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Farideh , the unique butterfly

Written by : Amal Alameddine Arnaout .
Translated by : Elizabeth Sabieh
Publisher : Dar el-chimal

Not long ago , not far away there was a kingdom of ants. There were hundreds and thousands of ants going and coming about happily .

One day , a butterfly was born . It was different from all other butterflies . It was brown in color with black polka dots and gray lines .
All the butterflies gathered together to discuss the birth of such a

butterfly .

" We are known for our beauty " they noted " our colors are unique ; they are not seen anywhere else ".
" Our yellow and green , our blue and red , our pink and purple are unique only to our kingdom .
This butterfly makes us look bad . We do not want it . It is an ugly brown and bot one of its color combinations makes it an acceptable beauty .Its ugly ! it's dirty ! its creation id unbelievable .
The butterfly's name was Farideh , and she grew up to be a fine butterfly . No one played with Farideh , not even her brothers and sisters .
This was the situation even though Farideh was nice , and easygoing and generous .
She would fly over the fields moving from one flower to the other exploring on her own .
Farideh was sad . She had no friends . She made her way to visit with the bugs .
She asked them , " Will you let me play with you ? Will you let me be part of your family .
" Although you are an ugly butterfly " a bug answered , " You may join us and play with us and be happy " .
Farideh finally experienced a happy day . She enjoyed playing with the bugs .
By nightfall , Farideh and the bugs were friends .
The next day , Farideh went to visit the hornets . Like the bugs , they too played with her . They liked her a lot .
As the days went by , Farideh also became friends with the bees and with the ants .
She flew with hornets and played with the ants .
All of them liked her . All accepted to play with her because she was a smart , generous and easygoing butterfly .
They all played with her , except for her brothers and sisters – her family members who continued to see her as the ugly brown and unbelievably shocking butterfly .
One morning , during a time when the insects were asleep, there was a loud sounding explosion . it was the pest controller with his can of poison out to spray to get rid of the insects .
Before many of the insects could figure out what had happened , they found themselves caught inside the pest controller's net , there were not only tens , but hundreds of colored butterflies caught . Where was Farideh ? Farideh too was caught . What was to happen to her ?
The pest controller went home with all he had caught .
He put the butterflies into a large glass jar and started to work with them to make something big .
He put this hand into the jar and took out a butterfly . He looked at its colors and noted how beautiful it was . Yellow , blue , green , red were its colors . He held it down on a wooden surface and stuck pins into its wings to keep it in place .
Then , he put his hand back into jar to mount the next butterfly . And again , he did so a third , a fourth , a fifth time . He brought out a lot and mounted them with pins .He stuck pins into their beautiful wings holding each down creating a beautiful collection of lovely portraits . He put his hand in the jar again . This time , he captured Farideh . He screamed with disgust when he saw Farideh " A brown butterfly with black and gray lines . I will not mount this fly into a portrait . She will ruin my beautiful collection with her brown ugliness " .

The man opened his palm and Farideh flew away and out of the window.
She yelled out to them,
"Help me, the pest collector is hurting my brothers and sisters.
He is torturing them. He is mounting on wood by sticking them with needles.
Help me. Come with me, my friends."

The bees, the hornets, the ants and the bugs were shocked. They were bewildered at Farideh's request. They were amazed.
"Why do you want to help your family when they do not play with you?"

Frideh exclaimed, " But they are my family. It is my duty to help them. Help me give them back their freedom!"

So, from the window the hornets flew in. The bees followed suit. The bugs followed as did the ants. All of them worked together with Farideh to help.

They attacked the pest controller. They attacked him in tens and hundreds. Some went into his ears; some bit his eyes; some his mouth, and some his nose.

The bugs went under his clothes, and the ants walked up and down his arms and legs.


He started to scream. He started to hit them trying to get them off him. He tried to show them away with his hands and feet.
His eyes showed that he was scared. He was running around like a crazy man, screaming for help. He ran out of house, with no intention of returning.

The bugs went about rescuing the butterflies. They removed the pins that held the wings, and away the butterflies flew.

One of the beautiful butterflies flew over to Farideh and said, " Farideh, please forgive us butterflies. We were wrong. We were ugly and unforgiving in what we said and did to you. We were unfair. Now we see how beautiful actually you are.

You are smart and generous.
Please stay with us, oh, brown heroine, so that we can play freely , all of us together."

And this is what happened. Farideh played with her brothers and sisters together with the butterflies, the insects, the bugs, the ants, the hornets, and the bees. She lived happily in their midst with love and freedom.
Ugly Farideh, according to the butterflies, became beautiful with her amazingly unique colors. She was the smart heroine; she was generous, and she was unique in her own way.