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“Allah-o-Akbar, Allaaaaaaaaah-o-Akbar!” As the nearby mosque announced the call to prayer through loud speakers, Sumayeh could not move from her corner of the street in front of the Central Isfahan prison. Her heart after skipping a beat, was beating so violently that it suggested a plan to escape the rib cage, to leave her body and find her brother, Majid, on the other side of the wall. The crowd, who had gathered to protest this sham verdict, looked at her and her family, looking for a reaction. Had they executed him by now?

Maybe, there had been a last minute appeal, but what are the odds? She felt sick to her stomach; her hands were shaking and were as cold as ice. but she reflexively turned towards her parents ready to comfort them. Their pale faces now looked like the face of death, but she didn’t want to go to them yet to acknowledge the inevitable. Maybe he was still alive.

“Allah-o-Akbar” She quickly turned her gaze from them, in case they could see that a green hue was slowly entering her face. Then someone in the distance started wailing. Her feet which had lost all sensation a second ago, started running towards her parents. She threw herself towards her mom, who collapsed in her arms, wailing on the way down. She quickly shot a glance at her father, who hadn’t moved. He looked lost, pale and not of this world. As she reached her hand towards him, she thought of what they had to suffer in their old age. In that moment, her heart froze.