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I heard you didn't sleep either, we didn't sleep.

I don't know, sleep, just for fun.

You know, all the Gisotejos, Mekona, huh?

You sit there as you actually must.

It's 5 o'clock in the evening in Sam's on Turkey.

Maslem prayers begin to blur outside, played out of stereos from mosque windows, just a little

down the beach from where we're staying.

My mom and I are here to finally meet Zainab Sahafi, who still cannot return to Iran.

For the first time in my life, my mom and I are in the Middle East together.

My mom's only been back once since I was born.

In 2009, she went to Iran.

I wasn't invited.

When I asked her why, she said, why would you want to go anywhere where you are half a man?

My mom immediately offers Zainab coffee.

We stand side by side on my hotel balcony looking out at the black sea.

I was telling her about the peachy outside.

Peachy is little cat and farsy.

The cat was moving in rhythm with the recitation of the prayers.

Zainab tells us back in Iran, she used to be afraid of cats.

She'd have nightmares that when was living underneath her front porch, she'd cry and cry

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