Born with an extreme rare case of craniopagus with a possibility of one in two million like births, Laleh and Ladan Bijani, the conjoined twin sisters passed away after the surgical separation, at the age of 29.
The idea of conjoined body had become an amusing narrative for the public. Their life story gained so much attention that their regular presence on media brought them into the public realm. This writing is drawn from my memory of those days. As I went through their photographs online, videos of them dancing in parties, and them speaking about life, I revised their story in my head once more.
One body, two souls
Conjoined twins, an extremely rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa.
They are not the same.
Two bodies, one head
17th Century:
According to the manuals for priests: if two chests and two heads, then two souls.
Simple solution to this complex problem, I wonder if it is a problem. I give it another chance, I call it problem once more. The two are stuck as one, not one within another, but one stuck to the other.
Two bodies, one life
Adapted by a business man, having experienced the middle-class life, they grew academic interests. In the mid 1990s the twins were law students in Tehran University. Laleh got interested in becoming a journalist, while Ladan maintained her interest in law school. A lawyer with two heads. Legal restrictions were to appear on the way.
The constant dialogue between them, never ending conversations in the middle of the night, and their drastic difference in taste and ideology, and their different personality traits brought them into an intense frustration. The longing for separation and parting ways became the goal of their life (lives).
To watch TV together, one had to hold a mirror to be able to see. They lived with the dream of separation.
Two heads one vein
The twins shared one major vein to drain the blood from two veins. It was impossible to separate them without the risk of killing them both.
Two lives two deaths
There was an announcement that they finally decided to do the s surgery, my sense of happiness was immediately followed by a strange fear. “our favorite twins decided to proceed with the surgery, fully aware of the guaranteed risk of at least one fatality.”
Heads attached, separate brains, separate bodies, separate desires, separate souls. The 50-hour long operation ended in death of both sisters, with a 90-minute distance. Laleh’s short-lived independence was followed by a separate death from her sister. Born conjoined, in such a condition that only death is the solution to a long-lived problem, is an invitation to determination and destination in question.
To be united and separate at the same time
The religious concept of submissiveness
belief in a greater good that was destined for human kind
a sense of rage and anger so heavy, as the dark shadow of force
a force that returns to Tom Waits’ Poor Edward song
Hope
They sit in front of the mirror and fix their shared scarf. While never able to see the other’s face, stuck in the attached body, in constant conversation and negotiation, they speak of future with hope.
July 8th was announced the national day of Hope in memory of Laleh and Ladan Bijani.