Ali lived with his family in a small village near Yazd. When he was seven years old, his family had a big argument about where Ali should get his education. His mother wanted to send Ali to a religious school (Maktabkhaneh) at a nearby village, but his father preferred to send him to a public school in Yazd. When the mother won the discussion, they enrolled Ali at Maktab. Every morning Ali would wake up, after having some breakfast, his mother gave him a Koran and a lunch bag consisting of bread, cheese, and apple. Then, his father who was a farmer, took Ali to Maktab, and went to work. Maktabkhaneh was in an old house with three rooms and a yard. Classroom was in one of the rooms. There were twelve students, all boys. They sat on the floor covered with an old gelim , in a half circle, and the teacher who was a mullah sat across from them. The mullah would tell them to open their Koran, and after he read a sentence, repeat after him. After a couple of hours, the boys would take a break. They would go to the yard, play, and have their snack, came back to the class, and read koran for another couple of hours. One day during the break, Ali realized that he has left his apple in the classroom. when he went back to bring it, he saw the mullah on the top of one of his classmates, doing strange things (Sex!). Ali was scared, so he turned back, and returned to the yard. He became confused and could not play anymore. When his father took him home, he went to bed and pretended he is sick. That night he did not have dinner, but in the morning, his mother told him that he seems to be all right, and pushed him to get ready to go to Maktab. While walking with his father to Maktab, Ali was nagging and walking slowly. His father got mad at him, stood there, and asked him, “What is wrong with you today!” Finally, Ali told his father about what he had witnessed the day before. His father took him to the city that was a couple of miles away, and enrolled him in a public school. Ali graduated there, and later went to Tehran, for further education. He got a degree in healthcare, married, and has two children. However, after four decades, he still cannot forget the secret event that changed his destiny!
