(Below is chapter 1 of WE ARE IRAN, posted from http://www.softskull.com. WE ARE IRAN will be reviewed in the upcoming issue.)
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Sample chapter from
We Are Iran
Nasrin Alavi
Forthcoming in October 2005 from
Soft Skull Press (in the US)
Raincoast (in Canada)
Portobello Books (in the UK and British Commonwealth)
© 2005 Nasrin Alavi
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1
A Virtual Community
In September 2001 Hossein Derakhshan, a young Iranian journalist who had
recently moved to Canada, set up one of the very first weblogs in Farsi, his
native language. (For the uninitiated, a weblog or blog is a kind of diary or
journal posted on the Internet.) In response to a request from a reader, Hossein
created a simple how-to-blog guide in Farsi. With the modest aim of giving
other Iranians a voice, he set free an entire community.
Today Farsi is the fourth most frequently used language for keeping online
journals. There are more Iranian blogs than there are Spanish, German,
Italian, Chinese or Russian. According to the 2004 NITLE Blog Census,1 there
are more than 64,000 blogs written in Farsi. A phenomenal figure, given that in
neighboring countries such as Iraq there are fewer than 50 known bloggers.
Blogging in Iran has grown so fast because it meets the needs no longer
met by the print media; it provides a safe space in which people may write
freely on a wide variety of topics, from the most serious and urgent to the most
frivolous. Some prominent writers use their blogs to bypass strict state
censorship and to publish their work on-line; established journalists can post
uncensored reports on their blogs; expatriate Iranians worldwide use their blogs
1
The NITLE program crawls through the web using statistical analyses, with an algorithm that
identifies blogs and their languages.
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to communicate with those back home; ordinary citizens record their thoughts
and deeds in daily journals; and student groups and NGOs utilize their blogs as
a means of co-ordinating their activities.
17 November 2004
I keep a weblog so that I can breathe in this suffocating air . . . In a society
where one is taken to history’s abattoir for the mere crime of thinking, I write
so as not to be lost in my despair . . . so that I feel that I am somewhere where
my calls for justice can be uttered . . . I write a weblog so that I can shout, cry
and laugh, and do the things that they have taken away from me in Iran today .
. .
lolivashe@yahoo.com
www.lolivashaneh.blogspot.com
The worst that could happen to a blogger in the West is that they might be
looked upon as self-absorbed ‘cyber-geeks’ or ‘anoraks’, but in Iran – a country
that Reporters sans Frontières called ‘the biggest prison for journalists in the
Middle East’ – honest self-expression carries a heavy price. In the last six years
as many as 100 print publications, including 41 daily newspapers, have been
closed by Iran’s hardline judiciary.
In April 2003 Iran became the first government to take direct action
against bloggers. Sina Motallebi, a journalist behind a popular weblog
(www.rooznegar.com), was imprisoned. His arrest was just the beginning and
many more bloggers and on-line journalists have been arrested since. As
Reporters sans Frontières put it: ‘In a country where the independent press has
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to fight for its survival on a daily basis, on-line publications and weblogs are
the last media to fall into the authorities’ clutches.’ They add that through
arrests and intimidation, ‘the Iranian authorities are now trying to spread terror
among on-line journalists’ (16 October 2004).
Intimidation such as the arrest of Sina Motallebi’s elderly father or the
accusations of adultery against on-line journalist Fershteh Ghazi. According to
Reporters Without Borders, five other imprisoned web journalists, ‘Javad
Gholam Tamayomi, Omid Memarian, Shahram Rafihzadeh, Hanif Mazroi and
Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi are expected to be accused of having sex with her. Some
of them are said to have been forced to sign confessions. Such accusations by
the authorities are common against political prisoners in Iran’ (29 October
2004). Adultery is a crime punishable by stoning.
In October 2004, while several Internet journalists and bloggers were
held in undisclosed locations awaiting trial, Ayatollah Shahrudi the head of the
judiciary, announced new laws expressly covering ‘cyber crimes’: anyone
‘propagating against the regime, acting against national security, disturbing the
public mind and insulting religious sanctities through computer systems or
telecommunications would be punished’. This announcement was accompanied
by a number of articles in state propaganda newspapers such the Keyhan daily,
which ‘exposed’ the Iranian blogosphere as a ‘network led by the CIA
conspiring to overthrow the regime’.
Sina Motallebi (right of picture) – the
first blogger in the world to be
imprisoned for the contents of his blog –
in the summer of 2002 with colleagues
at the Hayat-e Nou newspaper. Soon
afterwards the newspaper was closed
down, along with more than 100 other
publications. Sina has left Iran and lives
in Europe with his wife and son.
However, according to Reporters sans
Frontières, the authorities arrested his
father in September 2004 in an attempt
to silence the now-exiled blogger.
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Photo © Hossein Derakhshan www.vagrantly.com
Sina Motallebi (above far right) – the first blogger in the world to be imprisoned
for the contents of his weblog – during the summer of 2002 with colleagues at
‘Hayat-e Nou’ newspaper, that was soon after closed down alongside over a
hundred publications. Sina has left Iran and lives in Europe with his wife and
son. Yet ‘Reporters sans Frontieres’ reported that the Iranian judiciary had
arrested his father during the September of 2004, with the aim of silencing the
now exiled blogger
The crackdowns suggest that the regime is determined to curtail freedom
of speech in cyberspace. Yet faced with a judiciary prepared to stone someone
to death to silence them, an increasing number of blogs are now written
anonymously. Additionally, many political Internet sites have gone
underground, making them even more radical and critical.
Yet despite the very real risks, there are some bloggers who still write
under their own names. Bijan Safsari was editor-in-chief and publisher of
several independent pro-democracy newspapers – all of them shut down by the
regime. Each time one of his newspapers was closed down, it quickly resurfaced
under a new name. Eventually, this game of cat and mouse got Bijan thrown
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into jail and now that there are no other venues where he can write or publish,
he keeps a blog.
18 February 2004
There are those such as [Muhammad-Ali] Abtahi [the Iranian Parliamentary ex-
Vice President] who have called our virtual community too political and have
said that we should use weblogs for their intended use . . . that is to say, for
clichéd daily diaries . . . So what if we use our blogs in ways not intended for or
defined during the distant conception of this medium?
At a time when our society is deprived of its rightful free means of
communication, and our newspapers are being closed down one by one — with
writers and journalists crowding the corners of our jails . . . the only realm that
can safeguard and shoulder the responsibility of free speech is the blogosphere.
Email: safsari@bijan-safsari.com
http://bijan-safsari.com/
According to data from the World Bank (2001), Iran has more personal
computers per 1,000 people than the regional average. Estimates of the number
of on-line users range from four million to seven million and growing.
However, experts maintain that these figures do not reflect the current reality,
because every month thousands more Iranians buy computers and go on-line.
The number of Iranians on-line is likely to more than double again in the next
five years, in a country where two-thirds of the population are under 30 and
many are already technologically savvy.
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Interestingly – even ironically – thanks to the education policies of the
Islamic Republic, those who enter further education tend to be from a wide
cross-section of Iranian society; and many of these students throughout Iran, all
of them from very different social and regional backgrounds, have access to the
Internet at their place of study.
20 July 2003
Has everyone noticed the spooky absence of graffiti in our public toilets since
the arrival of weblogs? Remember the toilets at university we used to call our
‘Freedom Columns’?
Email: pythonir@yahoo.com
http://python.persianblog.com
1 May 2003
My blog is an opportunity for me to be heard . . . a free microphone that
doesn’t need speakers . . . a blank page . . .
Sometimes I stretch out on this page in the nude . . . now and again I
hide behind it. Occasionally I dance on it . . . Once in a while I tear it up . . .
and from time to time I draw a picture of my childhood on it . . . I think . . . I
live . . . I blog . . . therefore I . . . exist.
Email: deltangestan@yahoo.com
http://deltangestan.com/
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12 January 2004
This is a personal note of gratitude to Hossein Derakhshan, the ‘Godfather’ of
Iranian blogs, who opened up the world to a society . . . proving that even a 30-
year-old Iranian, with merely the aid of a notebook and a connection to the
Internet, can make a difference . . . So much so that according to a Guardian
newspaper report [18 December 2003] he is deemed one of the top 15
international figures ‘whose weblogs have caused the biggest stir both in and
outside the blogsphere’.
Within only a two-year period his tireless efforts have led to tens of
thousands of Farsi blogs . . . a phenomenon that I believe will eventually
influence our awareness, our personas and our lives . . .
Email: silence1355@yahoo.com
http://shortcut.persianblog.com
In recent decades analysts, academics and journalists have had little or no real
access to Iran. So they have at times relied unduly on partial inquiry and the
images presented by State propaganda. Dan De Luce, the Guardian’s
correspondent in Iran for more than a year, was expelled from the country by
the Iranian government in May 2004. As he puts it: ‘Stifling the flow of
information means that the nuances of Iranian society are often obscured to the
outside world. Any foreigner who visits Iran is struck by the gap between the
reality of Iranian society and the image cultivated by the regime.’ (Guardian, 24
May 2004)
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Yet through the anonymity that blogs can provide, those who once
lacked voices are at last speaking up and discussing issues that have never been
aired in any other media in the Islamic world.
30 October 2003
Islam is compatible with democracy*
*Subject to terms and conditions
Email: weblog@ksajadi.com
www.ksajadi.com/fblog/
Iran’s burgeoning on-line communities have been able to evade the cultural and
political restraints regarding speech, appearance and relations between the
sexes; restraints which are strictly enforced in public. As researchers such as
Babak Rahimi2 have revealed, websites and blogs have made it possible for
young Iranians to express themselves freely and anonymously – especially
young women. The Internet, ‘as an advancing new means of communication,
has played an important role in the ongoing struggle for democracy in Iran’,
says Rahimi, and ‘has opened a new virtual space for political dissent’.
Voting Against ‘God’s Representative on Earth’
2 ‘Cyberdissent: The Internet in Revolutionary Iran’ (MERIA, September 2003).
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In recent years the Iranian people have demonstrated their desire for change by
overwhelmingly voting for those parliamentary candidates who promise
democracy. The Islamic hardliners have a single campaign theme: the principles
of the 1979 Islamic Revolution will receive a fatal blow if the reformers are
victorious.
In the 1997 election campaign Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the Speaker of
Parliament, enjoyed the implicit endorsement of the Supreme Leader, who is
deemed by the ruling clergy to be ‘God’s representative on earth’. Nearly 80 per
cent of eligible voters participate and a massive 70 per cent of them voted for
the little-known cleric Muhammad Khatami, giving his reform agenda
enormous backing, while at the same time voting against Ali Akbar Nateq-
Nouri, ignoring the endorsement of God’s representative on earth.
President Khatami gained the overwhelming support of the Iranian
people because of the consistent message of his speeches: ‘There are those . . .
who concede no change . . . Their God is their meagre and dim perceptions,
which fight all the people’s demands in the name of religion . . . God forbid that
one day our people will feel the authorities are not meeting their real demands
and that dirty hands have succeeded in disappointing them and thus alienating
them. Then, no military, security or judicial power will be able to save the
country.’ In two subsequent presidential elections, President Khatami won 77
per cent and 70 per cent of the vote, with approximately 20 million votes cast.
He succeeded everywhere, in every demographic group – he even carried Qom,
the religious bastion of Iran.
But change has been totally blocked by the hardliners who keep hold the
real power through the judiciary and the Guardian Council (a conservative
supervisory body). They have demonstrated their formidable power by
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abolishing the reformist press, vetoing parliamentary and election candidates,
and arresting, torturing and assassinating many liberals and student activists.
8 January 2004
You have heard the story of my generation many times. A generation that grew
up with bombs, rockets, war and revolutionary slogans . . . A generation that
had battle-green grenade-shaped piggy banks . . .
The girls of my generation will never forget their head teachers tugging
hard at tiny strands of hair that somehow fell out of their veils to teach them a
lesson. The boys of my generation will never forget being slapped five times in
the face for wearing shirts with Western labels on them . . . all of us have
hundreds of similar memories . . .
My generation is the damaged generation. We were constantly chastised
that we were duty-bound to safeguard and uphold the sacred blood that was
shed for us during a revolution and a war. Any kind of happiness was
forbidden for us . . .
My generation would be beaten up outside cinema queues or pizza
restaurants . . . punished in the public parks; kicked and punched in the centres
of town by the regime’s militia . . . I will never forget the militia’s Toyota vans
and the loudspeaker announcements in Vali’Asr Square: “We will fight against
all boys and girls!” – shouting those exact words!
Who can forget? For my generation talking to a member of the opposite
sex (something quite ordinary for the new generation) was akin to adultery and
its punishments are better left unsaid. These are just partial moments in all of
our bitter lives: each and every one of us could write a book about them.
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But I also remember the start of the reform movement. This same
generation would distribute election pamphlets and posters for Khatami. And
even for this we were reprimanded and beaten, but we stood up for him so that
one day hope might come. It’s unfair to say he did nothing . . . we got concerts,
poetry readings, carefree chats in coffee shops and tight Manteaus. But is this
all that my generation wanted?
It was also during this time that student activists were thrown in prison,
newspapers were shut down – and yet Khatamiwas silent . . . it was at this time
that the students of my generation were labeled hooligans and Western lackeys .
. . and again Khatami appeared to agree through his silence . . .
Even the subsequent parliamentary elections of reformists did not bring
any benefits for my generation. Under the almighty shadow of the Guardian
Council, sometimes hearing the words of the enemy from the mouths of those
you considered friends has been even harder to bear . . .
Email: arareza@Gmail.com
dentist.blogspot.com
The unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the conservative
clerics and lawyers control the courts, the army, the media, political councils
and the powerful Islamic foundations (bonyads) that very nearly run the
economy. In February 2004 the conservatives banned more than 2,000
candidates from running in parliamentary elections, dropping any pretence at
democracy and reasserting full control over the State.
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13 February 2004
One of the greatest blessings of the Islamic Republic has been that we no longer
hold anything sacred . . .
In 1935 the monarch Reza Shah, a secular modernizer, issued an edict
that declared the wearing of traditional dress (for both women and men) an
offence punishable by a prison term . . . As hard as Reza Shah tried, he could
not have done what the ayatollahs have recently achieved . . . it has gone so far
that today’s burgeoning youth, supposedly ruled by the ‘representative of God
on earth’, now even deny the existence of God himself.
http://weblog.omila.com
The Children of the Revolution
Those who lived through the Islamic Revolution almost a quarter of a century
ago are now a minority. More than 70 per cent of the nation is under 30, and
for this population, literacy rates for young men and women stand well over 90
per cent, even in rural areas. Notably, more than half of those graduating from
university in Iran today are women.
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Young Iranians at a shopping centre.
Photos © Yalda Moaiery www.kargah.com
Iran’s younger generation has been completely transformed through the Islamic
Republic’s education policies of free education and national literacy campaigns.
Paradoxically, this has created an educated and politicized youth with voting
rights at 16 – and they are ready and willing to express their frustration.
Yet today, just as Muslim women elsewhere in the Islamic world are
once again taking up the veil, it is the norm in Iran to see young women trying
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to keep their covering to a ‘legal’ minimum. They have turned the veil into a
mark of protest. Twenty-five years after the Revolution, its boldest and most
vocal opponents are the children of the Revolution. The Iranian authorities
want to shield young people from the ‘cultural onslaught’ of the West, but this
has only made them more curious about – and almost fixated upon – the
foreign culture they are being denied.
‘Many Iranians, even those on very limited incomes, own illegal satellite
dishes that give them instant access to American television,’ explains the veteran
journalist and writer Elaine Sciolino (Persian Mirrors, 2000). ‘CDs, videos, and
computer programs are pirated and sold on the streets for a fraction of their
price in the United States. E-mail is more widely available in Iran than in many
other Middle Eastern countries.’
19 July 2003
There will come a day when every single thing will be put right . . .There will be
no censors filtering blogs . . . If they show a veiled woman on TV . . . They will
chequer the TV screen . . . Then you and I . . . will walk the streets till dawn,
with a bottle of Champagne . . . That is, if yourmum lets us!
Email: farshiid@gmail.com
http://acetaminophen.persianblog.com
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Iranian girls discussing happenings in the blogosphere
Cartoon © Hamidreza Nasiry
For a quarter of a century Iran has been a laboratory of political and
social experimentation. It has also experienced what no other Muslim state has
experienced in the twentieth century, namely two decades during which
ideological, revolutionary Islam co-existed with what could be called a more
‘secular’ dimension. In this mixed public space debates, inquiries and even some
reforms proved possible. By exposing Islam to public criticism, the Iranian
Revolution has made possible discussions about religion, values and the
relationship between religion and society.
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8 August 2002
What have the likes of me learned after 12 years of formal religious education?
What is the outcome of being consistently bombarded with sacred information
in this Islamic Republic of ours?
1. When you talk about your religion for over 20 years, its problems will
be highlighted.
2. Religious education is the best way to create agnostics in the modern world.
Just look around at the people you personally know who went to the
infamously strict Islamic schools, like Haghani, Kamal, Moofid, etc.
3. Even those most addicted to religion will at some stage overdose.
1. 4. The problem is not with Islam but with a few of our radical fellow
Muslims.
The other day I saw a construction worker fast asleep next to a cement mixer;
he appeared to have developed a deaf ear to all that noise. After so many years
of being bombarded with religious facts you just stop hearing them.
Email: lbahram@yahoo.com
http://lbahram.blogspot.com
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After a visit to Iran in 2002, Professor Jürgen Habermas said of future social
developments there: ‘Nobody knows . . . You would, for example, have to have
a greater insight into the thoughts of young women, above all those with an
academic background. Women already comprise over half the student
population. How many of them would take off their headscarves in public if
they could? Do these heads contain a powder keg that the regime of the old
ayatollahs has to fear more than anything else?’3
16 June 2003
At last it’s over. I’ve spent the last five years in the nasty hell-hole of
May’boad.* But it’s over . . . I’ve packedmy things and moved back home.
I remember when I started my course at that so-called university . . . we
must have been the first group of single girls entering that God-forsaken place
and setting up on our own . . . so many times coming home and washing the
spit of passers-by off my clothes . . . they just could not tolerate our shameful
headscarves . . . without exception then, all the native women used to wear
chadors . . . They say that things are changing and extremists are getting more
tolerant . . . a friend ofmine even thinks that we started a revolution here . . .
It’s been just five years, but the same shopkeepers who would refuse to
serve us if we were not wearing a chador now have teenage daughters who
dress more provocatively than we ever dared to . . . Looking around this tiny
town, only five years later you see that many of the local young girls have shed
their black chadors.
3
‘The Unrest Is Growing’, interview with Jürgen Habermas, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (18 June
2002).
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We did not start a revolution here. Our ‘allegedly Reformist President’
did not bring about a more tolerant society . . . Societies evolve and change and
it’s the ordinary people that change them . . . 70 per cent of our population is
under 30 and many just don’t want to live like their parents used to . . .
Eventually they will have to . . . not just tolerate us . . . but also live by our
rules . . .
By Borderline
* May’boad is a tiny desert town; as part of the realization of the Islamic Republic’s
policy of ‘higher education for the masses’, universities have been set up throughout
Iran
21 September 2003
When most of our people are fed up and, according to the Government’s own
figures, 11 per cent have no income at all . . . And we still don’t know anything
about the state of the students they arrested after last term’s mass
demonstrations and . . . then to be treated with contempt during my
registration at Shahid Beheshty University . . .
The first thing they noticed was my make-up!!! Scrolled across my
Conduct Form: HEAVY MAKE-UP!!! And started telling me that I would be
answerable for this in the after-life!!! Is wearing make-up cannibalism or
something?!!!
What about all our corrupt government officials? Will they ever be
answerable to anyone?!!!
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They’re saying our veils are getting too small. 10 cm is too small? Why
don’t they make the boys with long hair cover their heads!!? Hair is hair!!!
Anyway we have to burn these veils!! So don’t bother wasting your money
buying the stuff . . .
By Water Lily
20 November 2003
Yesterday I bought a turquoise ring . . . They say it brings you happiness . . . I
didn’t let my boyfriend buy it . . . I bought it myself.
I wanted to be the creator of my own happiness, beauty and freedom . . .
The era of fairy-tale heroes has come to an end.
Email: myownsroom@yahoo.com
http://myownsroom.blogspot.com
3 June 2003
Do you have a fantasy that can never fade away?
I want to be with a man who would talk to me rapidly in Italian . . .
While not understanding a word of it, to know what he means in the depths of
his eyes . . . and to just nod my head in agreement . . . Farsi words have become
so shallow for me.
I want someone who speaks a different language. I want us to be able to
use our hands, eyes and our heat, as words can be very treacherous. Very.
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Email: khanoomigoli@yahoo.com
http://khanoomgol.blogspot.com
One of the major attractions of blogging in Iran is that it enables young people
to bypass many of the strict social codes imposed on them by the theocratic
regime. The Internet makes it easy to socialize, flirt, tell irreverent jokes,
arrange dates and keep in touch. Popular young bloggers such as
‘acetaminophen’ (see below) offer us a snapshot of the underground landscape
of their lives.
7 December 2002
Eid-e Fetr at the end of Ramadan is the only Eid when everyone’s happy. For
those who have been fasting for a month and those of you who have been
having secret tortuous lunches, Happy Eid!
22 March 2003
– Darling you look beautiful tonight . . .
– But you’re still the same trash that I’ve had to put up with for a lifetime . . .
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I prefer it when my beloved parents at least communicate, as it’s so boring
when they totally ignore each other . . .
24 March 2003
Do you have a boyfriend? No I write a weblog instead . . .
2 October 2003
I dreamt I was Cinderella, everything was going really well until the king’s
envoy appeared and announced to my wicked stepmother: ‘We must see all the
girls in this household, the prince has been assassinated and the only piece of
evidence left by the assassin is this glass slipper.’
7 December 2003
Sin or whatever . . .
I’ve fallen in love with myself . . . but I can’t work out whether it’s the real
thing or I’ll end up taking advantage of myself . . .
Email: farshiid@gmail.com
http://acetaminophen.persianblog.com
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21 July 2002
This is my situation.
For my love a suitor has come via her family.
But so that no one can know about our love
She is forced to see him a while before rejecting him.
A forced relationship with my hateful rival.
And I who am privy to all her secrets and the soothers of all her pains
Am burning in my lover’s fire.
Email: fiftypercentnormal@yahoo.com
http://www.goldoon.com/
8 March 2003
My good deed of the day:
I came across a cockroach in the kitchen today (I don’t want any of you out
there thinking we have cockroaches in our house, because we don’t – it must
have got in through a window or something), but out of the total kindness of
my heart I ignored it and let it escape . . .
I’m glad Mum wasn’t in the kitchen to see this as she would have said:
‘What? Have you fallen in love again?!!!’ Mum thinks the only people on earth
who don’t kill cockroaches . . . are those who have just fallen in love!
Email: z8unak@z8un.com
http://z8un.com
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Cultural Invasion
In recent years social scientists have observed that young Iranians are caught in
the conflict between globalization and tradition. Their formal education and the
state media try to keep them in line, but Islamic revolutionary values are being
challenged by a ‘Western cultural onslaught’: the Internet and satellite television
have opened the world to Iranians. Twenty-five years after the Revolution, Iran
has a young, educated population – in particular an assertive generation of
educated women who are entering previously forbidden domains.
At home in Tehran
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© Amirali Ghasemi 2005, amiralighasmi.com
Photo © Ramin Rabii
The Morality Police have enforced the rules of the regime: no alcohol, no
dancing and no pop music – bans that are still in force today. The intention was
to create ‘soldiers for Islam’, but now groups of young people who aspire to a
more Western lifestyle have turned such culturally alien events as St Valentine’s
Day into a local festival. According to one report on 14 February 2003:
‘Tehran’s traders were rubbing their hands on Thursday after seeing sales of
perfume and other gifts soar ahead of St Valentine’s Day, the new cause for
celebration for young lovers in Islamic Iran.’ Meanwhile, Iranians such as the
blogger Massoud Borjian have made the day their own.
14 February 2004
For us Iranians who rarely have moments for real tranquillity and calm free
from turmoil, 14th of February, Saint Valentines Day has become the best
excuse to remember our beloveds…
As Hafez [Persian poet (1326–1389)] has said:
Truthfully I admit, with much joy and such glee
Enslaved to love, from both worlds I am free
Congratulation on the Eid of lovers
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Massoud Borjian
Email: borjian@gmail.com
http://borjian.blogspot.com/
Scanning through the Iranian blogs on 14 February, one comes across
numerous references to Valentine’s Day. Iran has been overwhelmed by the
rapid growth of this alien tradition and it has been hotly debated in the Press.
In the Sharg newspaper on 14 February 2004, Davood Penhani writes that
‘Valentine Day or as they say the Day of Lovers, a totally Western tradition, is
gradually entering the hearts of the youth of the East. Just glance at the shops
scattered around town selling presents for this European celebration and you
can grasp the reality.’ What has happened to a society that at one time was
‘willing to go to battle for its cultural identity’, but is now so ‘receptive to the
traditions and customs of strangers’ that it shows ‘no fear of forgetting its own
national and religious customs’? This is the key question for Iran: is this healthy
or is it dangerous for Iranian society and culture?
Valentines Day in Iran
For we Iranians who rarely have moments of real
tranquillity and calm free from turmoil, the 14th of
February, St Valentine’s Day, has become the best
excuse to remember our beloved.
As Hafez [a Persian poet (1326–89)] once said:
‘Truthfully I admit, with much joy and such glee,
Enslaved to love, from both worlds I am free.’
Congratulation on the Eid of lovers
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© Atieh Noori, www.kargah.com
While many within the establishment regard such trends as a crisis,
others take a more pragmatic approach – among them the Iranian reformist ex-
Vice President and mid-ranking cleric Muhammad-Ali Abtahi, to judge by his
own blog.
12 February 2004
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It has become a custom of ours to have a day that represents love and life . . .
this custom like many other traditions has been imported to our country. Even
though many have raised objections to this . . . we cannot deny the reality.
Nonetheless, friendship and love are entwined with our history and
literature . . . and the Islam that I know encourages life and love.
http://www.webneveshteha.com/
14 February 2003
These days on every street you are confronted by many shops laden with
countless varieties of cuddly toys piled up in their windows . . . everything
plastered with an ‘I love you’ message for Valentine’s Day . . . with flocks of
young girls and boys huddled around these shops breathlessly consulting about
what to get . . .
But what has this Valentine got to do with us? However hard I look into
our history I can’t find a tradition, date or anything that is similar to this . . .
We have countless lovers in our stories and poetry, but no day like Valentine’s
Day when we express love . . . So because we don’t have such a thing must we
borrow from those nearby? Like all other things? Like the way we dress, our
behaviour, dances and music?
This culture of ours is so totally mixed up that I don’t know where it
will end . . . In direct opposition to those in charge, people are now readier and
readier to distance themselves from their own culture, no matter what . . .
Email: awat_hiva@yahoo.com
http://awathiva.persianblog.com
Science tells us to be detached and objective, but sometimes the truth is
subjective and fully involved in the issues that matter. When so much of the
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attention directed at the Islamic world is focused on violence and terrorism,
blogs offer outsiders a fresh perspective on the lives of ordinary men and
women, relaying their experiences – their fears, dreams, disappointments and
insecurities – while allowing others to eavesdrop on the clandestine
conversations of a closed society.
29 October 2003
My daughter wanted to get her nose pierced. I resisted and told her that she
was bound to regret it and that she should wait until she was a bit older and
then decide for herself. She looked at me then and said: ‘Piercing your nose is
no big deal. Maybe I will in the end regret it . . . but that’s not the whole world.
It is a small wish. By banning me . . . you’re turning a small wish into my
ultimate dream. Why do you want me to have such insignificant dreams? If I
can fulfil these small wishes and not grow up with such trivial dreams, don’t
you think I will have a better life waiting for me?’
*
We too had such insignificant wishes and even when we grew up they didn’t
come true . . . There were so many times we wanted to go somewhere and they
wouldn’t let us and it became a dream. So many times they even stopped us
from running. It came to the point that we weren’t even allowed to take small
steps . . .
This is Iran. You hear my voice from the land of the most compassionate
mothers . . . mothers who break your legs for fear that you may hurt your ankle
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walking on our very hard pavements . . . Mothers who are more terrified then
you are. They bring you up as cowards and riddled with guilt . . . This is Iran,
where all our ‘mothers are destined to the heavens’* . . . and every single one of
us . . . when we becomemothers, we turn into the most compassionate mothers
the like of which no one has ever encountered anywhere else on earth . . .
monumental dams . . .In the name of compassion, worry, future outlook . . .
This is Iran. When a mothers says ‘Don’t’, you don’t leave; and when she
says ‘Die’, you die.
This is Iran and when you don’t ever… there is not a whiff of shame or
humanity about you …
This is Iran. Mothers have to worry . . . they have to be anxious . . . and
they have to break your legs.
Email: faeze_am@yahoo.com
http://faeze.blogspot.com
* A quote attributed to the prophet Muhammad.
21 August 2003
At times it’s been hard getting used to being a widow, with the children all
away . . . My grandchildren come over asmuch as they can . . .
Yet at last he’s back – the two years he’s been away have been hard.
Still, he has experienced national service and being away from home . . . now
I’m no longer alone and there is someone that I can discuss many things with.
There is a lot of happiness in having a young person at home. Your fridge has
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to be full . . . You have to think about cooking, and get to have the sound of
the washing machine in the background all day long.
Nothing is under your control any longer and you have found a
powerful contender . . .
And when you say, ‘Give me some peace to write my blog.’ He says:
‘Look at you, the trendy young rebel, keeping a blog . . .’
Siavash, my dear son, welcome home.
Email: badrivahidi@yahoo.com
http://hamneshinedel.persianblog.com
Portrait of My Grandmother (2003) by Atieh Noori
© Atieh Noori, www.kargah.com
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Upholding Iran’s Morality
Much to the disappointment of the regime, 25 years of revolutionary rule have
still not created those model citizens who were supposed to slavishly adhere to
strict moral laws, dress codes and the rules governing contact between the
sexes. In fact, the laws have to be enforced by the Morality Police who roam
the streets of Iran. In the summer of 2002 this force was strengthened with the
creation of Special Units (Yeganeh Vizhe), the newest group among an already
large number of volunteer, semi-official and regular police organizations that
concern themselves with enforcing public morality. These Special Units are a
startling spectacle: armed men in shiny black four-wheel-drive vehicles all
dressed up with smart black berets to match their cars. Their arrival was hailed
in the local press as a means of combating what is referred to as ‘social
corruption among the young’.
22 April 2003
The patrol cars that put fear in the hearts of our youth . . . the militia forces
that are there to safeguard national morality . . . the effect has been the total
opposite and today our youth hold nothing sacred . . .
For 24 years our youth have lived dual lives . . . the way they have to
behave in schools and official places in stark contrast to their home life . . .
private lives are the total antithesis of the dictates of the ruling clergy . . .
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This has created dual personalities for many people . . . with the
improvements in modes of communications like video and Internet . . . our
awareness and our identity crisis has only intensified . . .
National security in ideological and totalitarian regimes can be
endangered even by dressing in a way that is not in harmony with the rules . . .
In a system where the leaders do not have the people’s backing and keep
power by force . . . these leaders are terrified of the smallest things . . .
We are all painfully aware of the manifestations of this totalitarian
system . . . its absolute need to influence every aspect of the life of its individual
subjects, and to produce people of uniform thoughts, while opposing free
thought and democracy . . .
Blogger Sina Motallebi was arrested and charged with jeopardizing
national security! You have to pity a regime whose national security can be
jeopardized by the writings of a blogger! Or perhaps laugh . . . Jeopardizing
national security by writing about art and literature!
Email: ranginkamaan2000@yahoo.com
http://ranginkamaan.persianblog.com
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© NafiseMotlaghwww.nafisegallery.com
Soon after the Iranian Revolution, observing the hejab (Islamic dress) and
wearing the veil became mandatory for all Iranian women. But laws are
regularly updated. The Martyr Godousi Judicial Centre’s 1997 dress-code
guidelines called for prison terms from three months to a year – or fines and up
to 74 lashes with a whip – for wearing ‘stylish outfits, such as suits or a skirt
without a long overcoat on top’. The regulations ban mini or short-sleeved
overcoats and the wearing of any ‘depraved, ostentatious or sparkly object on
hats, necklaces, earrings, belts, bracelets, glasses, headbands, rings, neck scarfs
and ties’.
Here is Atash (Fire) describing her encounter with the Morality Police.
25 May 2003
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I could feel the searing sun like a piece of burning coal on my veil . . . My veil
and my long robes make me smell like a corpse . . . I walk on the street but
can’t see the end . . . Far, far away, a group of trees are doing a choreographed
dance . . .
And I, on the street, I’m walking . . . Passers-by, those in cars, can’t see
me, as if I’m here but I’m not . . . Far, far away, I can see a mirror that has
taken up the width of the street . . . And the nearer I get to it the more distant I
become . . . I’m walking in a scorching heat that rips the breath out of you . . .
I catch a glimpse of myself, lighter, lighter and lighter . . . With each step
in my mind’s eye, I no longer feel the burden of my walk.
I’m wearing a white short-sleeved top, green shorts and a scented straw
hat . . . I no longer smell like a corpse or like my grandmother’s damp
basement.
I walk freely and am spreading my fragrant sweet dreams among people
who cannot see me . . . They’re running to get away from the harsh, searing sun
. . . What ecstasy . . .
There is a hand on my shoulder that abruptly swallows my world . . .
The toxic street voice with rage barks: ‘Pull your veil forward!’ I hear it, but I
don’t want to hear it.
The street filth put his hand in his back pocket to show that he’s
searching for something . . . His mime does not frighten me. He pulls out a
transmitter from his putrid shirt pocket and this time pointing at his black
patrol van, with fury, hollers: ‘What do you say now?’
As I was stranded between two worlds . . . at high noon . . . I was
hungry and thirsty . . . in an endless street where right at the end the trees were
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doing a choreographed dance . . . My veil moved and came forward . . . A few
steps away my veil moved back again.
Email: at_857@hotmail.com
http://atash3.blogspot.com
The enforced dress codes for men and women are a symbol of the will of the
regime. Iranians are fully aware of these laws, but look around any city centre
in Iran at random you will see that many disregard the regulations and use their
appearance to make a protest, despite the serious consequences. Girls mock the
strict guidelines by wearing their compulsory headscarves way back over their
head to reveal as much (illicit) hair as possible; meanwhile the obligatory
manteau gowns are getting shorter and tighter, to the point that they are no
longer the black cloaks considered the ideal revolutionary hejab.
Girls buying shoes
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© YaldaMoaierywww.kargah.com
The morality laws also permit judges to mete out discretionary
punishments to those who, among other gross infractions such as being found
in possession of alcoholic drinks or lying to the authorities, hold hands or kiss
publicly . . .
28 October 2003
Do you have ‘the Heart’?
This game of theirs started when they were first married . . . Mum and Dad
were making their way home one winter’s night . . . They didn’t have a car then
and had to wait a long time by the roadside for a taxi. Apparently, my dad on
impulse had kissed Mum on the lips . . . anyhow, a car had stopped and picked
them up . . . Once inside they’d noticed that the driver was staring at them in
his rear-view mirror and laughing to himself. Well, this had really irritated my
dad, so he’d asked the man what he found so amusing. Evidently he had seen
them kissing and was full of admiration for them . . . According to Mum, the
whole journey home he praised Dad so much, telling him he was a true
lionheart . . . ‘You really have heart.’ He told Dad that he was the bravest man
in the whole of Iran and had gone on about it so much that for a long time Dad
really felt as though he was the bravest man ever . . .
Now for years whenever Mum is in a playful mood in the oddest of
places she fixes her eyes on Dad and asks, ‘Do you have the heart?’ They giggle,
look around, weigh up the situation, then they kiss and then they have a good
laugh. My dad always seems to have ‘the heart’ . . .
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Recently we were standing in a long bustling queue outside Cinema
Savaz in Karaj . . . Mum was sure that she would get the better of Dad and he
would not have ‘the heart’ this time . . . She turned to him and teasingly asked,
‘Do you have the heart?’ Even though Dad at first seemed hesitant, he paused a
few seconds, had a good look around . . . but he eventually turned to her and
kissed her on the lips . . . suddenly a couple of people in the crowd started
clapping and whistling and soon pretty much the whole queue were applauding
. . .
My brother, of course, was fuming (this game of Mum and Dad’s always
annoys him), but it doesn’t bother me and I’m happy that my dad always has
‘the heart’!
I wish more men had his ‘heart’!
Email: z8unak@z8un.com
http://z8un.com
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A young couple holding hands in Shiraz, Iran, 2002
© Ehsan Shahin Sefat, www.ehsanshahin.tripod.com
Although the Morality Police are still very much out in force, in recent
years there has been a dramatic relaxation of the regime’s strict official codes of
dress and conduct. The morality laws have come a long way since the early
days when women’s lips were cut with razors in public view to deter others
from wearing lipstick.
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18 October 2003
I don’t like to think back to my childhood days . . . there are some things that
happened back then that I am still dodging . . . Still, some memories always stay
with you . . . Between the ages of four and eleven I had a favourite tree . . . Its
sturdy trunk and powerful branches were the place for my childhood solace . . .
It was from the top of this tree that I first set eyes on the girl next door, in her
summery outfit and short skirt.
Bygone memories of my childhood friend, the scent of jasmine,
Grandfather, Grandmother . . .
At the age of six I started school . . . My Mother would always clean all
the make-up from her face, pull on thick black tights and cover herself
completely from head to toe in black before leaving the house . . . I would
complain: ‘Why are you doing this to yourself, it’s embarrassing, why can’t you
go out as you are at home?’
She would always laugh and say, ‘They will arrest us . . .’
© NafiseMotlagh www.nafisegallery.com
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I found out later, that everyone feared being arrested . . . I even
understood this better when a woman jumped out of a muddy-coloured car and
with a razor took off the lipstick from the lips of a girl . . . a girl who looked a
lot like the girl next door . . .
During those first days we were being transformed . . .
Now years have passed and my father and mother’s generation are called
the ‘burnt generation’, while we are now referred to as the ‘rebellious
generation’.
By Underground
Hezbollah: the ‘Party of God’
Ayatollah Khomeini set up Hezbollah or the ‘Party of God’ a quarter of a
century ago as the only official party of the ideological state. Ironically the
‘defenders of the faith’ that control Iran often complain of being marginalized
by the ‘immoral masses’ and appear consistently disturbed by the country’s
changing society.
A 2004 editorial in Yal’Saratal-Hussein (an official publication of Iran’s
Hezbollah) is typical of this hysteria. It is addressed to the security forces, the
Interior Ministry and the head of the judiciary, and warns that, ‘at this speed, in
a few years, this country will overtake Turkey in the immorality stakes and in
the percentage of women unveiled. Be warned that today we are confronted
with the prospect of drowning in the quagmire of corruption and vice.’ It
continues:
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[[DISPLAY PROSE EXTRACT]]
If you still believe that the veil is the prerequisite of Islamic honour, but
you can no longer deal with the sleazy law-breakers, announce this to
the devout so they can go out and defend the laws of God. Believe us
when we tell you that those that we see disobeying God’s rules do so
intentionally as a fight against a religious government. Believe us that
what American warships cannot even imagine creating in Iran – the
control of this country and our youth – the bare arms, the nude legs, the
immoral made-up faces and bare heads – is already happening here. We
ask you in the name of everything that you hold sacred to safeguard the
honour of this nation. Deal with this colossal tidal wave of immorality!
Don’t keep saying that it’s impossible! Stop saying that we do not have
the resources! All it requires is to hold on to our honour dearly and to
do a bit of thinking.
[[END DISPLAY PROSE EXTRACT]]
Today many believe it is impossible to hold back the burgeoning youth
culture, so the Iranian regime has been forced to grant young people a limited
degree of social freedom. While activities such as holding hands on the street or
wearing make-up are still classed as crimes, the authorities sometimes turn a
blind eye. Yet the introduction of armed Special Units in their black berets in
the summer of 2002 shows that the ruling clerics remain determined to combat
‘social corruption among the young’ whenever they can.
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16 October 2003
I was about to be picked up by the Basij [a volunteer force of religious
vigilantes] today . . . a couple of puny guys . . . couldn’t have been older than
17 . . .One flashed his Basij card and told me that I was a shameful spectacle . .
. that I either take off my make-up and tighten my headscarf or he was taking
me in . . .
I? A spectacle? A vision of loveliness . . . Absolutely . . . But you know
what the Basij are like . . . they see beauty in other bearded men . . .
Fine, I’ll admit it . . . I was a bit scared . . . But I remembered what a
friend of mine had done a few weeks ago. She had started protesting and people
had come to her rescue . . . and I also thought there is no way I am taking
notice of two smelly rats, especially as I was meeting some friends later on and
my make-up was just too perfect for words today . . . (I’m not being big-headed
or anything . . . it’s just that I can never spend longer than five minutes putting
on my make-up and I usually get it wrong . . . but today I looked good.)
Mirdamad Street was pretty busy. I wasn’t the odd person out . . . they
were . . . So I just started screaming . . . Within seconds, a crowd had gathered .
. . The great thing is that no one looked scared and everyone was poking fun at
them . . . a middle-aged couple that I have never met even claimed me as their
daughter and started telling them off. The man was really good and kept
saying, ‘How dare you even address my daughter, you dishonourable rogues?’
At first they kept threatening that they were going to call for back-up
and the whole crowd would be taken away . . . but the crowd just got bigger
and bigger . . . so they told my lovely new mum and dad to take their daughter
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and go home . . . So, it ended well . . . but I wish some gorgeous man would
have claimed me as his wife for the day . . . well, that’s life . . .
Moral of the story: next time you get stopped, do as I did today . . . the
less we give in the more likely they are to leave us alone . . .
(But don’t be stupid either . . . make sure they are not armed or the
Special Units . . . as it’s just not worth it.)
BY Arched Brows
[[end of chapter 1]]