Tuesday was the day I left my job as a business school instructor and went out with other volunteers to aid the poor.

As a curious kid, I tried to understand the problems of married women and why they went to Emamzadeh (a holy shrine to a descendant of a prophet) to resolve their problems. Being a child, I could eavesdrop carefully.

The lower-class female has no choice but to work hard to raise her children, even if she has a couple of them and is pregnant with a third.

Good drinking water is a scarce commodity in Iran. I was 10 years old in 1949 when Shiraz first had a municipal water system.