The Seven-ColoredJackal Adapted from Rumi’s Masnavi Skill: Self-Acceptance A hungry jackal, not satisfied with his ugly appearance, is looking for food in the woods and watching beautiful animals in regret. Then trying to hunt a chicken, he enters a dyeing workshop. He hits a cauldron of dye and his body is all dyed. Tired and thirsty, the jackal goes to a spring to wash himself. But when he sees his colorful appearance, he changes his mind. He decides to remain dyed and change his lifestyle. He wants to be a peacock from now on. This decision, however, puts him in trouble.

Asadollah Shabani, poet and writer, was born in July 1958 in Hamedan. He has a bachelor’s degree in Persian language and literature. After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, he started working for the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon), one of the most important Iranian organizations for children’s and young adult literature. This started him on the path of writing for children. Training Kanoon’s teachers, working in the literary section of Kanoon magazines, being an expert in the Poetry Council and in charge of the Old Texts Council consist some of his activities in Kanoon in the past thirty years.