“Have you seen my daughter?” she asked, peering into the kitchen. I hesitated. This was a new question, and I didn’t know how to answer. She waited. “Mom, it’s me,” I sighed. “I’m right here.” “Oh, okay,” she nodded with a smile. “I’m waiting for you to drive me home

I did not blame my mother for leaving me back then, on the eve of my birthday. Our home had been at the centre of constant chaos during events that would eventually culminate in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty and the establishment of an Islamic republic. Below our windows,

To die means to let go of uncertainty. The uncertainty of not knowing what there is to know about death. What is there to know? I have never had a stable relationship with the unknown. Thoughts of dying sent me into a panic attack at the Newark Airport after a

My femurs remember holding the tension of my 10-hour workday just below my hips. My thighs were the barrier between the pain of the floor and the place where my brain might absorb it. My body held dozens of silent conversations with the floor, without my permission. After the store

At 3:04am, you lie awake because of the noise coming from up the hall and immediately think of your grandmother. Of her sensitive hearing and light-sleeperness. You think of these things because you are listening to your step-grandfather snore. You are listening to him snore because you cannot sleep, because

I thought I was the first in my school to have boobs, but really I was the heaviest girl at Trent Elementary. In middle school, the girls around me blossomed. I marbled with saturation.When maturity hit, a palmful sufficed, stood to attention as needed, even looked mildly entertaining in a