When a Persian baby learns to talk it begins just like any other baby, so that the Persians declared with great glee that the English babies were talking Persian when they said “Baba” and “Dada.” But instead of “Daddy” and “Mummy” Persian babies call their father and mother Bābā and Nana.
When the baby is shown to anyone the mother generally remarks that it is an ugly little thing, and similarly the visitors are expected to say how ugly and dark it is, though there is no need to say it with any great conviction. It is possible to say “How ugly you are” just as affectionately as “You little darling.” But such uncomplimentary remarks are used to avert bad luck and to guard against any suspicion of the evil eye. If the visitor makes any complimentary remark she must add “Māshā’ allāh” (i.e.“May God avert it”), or the parents will be seriously alarmed, and Baby’s admirer may be held responsible for any calamity which befalls him for weeks afterwards.
Bibi Fati was the mother of four dear little children, Rubabeh, Hasan, Riza, and Sakineh, and very dearly she loved them. One day they were all gathered together for dinner when in walked a poor old beggar woman in search of a meal. She was very anxious to please the mother, and looking round at the children said: “What a nice little family you have; you are like a hen surrounded by her chickens.”
Poor Bibi Fati did not feel at all comfortable at such a complimentary speech and quickly gave the old woman some food and sent her about her business.
For a day or two all went well. Then one after another Rubabeh, Hasan, Riza, and even little Sakineh sickened and died, probably of some infectious disease, and the poor mother was left childless and heartbroken. Nothing would convince her and her neighbours that the old beggar woman had not caused the catastrophe by her admiration.
Baby girls do not get such a good welcome as baby boys. When little Ferangīz Khānum was born, her father was staying at a garden a few miles away, and no one troubled to send him word. “I would have sent a message if it had been a boy,” said the mother, “but it is not worth while for a girl. It will do when he comes home next week.”
Persian fathers and mothers are often very fond of their little girls, but there is no doubt that they very much prefer boys. The father and mother, but especially the mother, are often known by the name of their son, so much so that sometimes the neighbours know them by no other name than “the father of Hasan,” the “mother of ‘Ali.”
Perhaps one reason for preferring boys is that the girls marry so young, just as they might begin to be of some use to their mothers; and the father has to pay a sum of money to his daughter’s husband on her marriage. A son, on the other hand, does not generally marry till he is grown up, and then he almost invariably brings his little wife home and continues to live with his parents.
A greater reason is that the Persians are Muhammadans, as you have already heard, and in a Muhammadan country the men are allowed to treat the girls and women very badly, and parents who care at all for their girls must always feel great anxiety as to their future.
We shall never get the Persians to treat their girls and women much better till we teach them the religion of our loving Saviour, Who cares for us all equally and wants us to be equally kind to one another.