Summary

Forough and Darius continue their affair, and the Iranian media begins to suspect that Darius is writing Forough’s poetry for her. In retaliation, Darius decides to throw Forough a party, celebrating her latest success. At the party, Forough overhears a group of men talking about “westoxification,” criticizing the new, more liberal standards in Iran and advocating a return to traditionalism (313). One intellectual, Bijan Bazargan, provokes Forough, saying that Iranian women trying to cultivate independence have in fact “only prostituted themselves to foreigners and imperialists” (313). He then accuses Forough of being Darius’ whore, and undoes the back of Forough’s dress, publicly humiliating her. Forough storms out of the party without saying goodbye to Darius; she then learns that in Tehran there was an assassination, throwing the entire country into martial law.

Forough learns that a high-ranking government minister was shot, and...