Status Updates From Women Without Men

“Why were they embarrassed by her?” asked Farrokhlaqa, unwilling to leave the subject. “There is no shame in becoming a tree.”

‘“She is too busy,” he said. “Besides, she is not into socializing. She is a homemaker, born to keep house.”

“I can’t say I approve of full-time homemakers,” Fa’iza returned. “A woman must have a social dimension, to help her man advance socially. One can’t get stuck in the kitchen corner....”’

I mean she's not wrong

“As her pregnancy advanced and the contour of her body changed, Zarrinkolah became increasingly translucent, like crystal, with light shining through her. Munis would sometimes look at the river through her as she sat by the window watching the currents.”

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“Fa’iza recognized that Munis had certain abilities, including reading minds and elongating her face, yet she was born with a round face, therefore she could not escape her simple-mindedness and low-grade intelligence.”

I can't with this round face obsession

“...He had also suggested that the human-tree is not like other trees; it needs human breast milk to achieve maturity and growth. Farrokhlaqa was stumped by the suggestion, not being able to think of a source for human breast milk.”

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“...But how could you tell people that a family member has become a tree? Her brother told me that they wouldn’t have minded if she had become a milk maid, a dairy girl. After all, making yogurt is a trade. But becoming a tree? I don’t know about that.”

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‘“Actually this poor tree . . . is the sister of the former owner of the property,” he added, as if mortified by the irrationality of his own statement.

“How strange!” Farrokhlaqa uttered sharply.

“It certainly is. This poor soul went mad and planted herself in the ground.”’

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