The face of Qana
Pale, like that of Jesus
and the sea breeze of April…
Rains of blood...
and tears...
....

They entered Qana
Like hungry wolves
Putting to fire the house of the Messiah
Stepping on the dress of Hussain
and the dear land of the South

Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998)

30.07.2006

Updating the old crimes

Today began with horrible scenes on TV screens of the new group killing of IAF. The scenes like Lebanese Red Cross people working hard with bare hands to dig out the corpses of unarmed civilians (many of them, kids) from the rubbles of a three story building in Qana- a village which went through the same in 1996. As the cameras move on, we can see crumpled feet and hands of the victims and then their bodies, their faces covered with dust and distorted from pain and burning.

IAF parrots the same lies about its latest war crime. But I am sure those believing their lies are getting less in number day by day. And at the other side, the valley between Israel and the rest of the world (especially with her neighbors in Middle East) is widening day by day.

The most brilliant achievements of the most moral army in the world - day 18:

1- Retreating from Bent Jbeil.

2- Wounding two more UN peacekeepers in the south.

Telling about killing some more civilians, hitting some more bridges or expressways here and there would be boring. The same would be about exploding some more buildings or calling up more reservists.

A small piece of land

Bent Jbeil, a small city in south of Lebanon, so close to this country's borders with the troublesome southern neighbor has joined to the history. Look what's happening there. It seems Israelis' claims of conquering it hasn't be that 'correct'. The city is still resisting. Even if it had fallen, the lessons of its resistance would have other outcomes rather than what generals in Israel wish.

Uri Avnery who as usual gives a very precise analysis of the situation, says:

"On the 15th day of the war, Hizbullah is functioning and fighting. That by itself will go down in the annals of the Arab peoples as a shining victory."

He adds:

"When a featherweight boxer faces a heavyweight and is still standing in the 15th round - that is a victory, whatever the final outcome."

Isn't it the core point of the story? Fighting the fearsome IDF, the fourth strongest army in the whole world? That could be called the hallucinations of a psycho some couple of months ago- if one dared to predict.

The story told by IDF soldiers who went through terrible casualties on this war (9 killed, 27 wounded) admits that the conflict over that small piece of land has not been easy for them. The wounded soldiers have described the battle as 'hell on Earth" and one said: "They shot at us from 180 degrees."

And still in Israel they want to listen to generals instead of taking a rational look into the circumstances. Yediot Ahronot wrote today:

According to a survey of the Israeli public, 82 percent believe the army’s offensive in Lebanon is justified, and 71 percent think Israel should use even greater force"

If the war over this small piece of land can be this difficult and can have this high price, would Israelis achieve more if they continue ? Do Israelis need more casulties like this, all beautiful and young?

No comments!

Yediot Aharanot -25 July 2006

The newest achievement of IDF

A few days back when I posted about bombing Alkhiam concentration camp, I didn't know and couldn't imagine in my wildest dream this would happen. Well, they don't need disturbing witnesses there. But well, that's the history and the world seeing this...... Where IDF is heading really?

I began to write about latest circumstances, Rice's visit from the region and her outrageous words about the 'New Middle East' when people are killed in their cold blood, resuming of raids on Beirut, those nine people killed in the south of Lebanon this morning, about great article I read from Uri Avnery, and about the Lebanese blogs which Bashir, a lebanese blogger has given a round up post on, then I felt too sad to go on. This is the reason I just put this here. I found it in Gush Shalom's website:


Slowly, slowly,
kilometer after kilometer,
We are getting into the Lebanese quagmire.
Like last time.
Members of the government
Say that they have not been told in advance.
Like last time.
After all the killing and destruction,
We shall not achieve any aim.
But the price will be high.
Like last time.

Ad published in Haaretz,
July 25, 2006.

The latest

1- Israel has targeted three telecommunications centers in Lebanon today. Arab media broadcasting live (and troublesome) reports from Lebanon would have problems after this. We have to rely on BBC -for instance- who has fixed a reporter in Beirut with a British ship at the background and Jim Muir in the south with another fixed background of a peaceful scenery , a plain somewhere in Tyre. (Is there war in Lebanon?!?)

2- - Thousands of Israeli reservists are called up.

3- US secretary of state has honored us by her latest analysis on war in Mid East. She has been pretty frank and hasn't wasted our time by parroting boring blah blahs about peace and terrorism. She has said:

a- "This is a different Middle East. It's a new Middle East. It's hard, We're going through a very violent time,".
b- "A ceasefire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."

The nightmare coming true

Sometimes buildings get so dear to us. You may forget that they are just buildings and not alive creatures. You feel they have souls, they have memories. You even can hear them speaking to you, telling you stories. I remember when Bam earthquake happened, although many people were killed and the whole city was demolished into rubbles, my tears began to burst out just when I visited the citadel of Bam. The building dated back to 1000 years ago and used to be the oldest mud building in the entire world.

The same I feel today for Al Khiam concentration camp demolished by IDF. I had the nightmare in my head and even wrote about it in one of my posts. Today I read in the news that it has happened.

Well, they can demolish the building but they can not wipe off the memories of it. Those memories are kept in the minds and the hearts of all those who were tortured and kept there. For erasing them, IDF has to kill all of those people one by one. Well, fortunately, that's impossible.

A friend has sent this to me. As he says, knowing about this people is the reason for keeping hope for the future of humanity.

Amid all the anger and rage in Israel right now and all the shouts for revenge and attacking Iran and Syria, there ARE people who seek other ways. The writer of the following article is an Israeli refusnik:

Look who's been kidnapped!

Hundreds of Palestinian 'suspects' have been kidnapped from their homes and will never stand trial

Arik Diamant

It's the wee hours of the morning, still dark outside. A guerilla force comes out of nowhere to kidnap a soldier. After hours of careful movement, the force reaches its target, and the ambush is on! In seconds, the soldier finds himself looking down the barrel of a rifle.
A smash in the face with the butt of the gun and the soldier falls to the ground, bleeding. The kidnappers pick him up, quickly tie his hands and blindfold him, and disappear into the night.
This might be the end of the kidnapping, but the nightmare has just begun. The soldier's mother collapses, his father prays. His commanding officers promise to do everything they can to get him back, his comrades swear revenge. An entire nation is up-in-arms, writing in pain and worry.
Nobody knows how the soldier is: Is he hurt? Do his captors give him even a minimum of human decency, or are they torturing him to death by trampling his honor? The worst sort of suffering is not knowing. Will he come home? And if so, when? And in what condition? Can anyone remain apathetic in the light of such drama?

Israeli terror
This description, you'll be surprised to know, has nothing to do with the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. It is the story of an arrest I carried out as an IDF soldier, in the Nablus casbah, about 10 years ago. The "soldier" was a 17-year-old boy, and we kidnapped him because he knew "someone" who had done "something."
We brought him tied up, with a burlap sac over his head, to a Shin Bet interrogation center known as "Scream Hill" (at the time we thought it was funny). There, the prisoner was beaten, violently shaken and sleep deprived for weeks or months. Who knows.
No one wrote about it in the paper. European diplomats were not called to help him. After all, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the kidnapping of this Palestinian kid. Over the 40 years of occupation we have kidnapped thousands of people, exactly like Gilad Shalit was captured: Threatened by a gun, beaten mercilessly, with no judge or jury, or witnesses, and without providing the family with any information about the captive.
When the Palestinians do this, we call it "terror." When we do it, we work overtime to whitewash the atrocity.

Suspects?
Some people will say: The IDF doesn't "just" kidnap. These people are "suspects." There is no more perverse lie than this. In all the years I served, I reached one simple conclusion: What makes a "suspect"? Who, exactly suspects him, and of what?
Who has the right to sentence a 17-year-old to kidnapping, torture and possible death? A 26-year-old Shin Bet interrogator? A 46-year-old one? Do these people have any higher education, apart from the ability to interrogate? What are his considerations? I all these "suspects" are so guilty, why not bring them to trial?
Anyone who believes that despite the lack of transparency, the IDF and Shin Bet to their best to minimize violations of human rights is naïve, if not brainwashed. One need only read the testimonies of soldiers who have carried out administrative detentions to be convinced of the depth of the immorality of our actions in the territories.
To this very day, there are hundreds of prisoners rotting in Shin Bet prisons and dungeons, people who have never been –and never will be – tried. And Israelis are silently resolved to this phenomenon.

Israeli responsibility
The day Gilad Shalit was kidnapped I rode in a taxi. The driver told me we must go into Gaza, start shooting people one-by-one, until someone breaks and returns the hostage. It isn't clear that such an operation would bring Gilad back alive.
Instead of getting dragged into terrorist responses, as Palestinian society has done, we should release some of the soldiers and civilians we have kidnapped. This is appropriate, right, and could bring about an air of reconciliation in the territories.
Hell, if this is what will bring Gilad home safe-and-sound, we have a responsibility to him to do it.

Arik Diamant is an IDF reservist and the head of the Courage to Refuse organization

_____

Searching for an article about refusniks, I came to this poem of my favorite poet- Bertolt Brecht:

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle

It tramples the forest, it crushes a hundred men.

But it has one flaw:

It requires a driver.

General, your bomber is strong.

It flies faster than the storm, t loads more than an elephant.

But it has one flaw:

It requires a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.

He knows how to fly, he knows how to murder.

But he has one flaw:

He knows how to think.

–Bertolt Brecht

Love

All the pain and sorrow trapped in me in recent days turned to rivers of tears today listening to this song of Fayruz , prominent Lebanese singer:

Bhibbak Ya Lubnan (I love you, Lebanon)

I love you Lebanon my country I love
your north your south your plains I love
you ask what happened what has overcome me
I love you Lebanon my country
they said what goes on in the land of festivals
strewn as it is with fire and dynamite
I said our land is being reborn
the Lebanon of dignity a people that perseveres
how could I help loving you
even in your madness I love you
because your love gathers us together
when we are dispersed and one grain of your soil
equals the treasures of the world
I love you Lebanon my country
I love
your north your south your plains I love
you ask what happened
what has overcome me.



Hatred

You think what this very beautiful little girl with this curly olive blond hair is doing? I was shocked seeing this beauty vs the hatred her little hands are trying to convey through the mortal 'messenger'. She has been told that the bombs she is writing on are going to kill evils. How she would feel when some day she finds out that with these very bombs, the little boys and girls at the other side of the stupid man-made borderlines, have been killed?

The sad time

I am very very sad these days. So sad, I haven't been for years.
I am stuck to the TV and to my computer screen to follow the news about Lebanon. I steal from the time I should work and I read and I listen and my heart bleeds from anger, rage and sorrow.
In the news I see the South of Lebanon and I hear the familiar names of the rivers, of the villages, of the cities and they all give life to the memories I picked up there a couple of years ago. I can't believe all those beauties, those amazing people are under the threats of pain and death now. Once we were in a small hotel in a small town. After doing the routines of registering the names and showing the passports, they invited us to an 'Ahlan wa Sahlan Shai', the tea they serve for the welcomed guest. Where are those nice and warm people now? Alive? Dead? Fled? To where? How when the roads are hit, the bridges are hit? The very villages we visited in the South, Litani river which we took a rest beside, the bridge over it which we passed through, all are ruined by bombs and I feel very very sad because of it. Have they bombed Alkhiam concentration camp too? All those solitary confinements which SLA kept the militants for long years in bat-loved small dungeons? The torture chamber is collapsed too? What about the one in the corner where they kept Soha Beshara for 10 years in?

I see Beirut's nights lit with the fire of blasts and I feel paralyzed. The apartments raised high beside the narrow streets are ruined to rubbles. And I see in the pictures, the people are walking hurriedly with sadness and despair in face.

This nation was just about to come out from the ashes of the civil war and long years of occupation when this all resumed. The buildings were still under reconstruction when we visited them, when we walked through the streets. They still had the signs of the previous wars and yet again they are under air raids. How can I believe that all of them are smashed again? How many times a nation can collect her strength and rise up? It's pretty difficult- if not impossible. But I'm sure they would.

Israel -as usual- has taken the whole nation of Lebanon as hostage. Israel wants them to eliminate Hizballah, because Israel doesn't want it to exist any more. So, they are giving lessons to Lebanese people by bomb blasts and air raids:" You will wipe them off, or we will wipe off you all!"

I have been trying to call friends in Beirut. A couple of nights ago I spoke to one of them. They are all ok. But today when I tried once more, I couldn't get any of them. I read in Lebanese blogs that the people are pushing toward north to take refuge in the mountains. I don't know how long those places would be safe. Two nights ago they bombed Tripoli. They may even go farther. Ah, I imagine myself instead of them, the Lebanese people, and I feel that I love to die; Going where? Doing what? How long? And then, to do what?

The thing that horrifies me is the near future. I'm afraid that the fire may extend to other countries, to Syria and to Iran. On BBC news and on CNN, the number of the times they repeat our name and Syrians' is increasing hour by hour. (On an Israeli blog I read that BBC is against Israel!!!) I don't think that would be without any intentions. Israelis have given us a new nickname:" Axis of terror!" I hope they won't forget that Iran is not a small piece of land to be smashed without trouble and our 70 millions of people are not easy to be swallowed up. The situation is really shaky and the mad dog is chewing the chains. And look what Bush does: outrageously applauses and gives courage to IDF to push on and to kill more.

They brag about their Democracy and I want to turn my stomach back. Democracy? How a country can call herself a Democracy when she occupies and steals others' lands? When she suffocates the people's in their cold blood and of starving and diseases? Is this the Democracy they are giving us promises about? They want to prescribe the same for us? We don't want it!

PEACE vs WAR

Israel has taken all the Lebanese people hostage to impose on them what she demands: eliminating her uncompromising enemy, Hizbollah. The same, they demand from Palestinians; to stop and to quit Hamas. So far, the Lebanese people haven't listened to the southern troublesome neighbor and well, they are paying the price. Yesterday, Israeli air force raided the northern city of Tripoli and the number of the human loss increased to 134. It's the 'far-consequence' Olmert had promised retaliating the missiles targeting Haifa.
Amid all the crazy angry shouts for revenge in Israel, still there is sanity demanding Peace. Yesterday, Gush Shalom held a peace rally in Tel Aviv. So courageous they are. I read Israeli comments here and there (on Arab blogs mostly) and my blood freezes of seeing their arrogance and hatred. They believe in twisted version of realities. They consider themselves victims of bloodthirsty Arabs and believe that all the world including UN and EU is against this Holocaut survived nation.

I hope peace-lovers' voice could get stronger and louder.

Trip to North-east

A few days ago, I had a short trip to the North, to Mazandaran province. These are the shots I've taken from the car. Just to share the experience with you:

Still in Tehran province. It's quite early. Both the plain and I were drowsy.

The road snakes through the plain. It was early morning and a few cars were on the road. When getting back home in the afternoon, it was hellish crowded.

A beautiful scenery. Entering the mountainous part, crossing the Alborz range, to get to Mazandaran province.

Not a few of propaganda signs like this on the way. It reads:" Praying the God..." is so and so.


Coming out of a tunnel, entering the next one.

Parallel to the way, that's the railroad in an upper altitude. A nice bridge among many of them. The most beautiful one is Veresk which I didn't have a chance to take a photo. This railroad was constructed some 80 years ago.

First group of green patches of rice fields.

A factory on the way. I couldn't see what it was, but I liked the yellow color.


A view of Zir-ab. The town is famous for its coal mines. And also for a strike of miners which was smashed in their cold blood during Shah's time.

A house on the way, somewhere between Savad-kuh and Zir-ab.

Rice fields all along the way when you enter the northern provinces. The forest in the background.

Hospital of Savadkooh, another small (but old) town on the way. The town is the central point of a mountainous region with the same name.

The hills are all covered with tall trees. The thickest forest of the country is located in the North, along the Caspian sea.

Khazar-shahr, an idustrial town on the way

On the expressway joining Qaem-shahr and Sari. The humidity was killing in the car without the conditioner

I have been trying to resume writing about the Taboos, but I can't. All my heart and thoughts is with Lebanese people under the merciless bombs and air raids. If you are interested to follow what's going on there, you can join me reading a very good blog I have been reading lately. The writer, a smart 27 year old guy writes from Beirut.

I loved his latest post about Lebanese who despite all the differences are united when a brutal war machine tries to smash them. It applies for us- Iranians- too. I wish Bushies could know that before trying it:

"We're divided and we hate each other, but one thing that brings all together is the Israeli war machine. Most of us have felt their crimes first hand and memories die hard."

Taboos- V
Sex- II

Sex in Iran, concealed and hidden

Whatever related to sex is hidden in a way. In my country, you rarely can see the opposite sexes hug or kiss each other in public. When I can not put the blame on Islamists in this regard, I can say that the conservatism in this regard has deepened after the revolution; they even rarely shake hands in public.
When these issues never are discussed in public, that's not strange that in sexual crimes cases, you rarely hear the stories from the media in details, let it be alone any education regarding it. I am sure many who have been abused in a way, never tell anybody about it, because they know that the society blames them rather than condemning the abuser:" …there has been something wrong with the girl surely….". And well, "...who is willing to marry an abused girl?"

When I was 9, I was abused by my teacher in an afternoon class I took part (my father loved to bring up a genius by putting me in different classes after the school). Well, the abuse lasted for about three months as far as I can remember the incident. My reaction was like many other kids in their early ages; I didn't tell anybody about it, but even now after years, the shame and the anger kills me. As the issue never was mentioned by anybody else and there was no education regarding it, so unconsciously I buried the bitter memory deep into the endless layers of forgetfulness. For years, I even didn't remember it. I denied it and never brought it out even with myself. This sad event came out of my mouth, 21 years after that at a psychiatrist. I don't know how I recalled it, but I remember that after sessions of discussions with the psychiatrist, I let the imprisoned outrage burst out.

In the streets, as a female we repeatedly face different kinds of abuses, whether it is verbal or touching. When I am not young any more, I feel terrible crossing the street when I know men's gazes around are fixed on my body. It's a daily experience. Unintentionally I shrink my body in such circumstances and I feel that I am shrinking my personality, I am shrinking my identity, defeated by the insult. When standing at a corner for a taxi, I can hear the drivers honk in a meaningful way or flash to invite me to their cars. The strange thing is that among the inviters, every imaginable age can be found. When speaking to a man, it is not rare that despite looking at my face, his eyes slide from my face to lower parts of my body. Well, I feel I can kill him when this happens. I wonder is it different from rape or less insulting when somebody –despite your willingness or your negative answer- persists on what he desires, so proudly and so outrageously? And I can see women, just pass by the insults and let it go because they are afraid of the reaction of the people around. They feel they never are supported if they object, so they prefer to keep suffocated and push the anger and the insult back and forget it as soon as possible. I myself usually object. I can't stand it. I can not swallow it easily. Whether it is because of my childhood experience, or my personality, I feel terrible if I keep quite. Sometimes, when such an absurd thing happens to me, the story ends with some boxes into the ears of the abuser. I don't care if the people may judge me but even me, always wonder is it the proper way to act when I know that these very people –the abusers on the streets- are the byproducts (and even victims) of a sick society which can not handle this simple natural need? When speaking to my female friends, I hear horrible stories about the abuses they have experienced.
Yes, I believe this country is sick when it comes to consider sex and sexual issues. The beautiful natural and human need is not relieved through the natural channels, thus it explodes unnaturally and changes the shape, the form and the content to something so ugly and extremely inhuman, stinky and dirty.

Taboos- IV

Sex- I

I liked the term a Lebanese blogger has used to call our region the 'penis-centric-Middle East'. This short term rooms a world of meaning inside. Here, in our part of the world, the sex issues are profoundly devised, defined, interpreted and practiced based on the benefits, taste, interest, willingness and desires of the male creature. Like many other issues, women are overshadowed by the heavy shadow of the opposite sex- whether it is their father or their brother, the husbands or simply other men around.

We, people in orient have problems with our body- to tell you just in a short sentence. Since childhood, we are brought up to be and to act as much as conservative when it comes to relate to our bodies. And when you are a female creature this conservatism goes so deeply and so widely. Quite early we learn about the forbidden parts of the body which should never be showed to others. When sitting on the ground (the traditional style of furniture doesn't include table and chair), we are taught not to let our legs open wide. When the kid is girl she is taught to be careful not to show her underwear when bending. I remember in my teens, the girls in my class felt uneasy when their breast grew bigger. A couple of them tried to hide it as much as possible by humping their back- they evidently felt ashamed of the changes in their bodies.

Virginity, premarital sex

I was brought up in a relatively open minded family but still I remember as a girl kid I was warned not to jump and not to act wildly because I might hurt my hymn. If it was not my mother to teach me that, there were other people to take the duty.

Mingling with opposite sex is something so strictly forbidden here. There are millions of lessons, warnings and teachings telling us that it's so ridicules if we do that. The trend is changing these days in the society of course. The younger generation tries to cross the red lines as they do in many fields. In major cities a big number of them dare to touch or to sleep with their boy or girl friend and the figure is increasing tremendously. But still who dares to say it in public that he/she does it? That's a value in my society if you keep the virginity before the marriage. Can you imagine what a disaster it makes when the marriage age is getting higher and higher because of economic and social condition and you have no right to satisfy yourself? Now, the people want to have a major in university and many love to have their own job and property before marriage. So that's absolutely out of mind if you marry in your 20s as it was prevailed in older days. Guess what happens to girls and boys who marry in their 30s and deny this natural need in their lives just because of the stupid taboos? Well, I believe, despite our teachings to ignore this simple need, we are very focused on it. It is the forbidden fruit and of course many would have all their attentions to touch it and to taste it. It is the topic of millions of gossips and rumors, chats and conversations , jokes and satires and -these days- SMs.

The stories about the forbidden fruit are endless. From region to region, it varies but still that's the common trend to ignore it, to deny it, to cover it and to keep it secret beneath the thick layers of silence and ignorance.
In families, usually there is not any tradition of speaking and discussing openly about the issue. Even among my educated friends, I can't see many who let their children experience the sex when the proper age closes. To give you a picture, I would like to tell you a story:
We have a family friend; a couple, a daughter and a son. The children call me 'auntie'- I am close to them. The parents are really nice, educated and open minded. I always thought that premarital sex was something accepted in the family. We never had discussed about it but the daughter (who is 24 now) had told me before that her parents were accepting that she had a right to experience it. The odd came up when she went to educate abroad and found a chance to find a boy friend and live with him. When got back to home for a short holiday between the semesters, she told the family about it (it was her first time). Telling me the story, she continued laughingly: "Ah, auntie, you should have been there when I told that I lived with my boy friend. Both my parents' faces were frozen. They didn't say a word of blame of course. But I felt there was something very heavy hanging in the space."

Premarital sex is a taboo of course and virginity is a value on the contrary. Virginity is not something personal; everybody around should know about it. In some regions, the bride's family show the groom's family the evidence of virginity. Can you imagine how? I myself have witnessed such an absurd incident. After the wedding night (when 'that' is happened to the bride), the groom's family sit around a room and a representative from the bride's side comes with a blood stained cloth showing it to everybody present there. Well, in big cities, in upper classes, this kind of act is out of question of course. But in remote areas, in more religious places, in the regions when ignorance is so dominant over everything and everybody, this is repeated here and there. In those regions, the girls get killed when there are rumors about them having an affair with somebody. The only accepted way of relationship with opposite sex is marriage .When the reaction regarding this issue can be so harsh in those areas, still in big cities, losing the virginity is an unforgivable sin. In upper classes, the sin is recovered by spending some thousands on a repair surgery.

Taboos- III

Religion- II

Whatever the religion was before the Revolution, when the Islamic rulers came to power and shaped a new system which they called Islamic Republic of Iran, showed us new features of Islam- at least the Shiaa part of it.
Trying even to name what we have been through all these years, would be an attempt in vain.
Just hence this: Right after the Revolution, when the religious atmosphere heated up, nobody even dared to oppose it. Being religious and proving it through the stupid series of stupid religious questions (such as: 'When a Muslim is dead, in how many pieces of clothes should he/she be wrapped?') was a strict precondition for being employed by governmental offices. And after the employment, the employees had to take part in ideological classes teaching them about the government's interpretation of everything; it might be for politics or the methods to practice holy Sharia in life. Even now, after years of Islmists in power, the employees have to go under the same brainwashing procedure and have to pass the stupid exams.
To find a job, the links worked very well. And needless to say, the link could be some cleric working as the ideological teacher in an office, some Haji agha* who might know you, a member of Baseej** or so. And of course, before even trying it, you had to prove that you were a good and practicing Muslim.

Despite the promises of Khomeini for liberty and democracy and 'Everybody is free to express his ideas- even Marxists', what we saw in practice was totally different.
Take hijab for instance: A couple of years ago when visiting an Arab country, I was shocked to see everybody who got to know I was Iranian was surprised by me not wearing hijab. I could see that they thought hijab was something we women liked and we observed it even we didn't have to.
Less than three years after the Revolution, they began to tell the women that it was 'better' to have hijab. Right after, they began to stop hijab-less women to enter governmental offices even for doing a follow up. Later, they issued statements that for preserving the Islamic values (I don't know for what else reason) it was mandatory to wear it. In Tehran, thousands of women protested the decision through a rally, but as usual the government-backed thugs attacked it and the protest was suffocated easily.
For years, wearing make up was strictly forbidden. Can you imagine that not long ago, there was a female guard at the entrance of the offices checking if you wore make up or not? In some offices (I have seen this by my own eyes so repeatedly), they rubbed a white klinex on your face or around your eyes to see whether there is any blusher or mascara over there.

I think that's not so strange to tell you that Islam – at least what's practiced here- is a male-centric ideology. The stupid criteria of man being the head of the family, the decision maker and decision taker, the wiser and the tougher (aha, toughness is a invaluable characteristic of course) and so and so, is something persistently injected into our heads. One of the first reflections of it, has been the changes they made in Law in the country. Just take the family law. According Islamic family law, the father is the 'owner' of the kids. Can you imagine? The OWNER. So, when divorce happens the children should go to their dad. If the father dies, they go to the near relatives of their dad whether it is their uncle or their grandfather. To tell more accurate, the girls stay with their mom until they are seven and the boys until two years old. Of the terrible consequences of this 'ownership' is the murder cases. Can you believe that in third millennium a man can kill his children without anybody having a right to object him? So, in media we hear horrible news about a sick minded man killing his kid(s) or torturing them, when the activists and the mother just have to object and nobody bothers to listen to them? For this reason, one of the challenges our women face is this very issue; they have to bend their heads before their men and compromise just because they want to keep their kids.
Another point: In courts, a female witness has the half value of a male witness. It means one man equals two women as the witness.
The third point: According Islamic shariaa, people and their limbs have a price (don't get shocked, yes, 'price'). For instance, if you hurt somebody's hand (in an accident for instance) you should pay a certain amount of money to him/her. Now, you won't be surprised if I tell you that the value of a woman is half of a man's, will you?

------------------
*Those that have done the pilgrimage to Mecca.
** Meaning 'mobilization' literally. It is a branch of Revolutionary Guard consisting the employees of governmental administration- the religious militia.

Taboos- II

Religion- I

If I'm going to mention the taboos here, I would begin with religion which I believe is the source and root of other taboos in our society in a way. I am not a religious expert to be able to mention all the principles of it and to prove what is wrong or right with it or which is original or which part of it is fake. What I write here, is an ordinary person's views that has been living in this country all her life. The recent three decades under the theocratic regime has enriched my experience about religion and what religion in practice can be. I never can claim what we are taught here to be the real principles of Islam (as the main religion covering more than 98% of the entire population). But who else can when Islam is interpreted in many different and sometimes opposite ways, ranging from Bin Ladin to those who adapt the message of peace and tolerance out of it?
Also, I won't challenge the probable objections due to literal applying of the word 'taboo' to religion. The reason for calling religion a taboo is that the people are not comfortable opposing it here, challenging and defying it or denying it.

Iran is a conservative country when it comes to relate to religion. It means that millions of people believe in some kind of faith. Some of them practice it and some don't. Practicing Islam varies from praying the God five times a day and fasting during Ramadan to observing hijab and so. Even hijab was picked according the people's tastes. Some preferred chador, when some just liked to cover their heads with headscarves.

Before the Revolution, the religion was something quite personal. Well, many practiced it; the people fasted, they took part actively in mourning ceremonies of Ashoora. BUT nobody bothered to ask someone else whether he believed in God or not. Nobody spied on the other to check whether he prays the God or not. There was a funny tradition among many who drank alcohol, then washed their mouths and then prayed the God. Well, people invented their own version of Isalm, something which fitted the life style they loved to follow. The religion I remember from my younger days was beautiful. It was human, something very normal and natural. It was a soothing element giving courage to millions and helping them to relax and relieve from the hardships of life, or the anxieties they might face. So, for it to be quite personal, the people usually didn't try to show off because nobody was to punish them if they didn't observe religious regulation or to award them if they did.

Before the Revolution, the center of Islamic education was Qom with one of the biggest Islamic schools for Shiaas- Feyzieh. Qom never could compete Najaf or Krabala but still was one of the major points in Shiaa part of the world to educate clerics. I can say, when it comes to religion, Qom was the most religious and conservative city of the whole country. Even before the Revolution, the religious atmosphere dominated the whole city. But that was it. To witness the extreme feature of Islam, it was the only place to go. Needless to say, for other cities, the more distant the city located, the more religious it was. The only exception was the north of the country which the people followed a more liberal version of Islam.

Although, Shah's regime had a secular trend, they never dared to oppose Islam explicitly. Shah even did the pilgrimage to Mecca and tried to show off as a good Muslim. He called himself arrogantly the one after the God for the country. That shows the power of the religion in Iran- I suppose.

Even before the Revolution, the family law and inheritance law were both based on Islamic principles. It was not illegal if a man re-married again and again. Also, the temporary marriage – called Mot'a by Arabs or Seeghe by Iranians- was ok.
According to inheritance law, the girls inherited half of what their brother(s) did.

Taboos- I

I'm sure many of you have experienced the same: as a kid, in summer time, or whenever I had a chance to go to a river, one of things I surely did was turning over a stone to quench my curiosity "what's beneath?" I always was amazed experiencing the same; just when the waves touched it smoothly, and the stone seemed to be so silently sitting there revealing nothing, as soon as it began to roll aside, 'the beneath' began to show up. There were small ants, tiny creatures which I didn't know the names (still don't know now!) rushing hither and thither, worms curling themselves, waking up to the unexpected visitor or may be shocked by the sunlight showering on them. There was a life beneath the stone, a rich, unknown, hidden and mysterious life. Thinking about my people, I recall the same feeling; the words also apply to my society.

The similar feelings comp up in me when at nights, I look at the thousands lights lit afar, the car lights moving hurriedly in the distance, and the lamp posts glittering hazy, I always think with myself:" How many stories are going on there; behind these closed windows, these fallen curtains, shut doors?" I don't know why, but I usually think many of them are not that happy.

My society is through a transient period- going from the past and the old toward the new. The movement has begun some hundred years ago, has experienced ups and downs, has progressed and retreated sometimes, but has been constantly pushing forward. That's the reason in the country of 70 millions, you can experience odds. Whatever we might be, we are not a unanimous society. You don't need to dig deep or to go too far to meet people who believe in the same standards the people of centuries ago believed and on the opposite side to meet the people who are quite modern, progressive and tuned to the newest standards, life style and mentality. To investigate more, you will meet many many who are in between; fluctuating from this front to that front, sharing and opposing ideas of both, swaying back and forth, grabbing this and refusing it at the same time. Yes, we live in the society of strange phenomena, contradicted sides, in an absolute paradox. Any attempt to simplify it, to make a black and white picture out of it, results to an unreal fake image.

It the following posts, I'll try to speak about some issues which do exist but ignored to be talked about, the things that we are raised up to, are injected into our heads, have deep roots in our souls, can't be washed away or forgotten easily and are rarely dared to be touched. Well, that's the definition of taboos- I think.

Swimming?!? Yes, if we call it so...

This picture, a friend has sent to me. This picture has thousands of words within. You can read through it how we women live here. We are trapped by stupid regulations? Yes, that's true. And we fight it? Yes, that's true either. Even under the strict regulations we'd love to be fashionable? Yes, that's true too. We care about our kids and take ourselves into troubles for them to feel good and have fun? Yes, this is correct as well…..

Just feeling disgusted, I rarely go to the seaside (we have two long coastlines, both in North and in South). What's good for seeing the blue of it and hearing the waves inviting you with open arms, and then not having the right to swim in it? Swimming when you have all your clothes on? I hate it. It's insulting and humiliating.

Notification: Yes, swimming in this condition is unpleasant but we don't want to be liberated by any foreign army. The condition we women have here, is better than being raped and then burned (read the yesterday's post to know more). So, no military interference please! We can deal with our domestic problems.