چگونه در بچّگى ياد گرفتم كه از دخترا بترسم
Back at the 8th grade, there were 2 all-girls high school near my school. Anoushiravan e Daadgar was the smaller one and the girls wore bright yellow shirts and light grey uniforms. They all seemed quiet and studious to us, and we never paid much attention to them. Down the street however, was the relatively large Reza Shah e Kabir high school which was one of the better all-girls schools in Tehran. Those girls wore light green shirts and the grey uniforms.
Every day around lunch time or in the afternoons as we were walking home from school or taking the bus, we would see the Reza Shah e Kabir girls everywhere. My 3 classmates and I always talked about which ones we liked better. But since the girls that we adored were a lot older than we were, we never got any attention from them! My younger uncle who was in his mid-twenties once told me jokingly, “Be careful with those Reza Shah e Kabir girls. Some of them are very naughty!” That phrase somehow stuck in my mind.
دختراي رضا شاه ِ كبير بعضيشون خيلى ورپريده هستند
I am not sure which one of us came up with the idea. But one day after school, we decided to go to Reza Shah e Kabir and see all the girls as they were coming out of the front gate of their school. We figured that as hundreds of girls were pouring into the street, we would walk back and forth in front of the gate and immerse ourselves in the “sea of girls!” The plan was for each of us to go our separate way and pretend that we didn’t know each other and then re-group at the end and share our stories as we walked home.
As we approached their school, we heard the bell ringing and the girls started to come out. I noticed that a couple of the older girls quickly put some lipstick on and pulled their skirts up a few inches to make them look like mini skirts! The regular uniform had to be long enough to touch their knees, otherwise the girls would have been sent home for improper attire. As the girls were rushing out, we moved into our positions. I held my books tightly in one hand and waited for the right moment to jump into the “sea of girls”. I saw my classmate Shahrokh a few meters away. We were like surfers waiting to catch the right wave! Then I went in.
I slowly moved forward as the girls were pushing me out of their way. I tried not to make any eye contact and just absorb the surroundings. It felt like standing in the ocean on a hot summer day with your eyes closed and anticipating the waves as they hit you. All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my elbow. One of the girls had just pinched me!
يك وشگون ِ محكم از من گرفت
Some Iranian girls are very good at pinching. They use the nails in their thumb and index fingers to grab your skin and flesh and then they twist until you confess or give up. They usually go for your elbow, thighs or any place that they can grab.
I eventually forced my way out of the crowd and saw Shahrokh at the other end. He looked kind of quiet. “Where are the other guys?” I asked. “They chickened out. I can see them on the other side.” He said. “One of the girls pinched me real hard. I hope that my elbow doesn’t turn blue. My mom would kill me if she sees that. How was it for you?” I asked Shahrokh. “I can’t believe it. One of them grabbed my butt and stuck a finger!”
نا كس يك انگشت به ما رسوند
Shahrokh and I decided that we were not going to take the risk and go back into the crowd again. Instead, we crossed the street and walked up the opposite sidewalk and then hooked up with our other friends. We were all kind of quiet on the way home.
As the school year went on, there were apparently more instances of guys from our school hanging out in front of the girls’ high school. At some point, the principals of both schools got together and came up with a plan. We were told that we can no longer use the side walk in front of their school and we should use the one on the opposite side. Also, in the following year, they cut our lunch break in half so that they could release us one hour earlier in the afternoons.
We never saw the girls in the green and grey uniforms after school again!
