Parasstoo

By Mohammad Babantaj

The novel "PARASSTOO" is based on the realities and living on our century when human beings die in the captivity of religions and under the shoes of clerics of religions and sects. And they do not pass over any human being, prophets, or God, and they sacrifice the world and humans and humanity for their souls and desires in order to achieve their evil gratification.
And in order to reach Satan and rely on the seat of Satan’s power and to place his crown on their heads, and take the power over the world, not only do they sacrifice human beings for their aspirations, but even sacrifice God and prophets for their satanic aspirations and souls behind the stronghold of religion and in the clothes of the prophets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669808114

Mohammad Babantaj

Mohammad Babantaj is a Canadian citizen who lives in Vancouver, Canada. He emigrated from Iran to Canada with his two sons and his wife in 1988. He used to be an Iranian federal police lieutenant for 10 years. He is a human rights activist. He earned a master’s degree in English. He is also the author of 20 other books: “Companionship with God,” “God Therapy,” “The Light of God,” “Blood,” Hidden Clues,” “Meeting with God,” “Satan or God,” “Other Side of Coin,” “Viewpoint,” “At the End of Time,” “Along the Highway of Life,” “Dawn,” “Where is God,” Defeated Muslim Jihad,” “Loving Eyes,” “Parasstoo,” “Outlook,” “Pigeons Fall in Love,” “Words Speak,” and “With Love.”

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Copyright © 2022 by Mohammad Babantaj.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. And

this novel is based on a true story which is happening in our world.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/22/2022

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Contents

Chapter 1

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Chapter 2

Part 6

Chapter 3

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Chapter 4

Part 11

Part 12

Chapter 5

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Chapter 6

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

Part 21

Part 22

Part 23

Chapter 7

Part 24

Part 25

Part 26

Part 27

Part 28

Part 29

Chapter 8

Part 30

Part 31

Part 32

Part 33

Part 34

Chapter 9

Part 35

Part 36

Part 37

Part 38

Part 39

Part 40

Chapter 10

Part 41

Part 42

Part 43

Part 44

Part 45

Chapter 11

Part 46

Part 47

Part 48

Part 49

Part 50

Chapter 12

Part 51

Part 52

Part 53

Part 54

Part 55

Part 56

Part 57

Chapter 13

Part 58

Part 59

Part 60

Part 61

Part 62

CHAPTER 1

PART 1

Ding, ding, ding. It is six o’clock in the morning. Here is Tabriz, the voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We invite the attention of dear listeners to some morning news from Tabreiz radio. Floods in Yazd province, which started at midnight last night caused great damages to our Yazdi compatriots.

Sakineh Khanum, the wife of the city hall’s dustman, Karim sweeper, powered on the samovar—Iranian tea maker and brewed the tea and then turned off the old radio at the top of the niche which sometimes tossed it to the abyss and anchors to wave on the case and was broadcasting the morning news. Sakineh Khanum wears her prayer chador and goes to the bakery on the corner of their neighborhood. She buys fresh hot lavash bread and goes home to prepare breakfast.

She spreads a two-person tablecloth on the floor next to the samovar and puts two cups of tea on the table and a bowl of chopped Tabrizi cheese in the middle of the table. And breakfast is ready for two persons, hers and her husband’s. Then she shouts, Mr. Karim . . . Mr. Karim, wake up. Wake up before it’s too late to go work.

Mr. Karim jumps out of the mattress and yawns under the quilt and says to his wife, Why wake me up so early? What time is it?

Sakineh says, It is six and a half. Wake up. I prepared the breakfast. Get out of the quilt and go wash your hands and face and cleanse yourself to pray the morning prayer before getting late your work.

Mr. Karim gets up from under the warm and soft quilt and takes clarity and recites two rakaht of prayers of his morning prayer and prays, Thank God for giving us our daily bread like all other people. We really appreciate you for your kindness. So please bring us today’s daily bread to us so we wouldn’t ask your people for food.

Mr. Karim and Sakineh Khanum are sitting at their table on the floor and eating breakfast as Sakineh says to her husband, Radio news said in the morning that a flood in Yazd province caused much damage. It is unclear whether people were killed.

Mr. Karim says, God owns his universe and he has authority whatever he does and everything in this world is his own. He wants to ruin, he owns. He wants to build, he owns again. He does what he likes. If we tell him why he is doing these, then he tells us no interruptions in my work. I own it and I do it.

Mr. Karim enjoyed his breakfast with his wife in an old cottage house with a piece of Tabrizi cheese and half a barbari bread and a cup of sweet tea with pleasure and enthusiasm. He raises his hands to the sky and prays and thanks God that they have a piece of bread to eat and have a shelter to rest.

Mr. Karim picks up the broom and his wheelbarrow which he puts in the corner of his yard after his work is over and puts on his work jacket and says, In God’s wish and in hope of luck, our daily bread is in his hand and I’m going to work till he gives us our daily bread. Sakineh Khanum opens the front yard door for Karim and says to her husband, God on your help. God willing bring more daily bread home than before.

Mr. Karim, who holds the two handles of the barrow and puts his broom inside it, says to goodbye his wife and leaves home.

Mr. Karim, a worker and cleaner of Tabriz municipality, has the responsibility to clean the streets of the republic and martyr Kazemi. Mr. Karim always starts on Republic Street first and then goes to Shaheed Kazemi Street which will end at 4:00 p.m. and finish his street cleaning work and return home.

It is seven o’clock in the morning. Mr. Karim starts cleaning and sweeping at Republic Street.

The air was not clear yet. It is half dark and half-light. Mr. Karim is sweeping the streets and singing the song of Gooleh Sangam to himself. Mr. Karim is singing to himself with joy and a smile as if no one else in this world is happy except himself.

Mr. Karim is approaching the trash bin next to the street. People still have not come to the streets and go to their work. The street is deserted. Mr. Karim is sweeping over the sidewalk asphalt when a sound of a crying baby comes to him. He thinks that is the sound of his sweeper scratching on the asphalt. He then stops for a moment to sweep and listens if he can still hear the sound. Once again he starts to sweep and the sound of a baby crying is coming to him again. He stops sweeping and finds that there is no sound. Then slowly, he sweeps the broom on the asphalt to see if the sound is from bumps on the asphalt? Mr. Karim does not pay attention to the sound and continues to work. He comes near the garbage bucket and hears the sound of the baby crying inside the bucket. Immediately he puts his broom to the ground and heads into the trash bin and sees that a basket of sponge and textiles are in the trash can and the sound is beneath the sponge and underneath the cloth inside the bin.

Mr. Karim grabs the bin and shakes it out. It looks like a newborn baby is wrapped in two to three women’s shirts inside the basket.

Mr. Karim realizes that the baby is a girl and that her body is still wet and her umbilical cord is still not cut.

Mr. Karim immediately wraps the baby around in the fabric and hugs her and goes to the next four-way intersection, which is a public telephone kiosk. He dials up his house number and his wife Sakineh picks up the phone and finds out that it is her husband and is surprised why he calls home at this time of work. She urgently says, What’s the matter, Karim! Why do you call home?

Mr. Karim says, Madam Sakineh, I myself was even more afraid than you. I found a baby.

Sakineh Khanum says, What do you mean man? What is a baby? Where did you find the baby?

The baby is crying, and Mr. Karim says to his wife, Listen . . . Listen . . . Listen to her crying . . . Now you know I am not lying.

Sakineh says, From where did you find her?

Mr. Karim says, From the trash can. What should I do now? I don’t know where to take her? Where should I deliver her?

Sakineh says, Bring her home as soon as possible.

Mr. Karim leaves the wheelbarrow and his broom in the park next to the street under a bush of flowers and takes the child away immediately to his home.

Sakineh grabs the baby from her husband and throws the cloth away and sees a newborn baby girl who is still wet. Then she says to her husband, What does a blind want from God, of course two eyes that can see. We, who wanted a child from God for a lifetime and eventually did not have a baby in our life, so now God finally gave us a baby that we desire and have been waiting for a lifetime.

Mr. Karim says, It is better to hand her over to welfare.

Sakineh says, If we are going to deliver her to the welfare, another servant of God must go to the welfare and bring this child to his home and raise him. Well, better be that servants of God ourselves. We do not have children and God did not let us give birth. And now that he’s done, why give it back. God put this kid in your way so that we, like the rest of other people, have a kid.

Karim agrees with his wife to keep the baby as their adopted child and raise her on their own.

Mr. Karim goes back to his work, and Sakineh Khanum takes the baby bath and cuts her belly button with scissors. And after drying, she covers the baby with bedding, and then she says to herself, At sunset when Mr. Karim comes home from work, we go to the market together and buy clothes for the kid. At four o’clock in the afternoon, Mr. Karim finishes his work and goes home. He is super happy to have a baby and become a father.

Sakineh Khanum and Agha Karim were ready to go out to buy clothes for their little girl.

Mr. Karim says to his wife, What is her name?

Sakineh says, Our daughter’s wings fluttered and flies and came to our house like Parasstoo.

Mr. Karim says, How about we call her, Parasstoo. Sakineh says, Great. We call her Parasstoo.

Mr. Karim changes his clothes and goes out with his wife while Sakineh Khanum hugs and keeps Parasstoo in her arms to buy clothes for her.

PART 2

Maliyeh Khanum, who is just in her teens and has reached the age of sixteen, is standing behind a plane tree in Shaheed Jafari Park, parallel to the Republican Street. She stares at the trash can next to the street. And she is watching the trash can from afar if someone is coming to get the baby out of the trash can.

It is early in the morning and an hour passed, but no one pays any attention to the trash can. The weather was clear and people and cars are circling, but Maliyeh Khanum still stands behind the tree to see if someone come to pick up her baby from the trash can but no news so far. Maliyeh is tired of standing up and sits under the plantain, talking to herself, and her mind goes to Sohrab, her baby’s father.

Sohrab, an eighteen-year-old student at the end of high school, grade twelve, meets sixteen-year-old Maliyeh in front of the Ayatollah Shams Abadi Girls’ High School.

Maliyeh is in grade eleven and after her class is over, she goes home while three young boys chase her and start taunting her. Sohrab, who is on his way behind them, notices that three people have been chasing a female student and taunting her and sexually harassing and are hurting her.

Sohrab steps up and grabs the collars of two people to his left and right and hits the third with his right foot then puts all of them on the ground, giving the two a punch to their jaws.

Maliyeh thanks Sohrab and begs him to accompany her to the bus station if possible, fearing that the three intruders may return. Sohrab says to her that he is on his way there too. He says that he is heading to bus station number 66 and assures her not to be afraid. He will go with her to the bus stop to make sure nobody bothers her.

They both get on bus number 66, and by coincidence, two seats next to the window are vacant.

The girl again thanks Sohrab for his help and introduces herself and says, My name is Maliyeh. I’m grade eleven in high school. I study at Ayatollah Shams Abadi High School.

Sohrab says, My name is Sohrab. I’m in grade twelve and study at Sheikh Jalali High School, and it is very nice to meet you.

Maliyeh says, I’m glad to meet you too.

The bus driver says, This is Sangsar Station! Wasn’t anyone going to get out?

Maliyeh says goodbye to Sohrab and gets off at Sangsar Station.

Maliyeh talks to Sohrab in her mind on her way home. Somehow, she falls in love with Sohrab, and she wishes if she would meet him again.

Sohrab, on the other hand, leans his head against the bus window in his place inside the bus, thinking about how dignified the girl was.

By the second chance, Maliyeh and Sohrab meet each other at the same spot, and Maliyeh’s friendship with Sohrab is tied to one another, and most of the time, Maliyeh, who is trapped in Sohrab’s heart, pricks him on her own to help her with her homework and exams to get more close with him. Sohrab on the other hand is falling in love with Maliyeh as well.

Behind the sycamore tree, Maliyeh is still gazing into the trash can to see if anyone finally picks up her baby. Maliyeh gets tired of sitting and gets up again and leans against the tree and goes back to Sohrab in her mind, how they met each other on day 1 and then got legally married that caused this baby whom she puts her in the trash bin. Maliyeh is getting tired of looking at the trash can from behind the sycamore tree to see what happens to her baby. Finally someone is going to pick up her baby or not. Maliyeh sees passersby pass by the trash can and some throw their paper towels and other trash into the trash can but no news.

Maliyeh is walking down the street from under the sycamore tree. She goes above the trash bin but finds there is no child inside the trash bin. She is surprised and says to herself, Who came and took my girl and I did not notice? Didn’t anyone come and pick up my baby from the morning since I was here? So what happened to my daughter? It must have been early in the morning that someone perhaps came before her and took her baby. Maliyeh has nowhere to go. There is no way back, no way forward, neither the way to her home nor the way to

Sohrab’s house. Maliyeh is still walking on Republic Street until she reaches the national park.

She goes inside the park and sits on a bench by the pool, watching the geese, swans, and ducks in the pool. The ducks and geese kids that are in a row after their mothers swim in, and there is no one to bother them. There is no one to tell them that they are all Molly Kates (bastards). "But we humans are not as free as you guys, geese, and ducks are and we cannot live as we please. Our lives are in the hands and brains of others. We humans have to live with the permission of others, and then we are told that we, humans, are developed creatures. What a developed creature that a privilege we are not even allowed to choose for ourselves. How developed are we creatures that we are not allowed to put on our own lives and like all animals, having our baby next to us and not have to throw our kids in the trash bins.

I really like you geese and ducks that freely choose your husband and wife and have children and enjoy life freely, and there is no one to question you and ask who this bastard Molly Kate is. I am jealous of you having a free life and no one choosing your life for you. I assure you, you animals, that you never bother us, humans, and neither bother animals, that you are the developed creature not us as humans.

Maliyeh is talking to herself beside the pool on the bench while she is despairing at her miserable life.

Maliyeh goes back to her first days of dating Sohrab while her eyes are on the pool and watching the life of the animals that are enjoying nature.

It started when a few rabbles came to her and blocked her way and annoyed her, then another young boy who looked like an angel came down from heaven and rescued her from them when she was going home from high school.

Maliyeh, who occasionally clutches at the sides of her abdomen on the bench, can neither cry out of pain nor can she do anything else. She just puts herself on the same bench, and in her hand is the cloth that she puts inside her pants to stop the bleeding. She presses harder to better stop the bleeding, so it doesn’t bleed out. And sometimes like a snake, she wraps her arms around herself out of the pain of childbirth, and her mind goes back to her past, wishing it didn’t happen and she hadn’t become familiar with Sohrab and fell in love with him.

Maliyeh sees him almost every day under the pretext of getting help from Sohrab for her school assignments. Sometimes after school, they go to the national park and sit for a couple of hours on the bench and talk about everything except for the lessons the teacher taught in class.

Sohrab’s physics exam ends and the class close one hour earlier for the students to go home and prepare for tomorrow’s chemistry exam. Sohrab as usual goes to the national park after his exam and waits for Maliyeh. It’s about four o’clock in the afternoon that Maliyeh arrives and yells, Sohrab, I’m here.

Sohrab raises his hand from the bench and points to Maliyeh. Who is here?

Maliyeh approaches with a cheerful spirit. She holds Sohrab’s hand on the bench and casually raises her hand around Sohrab’s neck and gives three kisses to his cheeks and says, It was a great test. All those that you said to me, they came to the exam question. I answered them all correctly. I think I’ll get nineteen or eighteen out of twenty.

Sohrab, who is shocked by the hug and kiss from Maliyeh as it is his first-time experience, does not speak and sits quietly.

Maliyeh, on other hand, does not understand what she is doing. Immediately she drops her hands from Sohrab’s neck and shoulders and turns red with embarrassment and says, Oh my god! What am I doing! God, I should die! Sorry, Sohrab Joon. I swear to God it was not my own purpose. I just was excited and because I’m so happy, I lost my control. Sohrab says, It’s okay. I understand you. I’m more than happy with myself. I also took my physics exam so well. I think I’ll get twenty of twenty.

Maliyeh says to Sohrab, What exam will you have tomorrow?

Sohrab says, Chemistry. How about you?

Maliyeh says, We have algebra and the history of Islam exams tomorrow. I’m not too worried about algebra because the one you’ve worked with me, I’m ready for it. But I don’t know what to do with Islamic history. I really hate history. It is disgusting. It is all about wars between kings and rulers and killing each other and their people.

Sohrab says, Don’t be sad either. Most of their questions in history exams will be about Islam after the revolution of Iran that we have all seen with our own eyes, and we’re present and witnesses and need not read history. It all happened in our time, and we know very well what has been happening since the revolution and threw the Iran king away.

In the middle of her talk with Sohrab, Maliyeh is silent for a moment, and her mood is disturbed and her mind went somewhere else. Sohrab says, What’s wrong with you? Why do you frown? Did I do something wrong that is bothering you?

She says, He wants to woo me and come to my home with his parents.

Sohrab says, Well done and congratulation to you. Do not be upset. You have to be happy instead.

An unsteady Maliyeh hits a fist on Sohrab’s arm and puts her other hand on his chest and says, What do you mean! No! I’m not happy at all. I do not want to marry any man. Why do you congratulate me? I am not happy about that.

Sohrab says, Why not?

Maliyeh shrugs her shoulders, and tears fall from her eyes. She says, My suitor is my cousin, my uncle’s son. My mother insists on giving me to her nephew. My father is agreeing with my mom and wants to marry me to my uncle’s son. But they are all wrong. I’m not going to get married to my cousin. Why should I marry and live with someone whom I don’t love.

Sohrab says, Well unfortunately, in Iran and our Islam laws, the choice of a spouse is not up to us. It’s up to others, not ourselves. Then Sohrab goes on and says, I have this problem too. Relative marriage is also within our kin. My parents want me to take my cousin and marry her. But I tell them I don’t want to have a family marriage. I would like to choose my own wife myself, not them.

Maliyeh says, I don’t know why others should decide for us how and with whom to live. Lastly, I do not like living with someone whom I do not love and am forced to have a family marriage. This is all my mom’s fault. She is ruining my life and wants to force me to marry her nephew. Sohrab says, Or we must surrender to the Arab culture of our parents and take control of our lives in their hands and live however they want, or we must stand up and fight with this Arabic-Islamic culture by force.

Maliyeh says, Of course, my uncle and his wife are more interested in this family marriage. They poison my mom’s brain that they should take me to their son right now.

Sohrab says, My pain and your pain are the same. We are both partners of the same kind of pain and problem. I would never accept forced marriage, especially a family marriage that would make me choose my uncle’s daughter to marry. The weather is getting dark. Melissa says, It’s too late. Again, my mom and dad would ask me where I was until then. I have to go home Sohrab Joon.

Sohrab gets up from the bench and the two walk to the bus stop and with both smiles on their lips, kiss each other with their hands and their hearts. They say goodbye until they meet again tomorrow after school in the same national park.

PART 3

There is only one week left to Iranian New Year’s Eve. Maliyeh sends a message to Sohrab that she wants to address him and has an important topic to discuss with him.

Sohrab promises to see Maliyeh the next day, Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. in front of Azadi Cinema on Revolutionary Street.

Maliyeh arrives in front of Azadi Cinema sooner than Sohrab and waits for him to arrive. She is restless and looks around impatiently to see if Sohrab is coming.

The bus stops in front of Azadi Cinema, and Sohrab gets off with some other passengers. It looks like Maliyeh is waiting for him. The two go inside the coffee shop on the same Revolutionary Street near Azadi Cinema. Sohrab orders two cups of coffee and two Yazdi cakes, and they sit at the table in front of each other.

Sohrab says, I think you wanted to talk to me about something, is it right?

Maliyeh says, My uncle and his wife want to come to our home for their son again for wooing me.

Sohrab says, Well, have you not rejected the answer before? So why do they want to come back for wooing?

Maliyeh says, They came two times before, and both times I refused. And this is the third time they are coming to us. And my mother is more interested in this marriage because she wants her brother to be my father-in-law.

Sohrab says, When do they want to come to woo you?

Maliyeh says, "After the New Year starts. They will come in the Nowruz holidays. Last but not least, every time I refuse to answer, they continue to follow me. My mother also puts her feet in one shoe and says that I have to become my cousin’s wife. It means that I no longer have the choice of my life. Whatever other people pointed out to me, I have to lower my head and close my eyes and say yes. Whatever they say, I must accept. The power is in the hands of the elders.