Most of the women were wearing bright bell - shaped tunics over slim trousers, with
fringed head scarves over their hair, while the men were attired in long white tunics, trousers, and turbans.
I began fiddling with the
fringe on my
head scarf, a habit my mother always urged me to break, as Hajj Ali explained that no harm would come to paper, books, or the art of writing; that earthquakes would occur in the south but would be mild; and that there would be battles great enough to tinge the Caspian Sea red with blood.