I am listening to the radio and two foreign policy experts are talking about the Iran's green movement. the guy mentions that the green movement in iran does not have the support of the majority. that most people in iran want an islamic republic, in the current or a reformed shape.
my first reaction is that you obviously don't know anything about iran. but then i think about something that i have thought about time and time again: how much do i know about iran? how homogeneous is iran?
i obviously lived a sheltered life. i was the daughter of an intellectual secular family with an almost western upbringing. it's not that we were rich, or poor for that matter, but we were different from many people. for one, we were non-religious and untraditional. my father was a feminist in his words and a socialist in my view. our family friends were of our type. they were educated, non-religious, political and open minded. even when i was in iran it was obvious to me that we are different. i took pride in our being different. i saw my family and myself as rebels against the authority of this regime.
but did i learn nothing about other people? i mean i went to school and worked with all sorts of people. true, i tried to stay away from the ones that had too different of ideologies, but i had friends from all sorts of families. i worked in a rural area of iran for about 1.5 years and i travelled a little. did i not learn anything about iran? i don't believe i didn't.
yes, iranians are not all like my family. they are religious, judgmental and strict in their world views, but most of them are sick of the islamic republic. the cab drivers and passengers alike blame the government for their misfortunes. unemployment is a bitch and inflation is eye-popping. there is no certainty in the future and tension is high. people are angry and tired. they don't know how they will be able to afford the cost of living. they see the theft and experience corruption first hand. they feel stifled and tired. they want freedom. and i believe that they are wiling to pay high prices for that dream. the dream of a democracy, where oil money is put to good use and the future is bright and clear. where abuse is justly punished and the criminals are brought to justice. we have not and will never forget the cruelty of this regime. we want peace, justice and freedom. and i believe in it when i say "we".
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Educated and open-minded people are always a minority, doesn"t matter in which society they live in. But our modern times with their possibility to exchange information freely around the whole world makes me very confident, that those people which put human values , culture and knowledge above religion and nationalism, that those people can join and build a strong network . The fundamentalists and dogmatics from all nations, however, on the long run will lose ground, because their concept of isolation and hate is clearly a concept of the past times, when the majority of people had no access to information and communication. I think it was never as obvious as during the rebellion in Teheran in 2009 or this year in Egypt, that education and knowledge (and modern technology) is a strong weapon against tyranny.
ReplyDeleteAnd there always must be an avantegarde of such development, and you can be happy that your parents family obviously was such an avantegarde.
B.t.w, you write a nice style, very poetic, you should try to publish.