“The Cigarette ”How long had the war been going on so far? What did the local news report? What does Marji realize about this information? How do you explain the discrepancy?

Two years pass and the war continues. Everyday there are reports on the national news that Iran is winning the war, but Marjane knows this is a lie. She tells her older friends that not even the Americans have an army as large as the Iraqi one that has supposedly already been destroyed by Iran. Iran is merely putting out their own propaganda to convince its people that their war is winnable.