It was the saddest, yet most inspiring image of the week: two vibrant, intelligent 29-year-old sisters dead of uncontrollable bleeding following the surgical separation of their congenitally joined skulls. When the deaths of Ladan and Laleh Bijani were announced Tuesday, strangers in cities from Tehran to Tokyo blinked back tears.
"Throughout (their seven-month stay in Singapore), Laleh and Ladan have been a source of inspiration to others around them," Singapore's president, S.R. Nathan, said in a letter to Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami. Mr. Nathan was right. The two women demonstrated amazing determination, bravery and cheerfulness, qualities that had won them respect even from doctors who had refused to attempt the risky operation.
But their story had a broader, more symbolic appeal as well. It was, after all, a tale that transcended all the differences and suspicions dividing peoples in the slightly surreal era of the war on terror. The Bijanis were from Iran. The team of doctors that labored for two days to separate them in Singapore included neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson from the United States, the country whose government has placed Iran on the so-called axis of evil. In the operating room, none of that mattered.