guys placed me here. My dad is a very good man. You threw him in jail.” My mom always cries after talking to her. I’m not very hopeful.

I: You’re not very hopeful that the officials and authorities will do something for you?

G: No.

I: Why not?

G: We have gone for help so many times. They don’t do anything, because that is how it is. God only gives to the rich. He gives more and more to the rich, but he doesn’t give anything to the poor people.