This is not a story about jealousy. It is a story about a specific cultural definition of love: Love as self-annihilation . The romance in Leila is not between the man and the concubine; it is between Leila and her duty. Her tears as she washes her sister-wife’s dishes are more romantic than any sonnet because they represent the ultimate sacrifice of the self for the perceived happiness of the beloved.
– Dariush Mehrjui
This is not a story about jealousy. It is a story about a specific cultural definition of love: Love as self-annihilation . The romance in Leila is not between the man and the concubine; it is between Leila and her duty. Her tears as she washes her sister-wife’s dishes are more romantic than any sonnet because they represent the ultimate sacrifice of the self for the perceived happiness of the beloved.
– Dariush Mehrjui