Okay so I need to tell you the story of my Dad almost getting arrested for making moonshine in Iran. It was the summer. At the time my cousins were living with us. My cousin Hormoz like most young folk his age was into all the revolutionary books etc. He was 7 years older than me. Him and his sister had been living with us for the past couple years, mainly because they couldn't live with my uncle and his new wife anymore. In a ways Hormoz and and his siter Azita that was a year older than Hormoz were the answer to my prayers. I had always wanted older siblings. I had been told that I had lost a beautiful looking older brother when he was only 6 months in the womb. I was born a couple of year later. I used to fantasize about what it would have been like to have had an older brother. Anyways Hormoz was the answer to that. So he was hotheaded like most youths and had a bunch of books that were banned and fancied himself a young rebel. I forget if it was that summer or the summer before, but my Dad finally decided to put a pool in our yard. The summers in Tehran were intolerably hot. I used to hang out by the pool pretty much all day. Anyways, one of these days, I hear the doorbell. I don't what made me run indoors instead of going to the door to see who it was. As it turned out it was a bunch of the revolutionary guards. With big machine guns, asking to come to see our basement. They had a station setup one street away from where we lived. My Dad being a chemical engineer had set up a small distillery in the basement and had started to pretty much extract alcohol from anything he could ferment. We had a little orchard up in the mountains, some remote place that no one knew about unless you were from there. It took years before the Islamic revolution even became aware that this little place even existed. Anyways we had all kinds of fruit growing there. And since it was remote, there was no chance of getting anyone out there to buy the fruit. We had tried to pass the stuff to friends and family but we were still left with crates and crates of apples, plums and cherries. So my Dad did the only natural thing. Ferment them and turn it into excellent vodka. So he had this whole setup right there in our basement. We also had a whole bunch of damask roses growing in our orchard. They had been in bloom only a few weeks ago and we had plucked the roses and brought them back with us. That week my Dad had been experimenting with extracting rose essence. So the guards show up. My Mom answered the door properly attired in the hejab. They asked specifically to inspect the basement. So my Mom said of course and showed them to the basement. There was no time to do anything. We had a spare room in the basement that was were my cousin Hormoz stayed. They knew exactly what they were looking for. The went straight to the back room were the still was set up in all it's glory. They asked my Mom what the setup was. Ans she answered, my husband is a chemist and this is for his work. One of the guards went to a sniff to the still. Of course it smelt only of roses. Then they started to check the room. There was a closet in that room that my Dad kept all his creations. It was unlocked and of course they opened it. The leader of the pack picked up a bottle sniffed it and then put it down then he picked another bottle sniffed it and let his other buddies take a whiff. Then he turned to my Mom and said well everything appears to be in order, thank you for cooperating. And then they left. That's when the shit hit the fan. My Mom called her best friend and told her to come over. She called my Dad and in encoded speech tried to tell him of what had transpired. Did I mention our phones were tapped. Then started the frantic rush of cleansing the house of any incriminating evidence. All the bottles of alcohol were flushed down the toilet. the my cousins banned bookjs were attacked. They were piled into a garbage bag and buried in the back of the yard. We were all hysterical. We thought any minute they would be back and they would have us all arrested. Anyways my Dad shows up. He's all cocky about how dare they come into my house, what right do they have. I'll have to give them a piece of my mind. Part of his fury had to do with the fact that precious bottle of alcohol ahd been flushed down the toilet! Anyways he goes down to the staion all indignant, demanding to see the officers that had the audacity to storm his house. He created quite the calamity. Anyways finally the leader of the group that had visited our house shows up. He pulls my Dad and says to him, look lets not be too self righteous afterall both you and I know what was going on in the basement. I saw your bottles of booze, but passed them as rosewater, so why don't you get off your high horse, go back to your home and thank God that I didn't take any actions that would have found you in a very compromising situation. At that my Dad, thanked the man and turned and came home. That first bottle that the guard had sniff from the closet was the finest plum vodka in Tehran. After that we went to great lengths to hide our stash of moonshine lest we have another surprise visit. It never happened. To this day we have no idea how they knew what was going on in our basement. If someone ratted us out or what. But we were very lucky that particular revolutionary guard spared us the fate of so many others guilty of possessing alcohol in the Islamic Republic.