‘Don’t worry, ’ replied my father. ‘You write the speech and I will learn it.’

“别担心”，我父亲回答道，“你来写讲稿，我来背诵。”

My grandfather was famous for his speeches. He taught theology in the government high school in the village of Shahpur. He was also an imam at the local mosque. He was a mesmerising speaker. His sermons at Friday prayers were so popular that people would come down from the mountains by donkey or on foot to hear him.

我祖父的演讲十分有名。他在夏波村的公立高中里教神学，同时也是当地清真寺的教长。他是一个拥有神奇力量的演讲者。他每周五的布道非常受欢迎，山民们都会骑着驴子或徒步下山来聆听。

My father comes from a large family. He had one much older brother, Saeed Ramzan who I call Uncle Khan dada, and five sisters. Their village of Barkana was very primitive and they lived crammed together in a one-storey ramshackle house with a mud roof which leaked whenever it rained or snowed. As in most families, the girls stayed at home while the boys went to school. ‘They were just waiting to be married, ’ says my father.

父亲出身大家庭。他有一个比他年长很多的哥哥赛义德.拉姆赞，我叫他汗.达达阿伯。他还有五个姐妹。他们的村子巴卡纳很原始。祖父一家人挤在一户破旧的平房里，屋顶是泥土制的，每逢下雨或下雪就会漏水。跟大多数家庭一样，女孩都待在家，男孩则去上学。“她们就只是等着被嫁掉而已。”父亲说。

School wasn’t the only thing my aunts missed out on. In the morning when my father was given cream or milk, his sisters were given tea with no milk. If there were eggs, they would only be for the boys. When a chicken was slaughtered for dinner, the girls would get the wings and the neck while the luscious breast meat was enjoyed by my father, his brother and my grandfather. ‘From early on I could feel I was different from my sisters, ’ my father says.

我的姑姑们错过的，不只是上学而已。早晨，我父亲会拿到奶油或牛奶，他的姐妹们却只有没加牛奶的茶。如果桌上有鸡蛋，也只有男孩子有份享用。晚餐如果有鸡肉吃，女孩子们只能吃到鸡翅和鸡脖子，而美味的鸡胸则由父亲和他的哥哥，以及我的祖父享用。“从很早以前，我就能感觉到我跟姐妹们不一样了。”父亲说。