Mohammad Yadegari

By Mohammad Yadegari Almost every day, I passed by the horse-drawn carriages lined up for religious pilgrimages in Iraq. My father’s business was just a block away from where customers waited in line for rides. Occasionally, I accompanied our guests when they visited the area, and I loved the trip in the carriages. It was […]

by Mohammad Yadegari As Iranians living in Iraq, every summer, when school was out, and occasionally in between, our family would take a long trip to Iran. Our long-distance relatives outdid themselves trying to make us feel welcome by hosting lavish meals. They argued with one other, vying to be the first to invite us

by Mohammad Yadegari In 1963, I visited my brother, Hadi, and a friend, Mahmood, in Germany. One problem that most Muslims traveling in Europe had was finding acceptable food to eat. All meat must be from animals butchered in a particular manner to be “halal.” A person must face Mecca, recite “Bismillah” (“in the name

by Mohammad Yadegari It was June 1962. Three years had passed since I had moved to Tehran in accordance with my father’s plan to move the family gradually from Iraq to Iran. Whereas women in Iraq wore heavy veils in public, many of them covering their faces and avoiding talking to anyone who namahram (Any

by Mohammad Yadegari Most houses in Karbala, and the Middle East in general, are built around a central courtyard and have a howz (decorative pool), usually in the center of the yard. From the Taj Mahal of India to tiny village homes, the howz is a universal feature of Muslim architecture. The howz might be