Chap­ter 16: A Foot­ball? But It’s Not Round begins by high­light­ing the pil­grim­age of Agh­das Kavan­di, a moth­er from Iran, to the shrine of Imam Reza in Mash­had, a revered site for mil­lions. Aghdas’s jour­ney was dri­ven by her deep con­cern for her son, Kaveh, who was born pro­found­ly deaf. Ini­tial­ly, she believed that his con­di­tion was a result of her fall dur­ing preg­nan­cy, but this belief was lat­er cor­rect­ed when a genet­ic con­nec­tion to deaf­ness in the fam­i­ly was dis­cov­ered. Despite this new­found under­stand­ing, Aghdas’s fears for her son’s future per­sist­ed, wor­ry­ing that he would strug­gle to live inde­pen­dent­ly or build mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships. Her pil­grim­age to the Imam Reza shrine was an expres­sion of her hopes for heal­ing, con­sis­tent with the tra­di­tion­al Shi­ite prac­tice of seek­ing divine inter­ven­tion for per­son­al chal­lenges.

Kaveh, born in 1963 in Tehran, was a cheer­ful child, but his life was altered when his inabil­i­ty to hear became notice­able to his peers, lead­ing to iso­la­tion and rejec­tion. The mem­o­ries of this rejec­tion stayed with him well into adult­hood. How­ev­er, his par­ents enrolled him in a school for the deaf, where he faced strict dis­ci­pline but also learned a com­bi­na­tion of ges­tures and lip-read­ing known as cued speech. Despite strug­gling aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, Kaveh found com­fort and cama­raderie play­ing soc­cer in 1960s Tehran’s cos­mopoli­tan envi­ron­ment. He formed friend­ships with Ger­man expa­tri­ates, who taught him advanced soc­cer tech­niques, offer­ing him a sense of belong­ing and pur­pose in a world that often felt iso­lat­ing.

Kaveh’s tal­ent in soc­cer allowed him to use his deaf­ness to his advan­tage, as it pro­vid­ed him with an extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty to focus on the game. Despite his suc­cess on the field, his mother’s anx­i­ety about his future per­sist­ed, and she sought med­ical advice in Paris, where doc­tors con­firmed that his deaf­ness was per­ma­nent. This con­fir­ma­tion did not deter Agh­das, how­ev­er, as she con­tin­ued to pur­sue edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for Kaveh. Even­tu­al­ly, she decid­ed to send him to the Amer­i­can School for the Deaf in Con­necti­cut, though this plan was met with resis­tance from Kaveh’s father, who expressed con­cerns over his son’s safe­ty and well-being in the Unit­ed States. A finan­cial set­back for the fam­i­ly even­tu­al­ly made Kaveh’s trip pos­si­ble, and he left for the U.S. with anoth­er deaf boy, both fac­ing a new world and new chal­lenges.

Upon arriv­ing in Con­necti­cut, Kaveh’s ini­tial expe­ri­ence was a humor­ous and con­fus­ing encounter with Amer­i­can foot­ball, a sport that seemed strange and unfa­mil­iar to him. How­ev­er, despite his ini­tial doubts, Kaveh grew to admire the game. At the Amer­i­can School for the Deaf, he was ini­tial­ly intim­i­dat­ed by the advanced sign lan­guage skills of his peers but soon dis­cov­ered a pas­sion for foot­ball. His nat­ur­al ath­leti­cism and dri­ve allowed him to adapt quick­ly and excel in the sport, even­tu­al­ly becom­ing a stand­out play­er. Kaveh’s jour­ney reflects not only his per­son­al growth but also his abil­i­ty to over­come chal­lenges and trans­form them into oppor­tu­ni­ties, both on and off the field.

After grad­u­at­ing, Kaveh moved to Cal­i­for­nia, where he worked a vari­ety of jobs and even­tu­al­ly won a law­suit against an employ­er who had dis­crim­i­nat­ed against him. Over time, he built a suc­cess­ful life, cul­mi­nat­ing in a teach­ing posi­tion at the Cal­i­for­nia School for the Deaf in River­side. Agh­das, filled with pride, vis­it­ed her son and saw first­hand the fruits of her sac­ri­fices. Kaveh’s achieve­ments brought her peace, rein­forc­ing her faith in her prayers and pro­vid­ing her with the reas­sur­ance that her son’s future, once uncer­tain, was now filled with suc­cess and pur­pose. Through his accom­plish­ments, Kaveh not only val­i­dat­ed the hopes and dreams of his moth­er but also forged a path that would inspire count­less oth­ers in the deaf com­mu­ni­ty.