Azadeh

Dear Serendip has done me a great favor and translated my first Persian post. Here is her perfect translation:

When I asked from my country’s police:

“Why that night when I was stranded in the middle of Tehran-Karaj freeway without any gas inside our Peykan (cheap Iranian made car), he passed us by in his elegant Mercedes Benz and he refused to help me.”

He cussed at me and used foul language and expletives, many of which, I had not ever heard of before until that night. At the end, he wanted to take me to the police station but when I started to apologize profusely, he took pity on me and did not take me.

My country’s police, when they want to evict an Afghani worker from a building, they throw him down from the window of fifth floor building and it’s not important for him if he dies soon after.

My country’s police, arrests me, if I want to be the parents of a child that I gave birth to.

My country’s police, if he doesn’t like the way I have put my hejab on, cusses at me and beats me on the head with his baton.

But I can’t curse at my country’s police, because my uncle is a policeman and I love my uncle.

…but I want to curse those who have sanctified arbitrarily every which authority and power and have never allowed me to talk about them.

When My president lied.

When my parliament representative did not defend the rights of my teacher

When my police killed a human being because of his crime of being an Afghani

And when a father in the narrow alleyways of my city stoned his own daughter to death.

P.S. You can read the study by Stanford University and see how ordinary human beings like you and I can potentially become the most merciless prison guard in a matter of two days.

Filed under: Police, Veil, Women | 15 Comments »

There are some times that I crave to write in Persian, in which my thoughts find their way directly to my typing fingers, without going forward and backward for editing. Here is the other Azadeh in Persian.

Filed under: Personal | 5 Comments »

I was watching the photographs taken at the Miss Universe national costume parade published in Herald Sun. I was surprised by the very peaceful costume of Israel. Although I have so many problems with what Israel does in Palestine, this picture is carved in my mind as another aspect of Israel.

It could be just a coincidence, but here is the picture of what’s happening in my country these days. The police tries to support a state-run costume which many women do not want to follow.

Yes, the following is the costume of my country. And I am so proud of all the women who fight for their very basic rights.

Here is a list of some blogs condemning the police brutality.

p.s. It was reported that in response to the police warnings and brutality toward women’s dress, some of them unveiled themselves and others are threatening to do the same.

Filed under: Police, Veil, Women | 21 Comments »

When I was in high school, my friend and I made a promise, her name is Azadeh too. We were so much into being better human beings and defined our own system. It was quite simple and effective. If you do anything wrong you should pay a few Tomans, Iranian currency where 1 USD is 850 Tomans. As far as I remember our system had some sort of reward for good acts too, but we were in debt all the time. At the end of the school year, we spent the money to go to an art museum and have pizza together which was pretty surprising for me. The system worked really good for me not because I had to pay for my faults, but mostly because I am too competitive and I could not stand to be worse than her. Or to be honest, I strongly care about my public image.

Now I am going to make the same system for myself and use my friends here as the motivation. I want to make a promise each month and at the end of the month I would report a daily curve of the number of my shiftinesses.

The promise of this month is: “I will treat everybody with the highest degree of respect, no matter how I feel about them“.

Wish me luck.

Filed under: Personal | 14 Comments »

Last night I have watched the first movie of Matrix series with a few friends of mine. I don’t know how many times I watched the movie, but it touches me every time. I remember the first time I watched the movie and I could not stop thinking, “am I in another Matrix?”. Even now, I have to remind myself several times whether I have changed to another battery for Matrix or not.

Filed under: Personal | 10 Comments »

After being hibernated for a long while and leaving my blog, I come back today with this post. Kamangir believes Shaghaiegh is very hard to spell and even he can not spell it easily. As there are always tons of people before you in the virtual world of www, I was not able to find any domain in wordpress which I would like to switch my blog to. Kamangir has generously offered to host me in his domain with the name I am proud of, Azadeh in Persian means freedom. So, hello everybody and hopefully I won’t disappear this time. By the way being in Kamngir’s domain does not mean my blog is as prosperous as his.

Filed under: Personal | 22 Comments »

First Shot:

These days wearing hijab and being modest with Islamic Republic of Iran scale is one of the hottest topics in Iranian blogstan and news. A video of arresting a girl for her “immodest” attire and her pathetic objection to the police forces and a picture taken by Maryam (which was spread by Masih) showing a little boy crying and begging for his mum’s release were on top of the news for a while.

Second Shot:

Yesterday after a student drew a bald angel in a class in Arts faculty of Tehran University a discussion happened between the instructor and a female student who was wearing hijab (see). It was ended by an unwise act from the instructor. In order to make a funny connection between being bald and wearing hijab, he pulled a portion of the student’s hair from beneath her veil and told the other students “no! she does have hair”. The mocked embarrassed student said nothing in the class and her husband is going to file a case against the instructor. The eighty-year-old instructor is expelled and students are protesting in front of Tehran University.

I don’t want to say that what was happened in Tehran University could be a foolish action from an old instructor who has tried to make his students laugh. Or how embarrassing the situation was for the veiled female. Or choosing the clothe is the everybody’s obvious right and no one can force the others to wear a special attire. To my understanding both cases are different faces of the coin: Not respecting the privacy of the people in their very personal matters.

The astonishing point for me was the comments of the Pasdaran blog readers for what happened in Tehran University:

leave it to us his throat and the blade
(ما ميدانيم و تيغ و حلقوم شما)

Anyone who has a word and supporting the … instructor give me his address, I have a word with him. Swear to my ancestor if no one wants to do something I myself know what to do. Dear Abazar give more information
(هر کسی حرفی داره و طرفدار اون استاد فاسد کثافت هستش یه آدرس از خودش بده خودم باهاش حرف دارم… به جدم قسم اگر کسی نخواد برخورد کنه خودم میدونم چیکار کنم…اباذر جان بیشتر اطلاع بده)

Dear Abazar, just give the name of the instructor. Swear to the God I kill him myself. Just the name
( فقط یه اسم از استاد مربوطه بگید ابوذر جان… به خدای لاشریک خودم میکشمش… فقط یه اسم)

I was wondering how these guys can justify murdering a human being even if he has deliberately satirized the girl. It is noticeable that the second and the third guys have not even read the blog carefully to see the instructor’s name there. I know these kinds of comments are frequent among this generation of religious guys, but they are still shocking and for me. I don’t know if the female student has ever thought of what the girl of the movie or that mum has felt when facing brutal impolite police forces.

Filed under: Religion, Social behavior | 9 Comments »

I want to go far away; to somewhere no one knows me, never have heard of me or seen me

I want to go and find a blue sky, a wavy sea and a field full of flowers

I want to go and find a warm sun, lie on the grass and let colorful leaves of the fall cover me forever

Filed under: Personal | 7 Comments »

This is my first post in my first weblog. I would like to keep writing here and share part of my life and believes with you.

Shaghayegh is the Persian translation of Corn Poppy which is my favorite flower. There is a Persian poem says “as long as a Corn Poppy exists we should live”. I think it refers both to its beauty and growing abilities.

Thanks so much to Kamangir for his encouragement and great help.

Thanks to Kosoof for his nice photo.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 16 Comments »