| Entry for April 6, 2008 What’s going on in Iran I went to Iran in 2008 to conduct some personal research about the history of Iran. I saw a lot of interesting things. Some were sad and some were interesting for me. I saw people in the street who were paying attention to everything except the law. For example, nearly all drivers including taxi drivers don’t pay any attention to the pedestrian crossings. I asked them, “Why don’t you obey the law?” They said, “Because we are so busy and hard workers. We don’t have time for things like giving way to people.” Many people in Iran are not interested in what is going on around them. Also, I found that a lot of men are so arrogant. You can easily see their misbehavior everywhere. The interesting thing is that they blame everyone; especially the system but they do not take responsibility for their own actions. There is no security for lots of women. In big cities like Tehran women have become easy targets for petty criminals and other men who annoy them. These bad men can get away with harassment because the streets are overcrowded with busy, weary workers. Although Iranian law is strict against sexual harassment, most of the time a woman cannot find a witness to support her, because the man harasses her discretely. There are 3 groups of women in Iran. The first group is scared to complain to the person who is harassing her. This is because if she complained, her reputation would then be under question. People would ask her what she had done to provoke such harassment. The second group is women who like such attention by men. This attention may put them in more trouble. The third group, which is by far the majority, is women who try to defend themselves. Some of them even hit the men who harass them. These women don’t get any support because people are scared. People seem to be scared for no reason about many things. They just imagine the dangers, rather than knowing that the perceived dangers are real. I had a guide, whose name was Kasra. He always talked to me in a paranoid way, when there was no real need to be so overly cautious. However, he was so honest in looking after my money and helped me in so many ways. Young People in Iran Iran is one of the youngest countries in the world, in terms of population. More than half of the population is under 30 years old. These young people are very good, but there is often a problem with the attitude they have. Instead of realizing how much the Western World owes to Iran and the Middle East, as the birthplace of civilization, they tend to idealize the West and get frustrated with the way Iran is. For example, there are many successful young doctors who think they can migrate to a Western country, such as Australia, and straight away get a good job in their profession. However, when they arrive, they face huge obstacles and have to work very hard in low-paying jobs for quite a while until they can get the employment they desire. They often “waste” a lot of time and money in this process and may get depressed during this stage. This situation is even worse for young Iranians who emigrate without any real qualifications. In Iran, there are many young men who refuse to work in low-paid and low-status jobs. The low-status jobs are done by immigrants in Iran. The young people these days only want a very comfortable life, without having to work hard for the luxuries of life. Some of the young people are so good and study and work hard to pay for the school and for university themselves.
Marriage in Iran Marriage in Iran has become more complicated than it used to be. Now, it is extremely expensive in so many ways. The girls ask for everything in a kind of pre-nuptial agreement where the man has to sign a contract that he will give the bride a house, a car, lots of solid gold jewelry, and so on. This system grew out of tradition, but has changed into a way of trying to ensure against divorce. However, because the focus is more on expectations than love, this pre-nuptial agreement system seems to actually increase the chances of divorce. If the young people would really love each other and humbly and patiently work together to earn the money to realistically pay for the lifestyle they desire, things would be much better. Writers and Film Producers There is one group of people in Iran that has a great opportunity to help change the culture in a positive way, and that is the writers and film producers. However, they don’t get enough real support from the government or the people. As soon as they make something, it is copied cheaply without any regard to copyright. Therefore, the writers and producers never get the money they are entitled to for their work and can’t afford to continue. What is more, the censorship system is so strict that it stifles most progressive ideas. The Education Department The Education Department does not give enough knowledge about following civil rules and laws to the people. Another thing about this Department is that it does not look after all the children. In Iran, we have more than half a million kids working in the street. No-one seems to care about these children. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, I saw many young girls in the street who have to work for their families rather than go to school because of the poverty in the society. Who is responsible for these children in the street? Who is Arash Ibrahimi
Some Iranians, such as Mr. Ibrahimi became incredibly rich and powerful in Iran. After a long time ruling in Iran and being unkind to Iranian people, they decided to run away from Iran and became the sponsor of the poor and needy people in the world. It is ironic that such people have become refugees themselves, when they actually managed to take large amounts of money out of Iran. I would like to ask these Iranian men who claim to be looking after people’s rights whether they can see the problems of poor Iranian children who can’t study because they have to work to support their families in. I’m so surprised that lots of men like Mr. Ibrahimi outside of Iran talk about rights and have become members of some charity organizations in the USA. They have forgotten that the USA has never been a friend to Iranians. I would like to ask these people if they are looking for more power and to be famous in the world, please do not use the poor people of Iran for your own advantage. It is better to do something positive such as giving money, rather than just being critical. We should not help powerful people to run away with the money from Iran, such as has happened when men working for embassies have “fled” to the USA.
Iranian Government Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has to give more money to the children who need to go to school but do not have enough money for study. He has to give more money to women who don’t have anybody in their lives, especially to the widows and their children. The government of Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gives some money to the women who do not have any income but the money it is not enough for them. Iranians need to be kind with them more than anything else.
The old people Still you can see the old men going at the front of people’s houses and do the traditional jobs and that was so nice for me to see. On the other hand, many young people refuse to do such jobs. They would rather be unemployed than have this kind of job.
نوشته شده م.س سنجری
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