Cosy room in a cold muddy village: Sitting with three men as they prepare to smoke opium. One is holding worry beads in his hand, moving through the circle says ‘do you know what these are?’ and continues ‘he is doing "estekhareh" with this tasbee (string of worry beads).*

"Estekhareh" means he asks a question of God and goes round and round the worry beads and then stops randomly. From the center bead he counts out to the bead where he stopped saying ‘adam, eva, sheitan’ meaning ‘adam, eve, and satan’ or ‘good, medium, and bad.’ And from which of those three words he comes to when he gets to the bead where he stopped he knows the answer to his question.’

‘So women are between man and satan?’ I say and seeing their eyes widen continue ‘do women switch it and say ‘eva, adam, and sheitan when they do estekhan?’

‘Women don’t do estekhan’ he said ‘ they know what to do.’

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* Tasbii

“Do you know what this is?” the young sportsman asked me holding up a string of worry beads (called ‘Tasbii’ in Farsi). “Yes,” I replied, “it is a string of prayer beads Iranians use to say prayers to God.” “Hmmm..” he answered noncomitally and continued: “This is a thing Iranians play with because playing with their balls is considered rude.” “Yes” chimed in his freind, “the Prophet gave the tasbii to us saying ‘ don’t play with your balls, play with this.’”