“Mashq-e shab” (Homework)

Extract

Mitra Davar's short story “Homework” takes us into the world of a young woman still at school but already grappling with a deep sense of alienation. Manizheh, the protagonist, leads a life delimited by her movements between home and school. Both sites demand duties and responsibilities she finds herself unable to fulfill. At school, her teachers complain that she is absentminded. At home, her mother urges her to take the medication a doctor has prescribed to combat her melancholia and to devote herself to her homework.

We do not know the exact causes of Manizheh's depression, but something in her longing gaze tells us of a need to get beyond barriers that circumscribe her life. She is forever looking out of windows, staring at stray cats, and collecting feathers and autumn leaves. Yet she cannot find the vital link between all that she observes and is asked to do.