Flattened Figs

Out of all the fruit for sale on the street I always thought the figs looked the funniest. They are sold as flat round disks, not at all what I had pictured a fresh fig looking like.

Recently while I was at a friend’s house we were sent, by her mother, to go and pick figs from the back yard. Each one my friend pulled off the branch she would squish three times between her hands, it looked almost like she was spanking the fruit in order to reshape it.

After about the 5th time I couldn't let this strange behaviour pass without asking “why?” The answer I got was rather surprising. Uyghur, and perhaps all of Islam, have been taught that the enticing tree from which Adam and Even ate forbidden fruit was none other than a fig tree. The fruit is still seen as evil and in need of punishment. So each fig picked gets slapped three times for it’s involvement in the fall of all mankind.