Cnaps

Touba and the Meaning of Night centres largely around Touba and her experiences of the rapid changes Iran underwent in the 20th century. Born at the end of the 19th century, when a woman's role was often still very limited, Touba is confronted with constant change; from early on she wants simply to search for God -- a pursuit of something pure, simple, and complete -- but the world around her, and all it entails, holds her back.

 Touba is fortunate in that her father recognises that the world is changing. Haji Adib isn't comfortable with much that is happening, but he recognises that knowledge can't be held at bay. He knows, for example, that it has now been proved that the world is not square or flat but round -- "yet he wanted to continue believing in the squareness of the earth". Admirably, he is willing to question himself:

    He needed to understand why he wanted the earth to remain square.

       And he also understands:

    Now that the earth was round, everything took on a different meaning.

       Appropriately enough, one of the gifts he gives his daughter is a globe. More importantly, he teaches her how to read (even as he knows that giving women knowledge and allowing them to think undermines much of what he grew up with).

       Her father dies when she is only twelve, but as the only member of the family with any education Touba essentially runs it. At fourteen she makes a great sacrifice, daringly essentially proposing marriage to Haji Mahmud, a relative who supported the household, in order to save her mother from having to marry him. Haji Mahmud is much older than her, and the marriage is no great success; it ends in divorce after only a few years...