subtle intimations of light

The Italian journalist Oriana Fallacci stood up, eyes blazing.
She leaned towards the Ayatollah Khomeini.
In a single fluid gesture she tore off the chador, a Muslim head covering she had been compelled to wear to obtain the interview, and flung it on the ground.
"I hate this medieval rag," she shouted, "and I'm not going to wear it."
The Ayatollah Khomeini's son took her arm and hustled her to one side.
He stared at her.
"That is the first time in my life," he told her, " that I have ever seen my father laugh."



(Source: Christopher Hitchens book 'And Yet.')