Iranian artist Baharan Baniahmadi, who has lived in Montreal since 2018, sets this remarkable first novel (rewarded by the Prix Nouvel Apport from the Metropolis Bleu festival and the Conseil des arts de Montréal) in her home country.
Prophetess is the story of a 7-year-old girl, Sara, who grows up in a poor neighborhood of Tehran. Throughout the story, which spans several years, she is the one who narrates the thread of events, first with her little girl’s voice deeply attached to her older sister, Setayesh, whom she follows like her shadow.
On a stifling day when the two girls are forced to stay outside, as they do every time their father has his friends over to smoke opium, they find themselves wandering the alleys and the vacant lot where the boys from the neighborhood hang out, with whom they are forbidden to play. Setayesh will never return from this outing. And Sara will see how a man from the neighborhood whom all the children called “uncle,” as a sign of respect and trust, will attack her and then make her disappear. When he is finally held responsible, before being executed, he will defend himself by saying that Setayesh had turned him on because she was attractive.
Traumatized by the tragedy, Sara falls into complete muteness and finds herself growing facial hair every time a man approaches her, as if by a strange defense mechanism. It is at this point that the novel takes a metaphorical turn, as the little girl sees a 114-year-old woman take possession of her body – a woman who bears the weight of all her oppressed sisters.
As Sara grows older, still inhabited by the spirit of the old woman, she turns to religion and begins preaching to the girls in her neighborhood to protect themselves by showing only their ugliness to the world. From victim, she transforms into fighter, rebuilding herself until she manages to free herself from the shackles of the past.
By imagining Sara, who becomes the symbol of all those who have managed to make their way “through thousands of years of oppression,” the author shows that it is possible for women to take possession of the little power they have in a society with restrictive centuries-old traditions, like that of her country of origin.
It also shows, without denouncing it, that religion can serve as a refuge for the victims of these same executioners who use it to justify their barbaric acts. That it does not, ultimately, have to be synonymous with oppression and injustice.
Baharan Baniahmadi explains at the end of the novel that she chose the name Setayesh in homage to an Afghan girl who was raped and murdered in Iran, and bows to all the women who fight for their rights in her native country. In her own way, her character Sara embodies the courage and strength of all those who refuse to submit.
Prophetess
Leaf Merchant
276 pages