Not long after my visit to Iran, I noticed that almost every other Iranian boy or girl has one particular poster on their wall: A fictional painting of an ancient crowned king walking side by side a beautiful woman–I assumed his queen. One day a distant cousin asked me in a proud tone if I [...]

  My younger brother is currently a bona fide atheist who observes Yom Kippur because my mother stopped ordering him to. Ten years ago, post bar mitzvah, he had a revelation and decided to observe the sabbath. “Why are you doing this to us? We didn’t raise you to this way!” was my parents’ outcry. [...]