{"id":35491,"date":"2024-12-06T10:11:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T08:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=35491"},"modified":"2024-12-07T16:21:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T14:21:05","slug":"eve-fantasy-from-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/eve-fantasy-from-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"“Eve”\u2014fantasy from Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
This story was produced as part of <\/span>Paranda<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>a writer development program and global network for women writers in Afghanistan and the diaspora, facilitated by <\/span>Untold Narratives<\/span><\/a> and supported by <\/span>KFW Stiftung<\/span><\/a>. Often the writers choose to remain anonymous for their safety.<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Parand<\/span><\/h4>\n

Translated from Dari by Abdul Bacet Khurram<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A monotonous dawn breaks in Purgatory. Weary residents begin their day, hearts turbulent from fear of Judgment. They go about their <\/span>usual <\/span>activities with drooping shoulders and lifeless faces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve also gets up, lets out a long yawn and looks around, disgust<\/span>ed<\/span>. A <\/span>neighbor <\/span>is building a house, stacking brick after brick in the most spiritless way possible; another <\/span>gives <\/span>a loud speech while many people <\/span>watch<\/span> him<\/span>, confused. <\/span>An old woman works her spinning wheel. <\/span>Eve sees<\/span> a hoard of yarn skeins behind her<\/span>. <\/span>It gets longer every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam <\/span>is<\/span> digging through his pockets. He pulls out his Earth-gazing magnifier. As always, he inspects the glass and complains about the dust marring its lens. He breathes on it and starts polishing it with the palm of his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only time Eve saw Adam happy was when they first entered Purgatory and he was sure of having his magnifier. His happiness quickly faded, however, as he soon realized that the magnifier he carried was his curse, not his gift. In the never-ending loop that was Purgatory, Adam\u2019s obligation was to observe the Earth, where his descendants often engaged in corruption and wickedness, denying him even the smallest window of escape from the entrapment of his guilty conscience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On several occasions, he had tried to share this demanding work with Eve, like the first time when he shared with her the blame for eating the forbidden fruit, but Eve had refused.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve<\/span> hasn\u2019t integrated with the other dwellers. She\u2019s not sure if this is a privilege or punishment, but her soul still hasn\u2019t given in to the repetition and waiting. She still craves novelty and despises monotony. S<\/span>he has no choice but to drift along<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

S<\/span>he puts the same effort into untangling her long grey hair <\/span>as she did yesterday,<\/span> and picks up the wooden comb at her side. She gazes at it, lovingly. The smile that forms on her lips is like that of a lover on seeing a cherished keepsake from their beloved. This comb was Adam\u2019s first gift to her after their reunion on Earth. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Unlike Adam\u2019s Earth-gazing magnifier, the comb gives her a good feeling, and it\u2019s useful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She <\/span>begins to comb her hair. Her locks cascade down her shoulders like a waterfall. Her mind travels back in time, revisiting her memories one by one. She recalls how much Adam loved her hair, admired its beauty, caress<\/span>ed<\/span> it gently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve gazes at <\/span>him<\/span> with a look of longing but doesn\u2019t say anything. There is no place for change in Purgatory because everything is predictable. She already knows Adam\u2019s next step that day <\/span>and for every day thereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently satisfied with the cleanliness of the lens, Adam brings the Earth-gazing magnifier closer to his eye and <\/span>sighs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>Eve, if you could only see how our error unleashed a flood of sin on Earth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She <\/span>furrows her eyebrows and resorts to the answer she gives every day. \u201cOur sin? No dear Adam, we were subservient for a long time. It was the serpent\u2019s temptations. We were tricked into violating God\u2019s laws and being disobedient. Do you think our newborn intellect knew anything by the name of sin back then?\u201d Her tone brims with ambivalence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam <\/span>puts<\/span> down the magnifier. \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s true. Our minds couldn\u2019t comprehend the concept of sin, but we\u2019d<\/span> received God<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s command. The conceited serpent regarded its purpose as sacred and worked to achieve it. I only wish we too had considered our purpose. We should\u2019ve obeyed God\u2019s laws and sacred commandments. We shouldn\u2019t have succumbed to greed, and we shouldn\u2019t have left a seed on Earth that spreads corruption and destroys lives. Our greed is the root of all sins!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve is very sensitive to what Adam says in the last sentence<\/span>. <\/span>Every day it <\/span>makes her shudder and tests her patience<\/span>. <\/span>But <\/span>she continues to endure it. Up until now she has remained silent. But how long should I put up with this, she thinks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She wholly believes in God\u2019s fairness and this has fed her resolve to remain patient until the Day of Judgment, but she is reaching her breaking point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Enough! I refuse to accept, I don<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t want to shoulder the burden of everyone’s sins and accept that our greed has led to the creation of a world rife with injustice, I must get to the truth!\u201d She trembles with anger as she hurriedly braids her hair. She stands up straight and throws her plait behind her head.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going!\u201d H<\/span>er will is strong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam stares at Eve. \u201c<\/span>Where?\u201d He knows her <\/span>soul can leave Purgatory any time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve\u2019s cheeks turn red with anger at his question and, like a volcano erupting she starts talking in a heated rush. She\u2019s running out of time and is in a hurry to pour out all her pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>From that first day on Earth. From that day of the Fall. From that cursed day of the Fall. In life and death. You and I are at each other’s throats. From that first day until now, through all of these countless years, we<\/span>\u2019<\/span>ve both seen our sin as the cause of all future evils of mankind, but that belief is wrong, I refuse to accept it. This argument must be settled.\u201d She takes her head in her hands and <\/span>continues, \u201cI<\/span>\u2019<\/span>m tired of spinning in this continuous cycle. I<\/span>\u2019<\/span>m weary from this endless debate. I need to get rid of the idea that you and I are the origin of all sin and find peace. I<\/span>\u2019<\/span>ll either succeed or fail but I refuse to put up with this any longer!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She <\/span>turns around and disappears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When Eve next opens her eyes she is at the beginning of a narrow street surrounded on both sides by many shops. There is not a soul in the market and she\u2019s surprised to find the shops abandoned, the fruit and vegetable carts deserted. She shields her eyes with her hand and looks around carefully. At the end of the street she spots a large crowd. It is roaring thunderously.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She heads towards it, moving slowly. She wonders whether her old age or the sedentary nature of Purgatory is responsible for her current state. Breathlessly, she arrives near the crowd of people standing in a circle. But she\u2019s still unable to see what\u2019s happening in the center. She enters her physical form and turns to the man standing nearest to her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>What<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s going on over here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He <\/span>is picking his teeth and greedily swallowing food crumbs. \u201c<\/span>Madar jan<\/span><\/i>, this is not a place for you, people will push you and you\u2019ll break your bones. Go on your way,\u201d he says, a foolish smile on his face. <\/span>Eve doesn\u2019t like this child of hers at all; his behavior reminds her of Cain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Cain-hearted,\u201d she whispers with sadness, a<\/span>nd steps into the crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She brushes past several people to reach the center. There she sees a woman sitting on the ground, holding a child tightly in her arms. Her appearance is disheveled, her clothes are dirty and tattered, and her hair is in disarray. She holds a stone in one hand and is aiming it at those around her; without getting up she is spinning in place to fight the mob, which wants to take her child.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The child seems to be two or three years old and appears to be sleeping. Not moving at all. His skin is pale and his mouth is half-open. Like his mother, the child also has a disheveled look, his clothes are in tatters, his shoes are torn, and it’s as if his face is deliberately blackened with lampblack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman screams at the top of her lungs, \u201cDon\u2019t take away my child, he\u2019s mine, he\u2019s my son.\u201d Some men, who are nearest to her, want to take him but she squeezes the child tightly in her arms. She isn\u2019t ready to give him up. With all the strength she can muster, she fights the hands that are trying to grab her child.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t give him, he\u2019s mine,\u201d she shouts. But the hands don\u2019t stop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve wonders what the men want with the child.<\/span><\/p>\n

A voice says in anger, \u201c<\/span>Strike the crazy woman and take the child by force, he\u2019s dead and will start to smell in the woman<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s arms, we need to bury him!\u201d <\/span>Another with a voice full of hostility says, \u201c<\/span>All these men here and yet they can<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t take on one crazy woman, we should\u2019ve killed her the moment she gave birth, she<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s insane but she knows how to commit adultery and engage in prostitution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve can see the woman is mentally ill. Everyone wants to take the child away from the woman by force. No one is even thinking about trying compassion and kindness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>You<\/span>\u2019<\/span>re crazy, I<\/span>\u2019<\/span>m not, pipe down, my child is sleeping.\u201d <\/span>And the woman goes quiet. Maybe her mind is coming to grips with what the word adultery means. After a few moments, as if simply to give the man an answer, she says, \u201c<\/span>You yourself are adultery, you\u2019re prostitution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The mob bursts into laughter. The woman also laughs. Maybe she loves to see and hear laughter because she has always received stones and insults from them; or maybe she\u2019s satisfied with her answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cListen to the words of the crazy woman, she knows how to commit adultery but she doesn\u2019t know what the word means,\u201d says a voice from the crowd. Another man, tall in stature with a bulging stomach, a bald head, and a butcher\u2019s knife in a leather sheath strapped across his body, shouts at the mob to be quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>This is the second time she has given birth to a fatherless child, your courage has also waned! We must slaughter this woman so it becomes a lesson for everyone and bury her together with this child,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His speech incites the retreating mob and they roar even louder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKill her! Kill her!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman is now scared, and tries to defend herself by hopelessly asking the child for help. She calls on him as a witness to save her from the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Wake up, they<\/span>\u2019<\/span>re going to kill me, open your eyes, tell everyone that you were sleeping, hurry up, hurry up!\u201d and shakes him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the child doesn\u2019t open his eyes, and in response to the shaking his lifeless hands fall to his sides. The men once again demand loudly that she give them the child, but the woman still insists on keeping him<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will not give him up, I left my first son for one day and he drowned in the river, you pulled him out and buried him in the dirt. When I went to his grave, no matter how many times I called for him he didn\u2019t wake up and didn\u2019t come out of the grave. I tried to dig him up but you took me away from the graveyard, now you want to take this one too, I won\u2019t give him to you! I\u2019ll never ever give him to you, you\u2019ll just bury him in the dirt,\u201d she growls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve is distraught. Where am I? What kind of people are these? Why are they torturing a mentally unwell woman? How did a mentally ill woman get pregnant in the first place? A flood of questions rushes through her mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amid the deluge, Adam\u2019s face appears like a light. He has entered her mind and with a strange smile and watches her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere have I come?\u201d she asks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam holds onto his smile \u201cYou\u2019ve come to a place where you can find your answer. There are countless sins here and the reason for all of it is the greed of these people,\u201d he replies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The children\u2019s voices call loudly and relentlessly, \u201cCrazy Reza Gul, give us the child, crazy Reza Gul, crazy Reza Gul.\u201d Their roaring laughter brings Eve back to herself and Adam\u2019s face disappears.<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of nowhere, a stone is pelted by a child and hits the woman in the head. Blood begins to flow from her hair and onto her face. She doesn\u2019t move to defend herself. Eve watches as Reza Gul wipes away the blood with the back of her hand to stop it dribbling into her eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

An old respectable man wearing a white coat enters the circle. He appears to be a health worker. As if seeing a savior descend from the sky, Reza Gul turns to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Doctor, they<\/span>\u2019<\/span>re trying to take my son. Come look he<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s not dead. Please tell them to leave me alone,\u201d she begs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor appears to become upset, and reassures Reza Gul with a lot of nodding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor is here now, he won\u2019t let you hurt me.\u201d She cries out to the crowd, relieved. The doctor turns to the people: \u201c<\/span>Fear God, if that woman is crazy at least you are sane, have pity, don<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t hit her, leave her be.\u201d His voice is kind. So different to that of the violent mob.<\/span><\/p>\n

The butcher, who considers himself to be the representative of the people without having been elected, comes forward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Don<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t take her side, Doctor, every day she does something new, one day she gives birth to a fatherless child, another day she is caught in the act of adultery, and now too her child has suffocated because of the smoke from the bathhouse kiln but she won<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t let us bury him,\u201d he says, gently. The tone has shifted from the harshness he used moments ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor listens with a patient smile, and then whispers something in the butcher\u2019s ear. The butcher, who was more determined than anyone to take the child and slaughter Reza Gul, softens, nods his head in agreement, and in a very different voice to the one he used minutes ago, asks the people to let Reza Gul be.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, they don\u2019t want to leave; they don\u2019t want to miss the rest of the show. The butcher hardens his voice, invites them to leave again and to go about their business. They are now persuaded, perhaps because of their natural fear of the butcher, or because of the power of the sharp knife he <\/span>wields <\/span>above his head forcing them to obey.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mob disperses, leaving the injured Reza Gul and her dead child alone in the square. Eve gazes at her. Fatigue is etched on the woman\u2019s face. Her lips are dry and cracked. The blood from her head wound has drawn furrows on her forehead, drying in her eyebrows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve is deeply distraught. She is ashamed for being a spectator at the suffering of one of her daughters. She wishes there was a way to know how Reza Gul feels. She wants to better understand this woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly Eve feels exhausted. Her whole body aches for one moment of rest. Her stomach is growling and her lips are dry. Her heart feels squeezed by grief but in that river of sadness, a being is laughing out loud. Surprised. She looks at her hands, dirty, and with long nails. A repulsive smell comes from her clothes. She\u2019s holding something. She panics. It\u2019s the lifeless child of Reza Gul. She is in Reza Gul\u2019s body.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor comes near and asks her to come with him to his <\/span>surgery.<\/span> Reza Gul accepts without hesitation. In the panorama of Reza Gul\u2019s memories, Eve sees that the doctor is the only good man she has ever met. In Reza Gul\u2019s mind, where like a battlefield war is waging in every corner, the doctor is an angel of salvation. Whenever people beat and injure her, the doctor comes to her rescue. Unlike the shopkeepers in the market, he never chases her away from the entrance of his surgery. If she\u2019s hungry he will give her food. Unlike the others, he does not grope her or fondle her breasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Together, Reza Gul and Eve \u2014 in her body \u2014 arrive at the surgery with the doctor. He sits her on a chair and puts on his white gloves. He examines her head wound and while complaining about people\u2019s cruelty under his<\/span> breath<\/span>, takes out a pair of scissors from his strange group of tools. He cuts some of Reza Gul\u2019s hair and throws it on the floor. She laughs at the sight of it. The doctor asks her why she laughed. Reza Gul doesn\u2019t have an answer. The doctor says he has to cut off her hair so that he can stitch up the wound. He pours a red antiseptic liquid from a small bottle into a container, soaks a cotton ball in it, and then places it on the wound. Eve feels the stinging pain entering Reza Gul\u2019s body. Reza Gul closes her eyes from the pain but doesn\u2019t feel bad. Suddenly the child falls from her arms to the floor. Alarm bells ring in her mind. With unimaginable speed she lifts the child, dry as wood, from the floor and hugs him. She kisses his cheek with motherly love and sits back down on the chair. The doctor draws the content of an ampoule into a syringe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Does your head hurt?\u201d he asks. <\/span>Reza Gul nods. As the doctor prepares to give her the injection, she closes her eyes to avoid seeing the medicine as it enters her veins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve becomes overwhelmed in Reza Gul\u2019s body, and suddenly finds herself on the threshold of the surgery and the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reza Gul has also left the doctor\u2019s, and now sits in the entrance. Eve notices children, with mischief and curiosity, still stalking from a distance, whispering in each other\u2019s ears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGo away, you sons of bitches!\u201d Reza Gul says. <\/span>They scatter<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s slowly getting dark. Eve, once again formless, leans against the frame of the doctor\u2019s surgery door. Like Reza Gul she finds herself in a precarious state. She remembers Purgatory where she had a specific place to sit down and live, but now she is homeless on the streets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor turns on his office light and begins a conversation with a man who has just arrived and appears not to be from this area. Eve is drawn to their conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cW<\/span>ho is this woman and why is she sitting here?\u201d asks the stranger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHer name is Reza Gul. She\u2019s been mentally ill since birth. No one knows who her parents were or why she\u2019s wandering the streets. She<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s very oppressed and has been abused a lot. Worst of all, it is said she\u2019s been raped many times,\u201d the doctor replies sadly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The man raises his eyebrows, \u201c<\/span>Really!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI heard this from one of my friends who works in forensic medicine. She<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s been raped many times, miscarried three times, and twice gave birth to living children. Her eldest son drowned in the river and according to people, this child suffocated from the smoke of the bathhouse fireplace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On <\/span>hearing that the child in Reza Gul\u2019s arms is dead, the stranger looks frightened.\u201c<\/span>Why aren<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t they burying him?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor\u2019s answer is hesitant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe she is afraid of being alone or maybe the instinct of motherhood forces her to protect her child. Crazy or sane, she\u2019ll carry out the duty nature has placed on her shoulders \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Innocent of this exchange, <\/span>Reza Gul sits next to Eve, and heaves a long sigh of exhaustion. Maybe she\u2019s sleepy, or maybe hunger and thirst bring her down. Eve feels the head of Reza Gul, resting against the frame of the door, on her shoulder. She looks at her face: the small eyes are closing. Sometimes smiling, sometimes cursing, and at other times she touches the child with her hand to make sure he is still there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve notices some men, the same butcher among them, slowly getting closer to Reza Gul. They carefully <\/span>prise<\/span> the child from Reza Gul\u2019s embrace to take him to the local cemetery. Reza Gul doesn\u2019t wake up. As if putting down a heavy load, she gets herself together, sighs in relief, and starts snoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor is locking his surgery door.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the men walk away, they shake the doctor\u2019s hand to thank him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve looks at Reza Gul who sleeps innocently in the embrace of the street. She is devastated. She has no legs to walk and no strength to stand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her mind is tired of thinking. She looks around, hopelessly. The shops have all closed. Not a soul is in the market. She watches Reza Gul sleeping comfortably on the dusty street. Maybe she is still fighting the mob or maybe a man is using her to satisfy his lust. From time to time she laughs, and cries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Eve leaves Adam in Purgatory to settle their score once and for all, she’s devastated by what she encounters on Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":788,"featured_media":35605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2995,4052],"tags":[3216,118,4101],"coauthors":[4132,4100],"class_list":["post-35491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-short-stories","category-tmr-47-genre-fiction-double-winter-issue","tag-afghan-women-writers","tag-afghanistan","tag-purgatory","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Eve"\u2014fantasy from Afghanistan - The Markaz Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Eve leaves Adam in Purgatory to settle their score once and for all, she's devastated by what she encounters on Earth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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