Woman at Point Zero

Description

“And she disappeared from my sight forever. But her voice still echoed in my ears, vibrating in my ears and shaking my head, shaking the cell and the prison and the streets, and shaking the whole world. Causing terror in the whole world, the deadly terror of honesty, the horror of the brutal, simple truth, the simplicity of death, the simplicity of a child who does not know how to lie. And because the whole world lies, Firdaws had to pay a heavy price for honesty.
And I got into my little cart with my head bowed. Ashamed of myself, ashamed of my life, ashamed of my lies. Ashamed of my fear. And I saw people running in the streets to their lies and hypocrisy, and I saw the newspapers raised in the kiosks filled with false headlines, and the flags of falsehood raised everywhere. And I stomped on the gas pedal with all my might as if I were stepping on the whole world, and I realized as I stopped the cart suddenly before it collided with the world that Firdaws was braver than me.” -From the Introduction and Conclusion-