Cracked Pomegranate

Take a journey into the life of two thirteen-year-old girls, born in different eras, in the rural village of Abadi, Iran. At thirteen, Fati was married and looking forward to being a wife and mother. This was the life that all Abadi girls were groomed for and destined to live, and she was all too excited to begin her adult life with Albortz, her husband. But fate is unkind, and her excitement is abruptly turned into terror when the religious leader of Abadi, Sharif Akhlagi, and his followers accuse her of having an affair and order her to be stoned to death. Zoom forward thirty years, and enter Mina’s world, a soon-to-be thirteen year old also in Abadi. For Mina, finding the first cracked pomegranate in the garden of her home was a time of great excitement, for it marked her birthday and the new school year. But Mina isn’t looking forward to finding any cracked pomegranates in the garden this year because she will be thirteen, which means that her formal education years will cease and her father will marry her, as he did with her two older sisters. But Mina will stop at nothing to stall her parents’ attempts at marrying her and to continue her quest for higher education, seventh grade. Common threads weave through the lives of Fati and Mina. One is the fanatical religious leader, whose actions affect first Fati, and later Mina. Mina discovers much that ties her to Fati.