...

Jaane- Maryam closed his eyes.

Moving in Tehran, Iran

It was different when we bought our first and last car in Iran, it felt like a grown up family, a husband and a wife with a car. We couldn't hold our hands passing through the streets of Tehran because he was driving at the time. We were not like a couple holding hands waiting for a taxi or walking the streets of Tehran, it was different.
We were the regulars there, at those places; to eat ice cream, very typical Persian cuisine and to wander a book store called "Shahre ketab" or "City of books" and as we got into the store we would get parted without realizing and we would find each other, sometimes with a book in hand or a funny card or a cool mug like the famous Mr.Behi's mug or nothing but news on what seemed interesting and we would get back to that thing again to show that to another one.
With the car then we had one extra step before getting into all those places: "Looking for a parking space" And if we could find one, it would be like an official permission to actually get into the favorite spots.
We couldn't hold our hands but I would put my left hand on his right shoulder on our way and we would listen to the music that we always made fun of their singers and the lyrics, nothing sophisticated about those music but great fun. Then this not holding hands part got compensated for a new interest; traveling by this car and with our own way for hours and hours inside Iran from the capital to the north of Iran or to the west to Shiraz. Smell of "Bahar narenj", since then, means Shiraz to my senses. Every where you go you will feel it if it's Spring in Shiraz. Last time the trip to Esfahan reminded me again and again the joy of moving and traveling inside Iran. And there are yet to travel, to see...
There is something unique about traveling in Iran, something different.

Beautiful Minds

There are some Farsi blogs out there and I wish they could be translated into English so that people who are not familiar with the language could see how talented and bright these people are.
Many of these bloggers are under age 30. You see a combination of great sense of humor, intelligence and wisdom on matters that Iran has been struggling with.
One reports and talks about scenes she's been witnessing in the last demonstration she went to. Another writes his point of view on the latest Mousavi's statement. The other writes a very hilarious sentence on a harsh comment coming from a hardliner talking about green movement's supporters which makes me burst into a big laugh.
I'm glad that these words are written and are going to be part of Iran's history. The story of young brilliant minds who had tears coming from their eyes while they smiled and went on again.

It's amazing how history repeats itself.

Status

Living in Iran these days...

Darbareye Elly

Darbareye Elly (About Elly)
Very vivid image of a part of Iran's contemporary society. A must see movie.

Defiance

Mana Neyestani

Justice!

It was in the middle of post-election days in Iran that my supervisor put a paper on my desk which was news about Tariq Ramadan being fired from the university and it was because he ran a program in Press TV which is a channel funded by Iranian government. Apparently the program was not political or in support of the Iranian regime. My supervisor who's Dutch was against the university's decision. Later on, there was news on Maziar Bahari's case; an Iranian-Canadian journalist who works for Newsweek. He got arrested during the post-election days in Iran and spent months in Prison before being released. Working for a western media apparently was enough for him to be suspected of espionage!
Now, Tariq Ramadan left Holland to where he found open arms in Oxford university and Maziar Bahari is back to Newsweek.
The scale of troubles that the journalist went through is beyond my imagination but I cannot help but wonder how different the logic supporting each condemnation was in the first place. I don't expect the governments in Iran to be fair as unjustness is one of the very ugly angles they are defined with but from academia in a democratic country it was surprising to observe what I was observing.

Not your duty

It was 11 p.m. We were getting back from Zayande- Rud bridge in Esfahan to our hotel; a 10 minute walk and enjoying every bit of our trip to that part of Iran. We were talking about how pity it was that we did not have the chance to see Zayande- Rud as a river that it was -as it was all dried at that time of the year- and mentioning still it was interesting that we could do something you usually could not do; walking in the middle of that river...I don't know exactly maybe that was when he showed up, we were passing by a passage, lights were on and shining in the streets and people were walking and shopping all over the places. He came straight to me. I could estimate his age to be around 10, maybe 12, holding a bunch of...God! I don't even remember of what, of chewing gum maybe or these cards which are written on some prays in Arabic (?) He came and I could see only resistance in his face which wouldn't fade until we would buy one. We looked at each other, me and the other Behi and I don't remember if we said anything to each other at all. That was not the first time that I had to deal with one of these kids and I normally didn't give them money or wouldn't buy anything from them. I told him: "why are you doing this, you should have been asleep or at home by now" .The typical story came up: "My father is sick, cannot work and I should work". I didn't want to say don't tell lie because I thought the truth was perhaps much more painful than the line he was saying. With a voice louder than my usual tone I said: "This is not your duty, you should be playing or asleep right now" and meanwhile I was handing him the money and taking the thing that I was buying from him. I still can see his face and eyes at that very moment; A face who was surprised, happy, sad and scared, he repeated his short story again while giving me the thing and taking the money : "My father cannot work"... I shouted at him: "This is not your duty, you must know this, this is not your duty" and he left so fast. I don't know, maybe I thought I was telling him something very important that no one never ever told him before, like a forbidden secret, something that could change his life and I was shaking at the time. I knew that I was fooling myself. What he could do really, what a striking knowledge a 10- year-old- boy would get from such a shouting and if so what he could do after knowing that...

No room for a new dictator

مردمی که می‌خواهند سرپای خود بايستند و حياتی کريمانه را تجربه کنند جا دارد که از نخستين قدم‌هايی که به ناکامی‌‌شان می‌انجامد با بيشترين دقت‌ها پيشگيری کنند. تولد اينجانب نه هفتم مهر که روز آشنايی با شماست. حتی اگر روز هفتم مهر به دنيا آمده بودم نيز جا نداشت حرکت شما به کيش شخصيت آلوده شود

...The people who are willing to live based on their own thoughts and with dignity shall be cautious on steps they take which may prevent them to be able to do so. My bithday is not Mehr 7th but it is on the day of knowing you all and if it were on Mehr 7th, still it would be no room for your movement to get impure with an individual...

From Mousavi's latest statement ( 28-Sep-09).

Green night

We sang all green songs with our green signs last night. We did not know each other but we did know with which color our language speaks these days and we spoke, proudly.

Tell me tomorrow is ours...

...

From Mousavi's latest statement:

People of Iran
...It is obvious that your efforts to restore peace to the society are not going to be responded wisely. Dangerous days are ahead...

Back from Iran

Back to Holland and our one- year- old life in this country and still thinking of home. I need to wrap up my thoughts and get back to the routine and start being a focused person.
What people went through during the post-election days was mostly the first topic to talk about when I was with my family and relatives. There was no sign of election events on people's faces when I was on the streets and it was even less obvious when we were in the two historic cities of Esfahan and Kashan during our traveling.
I was wondering how many of these people are keeping old or having new concerns about what they were witnessing. You cannot expect those who do not feel generally secure be great fighters, you cannot ask the ones who feel tired to run and don't stop. I was wondering how many of people whom I could see in Kashan had access to anti-filtering software for their internet or if they had any access to the internet. I did not know what percentage of them had satellite dishes. I don' know how many could get informed or cared to be informed but as I talked with those who've been in the heart of their own street stories, they thought this was only the beginning. For them, it seems the election can be fresh starting point for an official religious dictatorship and the people of Iran are waiting for the time to move again. I do not know who will be the winner or if they'll move.

First chapter

In the history books of the 21st century, the first chapter will be about us.
In the introduction, they might write that important events have happened before us, events like 9/11 and war on Iraq and Afghanistan, but those were the remnants of the previous century, with an outdated dialogue and with twentieth century tools: Airplanes, bombs and bullets. And then they will write that the first chapter is dedicated to us because we have been the true children of our time and our dialogue was the dialogue of the beginning of the third millennium.Early in the book, they will write that social movements are born out of communication technologies and at the same place they will write that we were the first movement that exploited entirely all the new communication tools that were established at the beginning of this century.Perhaps they will write a footnote on how these tools changed the social structure and how they changed the world view on the social classes, work flow, production and distribution of wealth, social leadership and management and even changed the world's attitude about the sustainable human values.Perhaps on the same page, there is a photograph of the inventor of the first mobile phone and the portraits of the founders of Wikipedia, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Podcasts, or maybe photos of their statues in the main squares of the world's leading cities, with captions like: "Figures who built the twenty first century."Idem they will write that previously there were only one-way paths: Somebody wrote and published the newspapers and the rest of the people read them. Somebody spoke while the rest were listening. One person was on TV and the rest were watching. Somebody commanded and led and then shapeless masses followed. They will write that the community structure and distribution of wealth, power and information was pyramidal, and then they will highlight that the new communication technologies flattened the society. It empowered the bases of the pyramid such that they reached the top.It made it possible to communicate with each other, send and receive news, exchange information, tell and listen, watch and be seen, and find new means of cooperation, thinking, criticizing and progress.There, on top of that page they will put a picture of us with our green flags.They will write that we were the first social movement that all of us were its leader and all of us were its organizer. The name which was called the most was only the speaker of a part of our demands.Perhaps they will open a box there to put MirHossein's written statement as an example, where he said: because the people participate in the Friday prayer, he will accept their invitation and join them. They must also add the explanation that previously the leader of a movement used to announce his presence and invited people to join him.They may make a subsection to describe how a movement without a command center was acting so well-orchestrated. How its ideas, desires, and slogans were suggested, criticized, and completed so well, and then one day they were expressed in such a harmony as if all these millions, have practiced together for years. Perhaps there, at least in the electronic version of this history book, they will make a link to a clip of us, where the Speaker shouts from the loud-speaker: "death to the U.S.” and we all respond "death to Russia". Without anybody been preparing for this response, without being coordinated, we shout as if we are all one mouth and one voice.They will write that we were the first party that had no central council, no secretary general, and no political branches. They will write that our party was one of complete anarchy that behaved quite systematic. They may presumably point their sarcasm toward anarchist parties of decades before us that were built systematically to behave as anarchists. They will write that our party had no party organs, but all its strategies were clear and its programs were all set correctly. Our demands were also summarized, reviewed, completed, and expressed in the clearest form of expression.In the same chapter they will write that we lived the last days of guns and bullets and we showed that wherever the awareness, information and enough communication channels for human connection exists, the bullet is pointless. There may put a picture of a single bullet somewhere in our Freedom Museum and will write for its caption "the last bullet that was pulled out of the magazine"A delicate person will calculate the total weight of the electrons that construct our blogs and websites, and will show that it was not even a thousandth of a bullet weight. He may estimate the weight of all the air molecules in our chants, our "death to dictators", our "all political prisoners must be released" and show that they altogether weigh less than the weight of a single wall of the Evin prison.Next they will write that we suggested a new definition for the human society, the human relations, for globalization and for living in the global village. Each of these historians will give us a name. Their simplest may write the “Green Revolution”, another will call us the “Silence Revolution”, somebody will call it the “Smile Revolution”, and at last there will be someone to write the “Awareness Revolution''.

Source and translation from BOLTS, here is the link.

From Iran

Here is Iran, where I am one year late to meet unfamiliar wrinkles. I vividly remember they were not there last time. My parents are growing old, it takes one year of denial...one year of no picture of those new lines and here I am with a memory of a new picture; the new lines.

Here is Iran, where my eyes search for signs, any sign that could tell me things are going to be all right in here.

Here is Iran where I look for its news from the outside when I'm in, where I must and need to be...

I'm going home.

This is state media in Iran

By Mana Neyestani

Iran had a democracy before we took it away... Read here

What happens next?

Do not be afraid, we are all together...
Source