Chahar Qol

Musa Zafar's satire, which begins at the gates of the Afghan paradise. Two bearded men in neat clothes with luminous faces come out to meet you, one for the Shia council of clerics and one for the Sunni, and hand you a bowl of water for your tiredness. Before you may enter properly you are asked to bathe in the pool of Kawthar. On the bathhouse wall, in large and badly formed script: Men's bath, for the male sex only. You step behind the curtain, pull off your shroud and hang it on a hook — and with the first bowl of water over your back you discover the water is filthy, and that rather than getting clean you now need the lavatory. Text in Dari/Persian.

Author: موسا ظفر

Original title: چهار قل