Roya and Arash Shirazi’s rela­tion­ship in 1973 Tehran serves as a poignant depic­tion of the emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal toll that famil­ial dynam­ics, shame, and soci­etal expec­ta­tions can have on a young child. Roya, at just ten years old, is con­front­ed with the humil­i­a­tion of bed­wet­ting, an issue that she des­per­ate­ly tries to hide. Her attempts to man­age this problem—by lim­it­ing her water intake and avoid­ing meals—fail, as the smell clings to her, and her broth­er Arash ridicules her for it. This ridicule ampli­fies her inter­nal­ized shame, mak­ing her feel alien­at­ed and unwor­thy. Arash, though his teas­ing may seem harm­less to him, is a con­stant reminder to Roya of her per­ceived short­com­ings. The strain in their sib­ling rela­tion­ship is pal­pa­ble, with Arash’s cru­el­ty grow­ing over time, leav­ing Roya feel­ing unsup­port­ed and unloved. The absence of parental empa­thy exac­er­bates this emo­tion­al tur­moil, with her father Kam­ran detached from fam­i­ly affairs and her moth­er, Parvin, express­ing her frus­tra­tions only through pas­sive-aggres­sive actions like laun­dry chores. This lack of emo­tion­al pres­ence from her par­ents leaves Roya feel­ing like an out­sider in her own home, fur­ther deep­en­ing her sense of iso­la­tion.

At school, the anx­i­eties that Roya expe­ri­ences at home are only ampli­fied, as she is unable to escape the crush­ing weight of self-con­scious­ness. Every moment in school is taint­ed by her fear that her class­mates can smell her, com­pound­ing her feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy and dis­com­fort. Dur­ing a les­son about beau­ti­ful words, when Roya awk­ward­ly vol­un­teers the Per­sian word “bini” (mean­ing nose), she is met with mock­ing laugh­ter from her peers, which only inten­si­fies her alien­ation. The laugh­ter rings in her ears, fur­ther solid­i­fy­ing the belief that her body and pres­ence are sources of ridicule. Instead of offer­ing com­fort, her home life becomes a mir­ror of her fears. At the din­ner table, her mother’s con­ver­sa­tions about triv­ial mat­ters like cook­ing seem dis­con­nect­ed from the depth of her emo­tion­al strug­gles. Parvin’s attempts to uplift Roya, by dis­cussing future aspi­ra­tions, fail to bridge the emo­tion­al gap between them, as Roya yearns for some­thing more mean­ing­ful. She dreams of a life where she is not defined by her shame, where her worth is not tied to the stig­ma of her body, and where she can escape the con­fines of her real­i­ty.

Roya’s grow­ing aware­ness of her family’s finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties fur­ther fuels her anx­i­ety and sense of help­less­ness. Whis­pers about Kamran’s job insta­bil­i­ty and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mov­ing for work cre­ate an atmos­phere of ten­sion in the home. Roya feels the weight of these dis­cus­sions on her shoul­ders, as they hint at a future that seems just as uncer­tain and lim­it­ing as her present life. These finan­cial strug­gles per­me­ate her thoughts, mak­ing her feel trapped in a cycle of hard­ship, with lit­tle hope for change or improve­ment. As she begins to under­stand the grav­i­ty of her family’s finan­cial sit­u­a­tion, Roya’s sense of despair deep­ens, rein­forc­ing the idea that her cir­cum­stances are immov­able. The mount­ing pres­sure of finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty only adds to her emo­tion­al bur­den, leav­ing her with the unset­tling belief that her life is bound to be marked by strug­gle and depri­va­tion. She begins to lose faith in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a brighter future, con­vinced that her prospects are as bleak as the world around her.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in an event that shat­ters the already frag­ile rela­tion­ship between Roya and Arash. Roya wakes up to find that her broth­er, Arash, has uri­nat­ed on her in a dis­turb­ing and degrad­ing act. This vio­la­tion of her per­son­al space is a moment that encap­su­lates the cru­el­ty and dis­re­gard that char­ac­ter­izes their sib­ling bond, ampli­fy­ing her sense of worth­less­ness. Arash’s actions sym­bol­ize the com­plete dis­re­gard for her dig­ni­ty, fur­ther deep­en­ing her emo­tion­al wounds. The act not only dam­ages their rela­tion­ship but also serves as a reflec­tion of the broad­er lack of respect and care with­in the fam­i­ly unit. Roya, already feel­ing neglect­ed and alien­at­ed, is now con­front­ed with the vis­cer­al real­i­ty of her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. This chap­ter explores the harsh real­i­ties of child­hood, marked by famil­ial neglect and the unspo­ken emo­tion­al abuse that chil­dren often endure. Roya’s desire for con­nec­tion, love, and val­i­da­tion is thwart­ed at every turn, leav­ing her to nav­i­gate a world that seems indif­fer­ent to her pain. Through this explo­ration of emo­tion­al trau­ma and famil­ial dys­func­tion, the chap­ter paints a heart­break­ing por­trait of a young girl strug­gling to sur­vive in a world that fails to rec­og­nize her needs.