by Mithra Ballesteros
In a small corner of my kitchen hangs this framed needlepoint rooster, one of my most beloved possessions. My Persian grandmother stitched it when she was a young girl living in Hamadan, Iran, probably sometime in the 1920s.
Her name was Zarrin and she was very talented with a needle. After her father died, she supported herself and her mother with her own handiwork. Then, in 1927, she met and married my grandfather. I think this is a piece she did before her marriage.
After her marriage, my grandmother told her new husband that she wished to study French and music. It was not typical for a woman to play an instrument, or for a married woman to continue an education in any way. But she was his second wife — young, intelligent and beautiful — and he obliged. They made their home in the Jewish section of town away from the judgmental eyes of the Muslim community and my grandfather arranged for a Jewish instructor from the nearby school to come to the house. Zarrin took lessons on the tar, a sitar-like instrument, one day a week and learned French another day.
During this time in Iran, the Shah was on a campaign to modernize the country and he forbade women veiling themselves in public. As a result, many women did not leave their homes. My grandmother, however, went out daily, and the only thing covering her hair was a French hat.
She was an unusual woman. I wish I had known her better. For most of my life, we were separated by oceans. Later, when she came to live with my family in America, I was already in college. But I have this needlepoint. The closer I study it, the more I see.
The instructions on the back are written in Farsi and in French. This delights me to no end because I, like my grandmother, love all things French. From the diagram that details the rooster’s eye, or ‘oeil’, it is clear that this was not an easy pattern. I imagine my grandmother taking great care to execute the flinty look in that rooster’s eye.
Despite the canvas’s complexity, I find no evidence of mistakes or tangled threads. The pattern is as clearly discernible on the reverse as it is on the front. Proof, I believe, of my grandmother’s skill. (Persian rugs are the same way. If you want to judge a rug’s quality, turn it over to examine the knots.)
The last thing I notice is that the canvas is not quite completed. My grandmother leaves blades of grass unstitched. Maybe she ran out of thread? I prefer to think that she chose not to finish. Maybe she figured the thing was good enough.
I love her for not finishing. She let the unimportant things go. I like to think we have that trait in common as well.
She would not agree with me though, that her needlepoint merited a frame and a place of honor in my house. Nor a few paragraphs in an essay. She herself quit needlepointing when she had a chance at a more valuable education. It’s only canvas and thread. She knew that the domestic arts could only get you so far.
The last thing I imagine about my grandmother is her surprise. After all, how was she to know that someday, her vibrant rooster would live in an American kitchen, the most treasured possession of her college-educated granddaughter.
March Prompts
Matrona’lia and More
What a great way to start off Women’s History Month! We will be celebrating the stories of regular women all month long. Be sure to stop back often to check out features about shared with us from around the globe about women who inspired us and changed the world one person at a time.
March 1st was celebrated as Matrona’lia by the Romans as a day of honor to women and peace due to the Sabine women’s role in creating peace between Romans and Sabines.
This ancient history bumps up against other March events such as a significant march for women’s suffrage and human rights that took place in 1913. A 10 year old girl had not inkling at that time that she would move from illegitimacy and poverty to the world of power brokerage via politics and print.
Clare Boothe Luce, March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987, was an American author, politician, and a US Ambassador. Lauded as a conservative, she did become virulently anti-communist in her later years, but this vivid biographic article in Vanity Fair from 2014 depicts mid-20th Century Republicanism, quite distinct from 21st Right-wing ideology, seated in a talented, multi-faceted woman who seemed to define the concept of complexity.
Associations, Anniversaries & Easter
Daffodils that survive the March winds which either greet or send out the month are flowers of the month. Aquamarine is March’s birthstone, but green is the color of the day on March 12th which celebrates Juliette Gordon Low’s founding of the Girl Scouts on March 12, 1912. Girls can scout and though the States decided they are not equal when enough did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment that was passed by the Senate on March 22 in 1972.
Worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day takes place on March 8th.
The Vernal Equinox that takes place Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 04:30 UTC designates the mid-point between the Winter and Summer Solstices – that translates to March 19th at 9:30 p.m. where I live. When is Spring where you live? But no matter where you live, an egg may or may not balance on its end at that time irrespective of the seasonal markers. Snopes.com does a wonderful debunking of egg and broom balancing ability at the moment of the equinox supposedly because of something related to the length of day and night being equal.
Not so Good March Memories
are also drawn from events that happened this month in history.
Mid 20th Century
On March 23, 1933 the German Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag, the German Parliament, which effectively sanctioned dictatorial power for Adolf Hitler. This is a heartbreaking reminder that extremist views can bring down a democracy.
100 Years Ago
Maude Wright was kidnapped in New Mexico raid by Pancho Villa’s Villistas. The border is not a new “issue.”
Colonial America
Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials. (1. March 1692)
40 Years Ago in the Top 40
On a brighter note, March 1976 music shows the range of rock and roll that splintered the myth that there was one type of rock in the mid-1970s:
- 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER – Paul Simon
- LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY – Donna Summer
- GOLDEN YEARS – David Bowie
- BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO – Neil Sedaka
- DREAM ON – Aerosmith
- BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY – Queen
- 3 DECEMBER, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) – The Four Seasons
- TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT – The Eagles
- SLOW RIDE – Foghat
- SILLY LOVE SONGS – Wings
For those of you who are counting, I put in at least 35 different prompts in this piece.
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†P. Liverani, G. Spinola, & P. Zander, eds. (2010). Le Necropoli Vaticane: La Città dei Morti di Roma. Musei Vaticani: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.