6/30/2007

The Traveler's First Girlfriend

(As I write this piece this evening with my itchy fingers at their worst longing, I wonder whether my younger son, The Traveler, would object to my telling you about it. If you are reading this, it means that he has given me his permission.)
My children were growing up in Tehran, two of millions of their baby boomer generation, learning to negotiate their way in the Iranian society, dodging and avoiding the tightly enforced laws governing social behavior of all, and particularly of the opposite sex together.
He was 12 and in sixth grade (Avval-e Rahnamaee). I had started noticing that he is chatting with someone on Yahoo. And he had started receiving telephone calls from this girl. He had also started to become self-conscious about his appearance, and would take hours sometimes getting dressed. I asked him casually one time about the girl’s name and what grade she was, and he said she is the same age and same grade. Another time I asked him if she was pretty, and he said he had never met her! I asked him how he had come to know her then, and I was astounded when he said that one time he and his friends were walking by a girls school bus after school, and faced with the excitement of the girls inside paying attention to them, the boys had all thrown their scribbled phone numbers into the school bus, each of them receiving phone calls the next day! To my way of thinking, a girl his age knew more about many things, on a faster track to puberty and adulthood, as young girls invariably are as compared to young boys. Looking at my skinny son with that smooth skin and not a hair in sight on his face, I was worried but never said anything, just keeping an eye on the situation.
One time he said that he had made a date with her in Darband (the outskirts of Damavand, where people went mountain climbing in Tehran). He said that she was going to come with several of her friends, and he was going to join them. The image of a bunch of 12-year-old girls whose potential collective jokes and comments could be lethal to any male “joining” them, with my scrawny son in the middle of them, left me worried for him, but other than some general remarks about this, I kept quiet. Then he said the date had been cancelled. Phew, I was relieved! The instant messaging and telephone calls continued.
One day right after the summer break started, he told me if that girl calls, I was to tell her he was not home. Having always been respectful to their privacies, I said fine, but was dying to know what was up and how I could help him. Finally, he told me that he had had a date with the girl one day at 10 a.m. in Vanak Square. He had overslept and had woken up at 9:45, having no access to the girl and knowing that his “getting ready” would take more than an hour, and there was no way he could make it. So, he had called his friend, Shervin, who lived just by Vanak Square, explaining the situation to him, asking him to go meet the girl and, get this, tell her that my son had been in a car accident and couldn’t make it! Shervin had dutifully gone, met the girl and told her the story. The unfortunate piece of news was that upon return from the rendez vous, Shervin told my son that the girl wasn’t pretty at all. So in their gullibility and requisite silliness of that age, they had decided that this relationship wasn’t going to go anywhere and had to be ended!
So when the poor girl kept calling my son, he wouldn’t answer. When, one time, she did manage to catch him on the phone, he had obviously sounded aloof and disinterested in talking. She had asked him what was going on, and in his infinite wisdom, to let her down easily I guess, he had said that during the car accident, he had been hit in the head and had developed amnesia as a result! So, he couldn’t remember that much about his past, including her!
Summer days were dragging by and my son and his wise friend, Shervin, had started going to Enghelab Sports Complex for day camp. One day when he came home he couldn’t wait to tell me the story of what had happened that day. He said that as he and Shervin were walking on the main entrance road of the sports complex, a taxi had passed them by with two girls in it. He said one of the girls waved at Shervin as they passed, and Shervin told my son: “Shit, that’s the girl!” So, as their unbelieving eyes watched, the taxi stopped and started to turn around towards them. He said all he could think about at that time (this is true, believe me) was how he looked sleepy and disheveled (worthy of a bunch of other sleepy 12-year old guys he was going to see in class) and he was not ready to meet any girl looking like that! So, he told me, he quickly jumped behind a bush, pulled his shirt out of his pants, unbuttoned it, spat into his hands (no gel available, right?) bent over to toss his hair and put the spit in it to make it fluffy and more presentable! By this time the cab returned and let the two girls out, and my son got to meet that girl for the first time.
I asked him if she was ugly like Shervin had said, and he said no, she was really pretty! Go figure! He then started dating this girl, his first girlfriend ever, for a while.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

عالی بود.حتی یه لحظه هم نتونستم چشم از مانیتور بردارم تا همه داستان را خواندم.نازی جون شما به من یاد میدین که درسته که نگرانی های بزرگتری از خوردن هسته گیلاس یا بالا رفتن از لبه مبل یا... در انتظار من هست ولی داشتن یک فرزند در هر سنی زیبایی ها و خاطرات خوب خودش را داره.مرسی

Nazy said...

Salam Mana Jan. Thank you. Enjoy your life with your toddler my dear, making memories which you will be responsible for remembering to tell him later. Keeping a blog is a very good step in that direction! He will come read your notes from these days and learn about himself, though I must warn you that our children don't necessarily agree with us on all the details of what really did happen! When they get older, sometimes they only tell us part of what happened, keeping the other half with themselves, so our recollection of the memory is lopsided and only when they start talking about those missing parts can we put them all together and tell a whole one. I have an example of this which I will write about soon, having to do with my older son. Be good Mana Jan.

Anonymous said...

Precious, your son is. He is also a cutie pie. Amnesia, eh? LOL

Nazy said...

Hi Serendip! Yes, "amnesia" is what he said! I always wonder whether the girl on the other side of the phone would believe this stuff! Come to think of it, I have been "the girl on the other side of the phone," and have believed even worse lies! He has been a joker all his life. Even when he was a first grader, he would pull really brave (and stupid) tricks on his older brother, who was three years older and twice his size, and who would get even with him by beating him to a pulp! I was really honored when he let me post this story! I need to find out if he'll let me talk about the night he was arrested in a party when he was 15, spending the night in Vozara. Now, contrary to how that sounds, that is a hilarious story as he says it! Be good Serendip!

Anonymous said...

I also have been on the other side of that phone!! But...I would love to read the Traveler's version of this tale as well...I have a feeling the contrast would be interesting!!

Nazy said...

Assal Jan. He didn't dispute any of this! When they got home last night, I told him I had written it and wanted to post it with his permission, and started reading it to them. My older son objected a few times, but the Traveler himself told him that those were "accurate enough!" The two of them were laughing hard by the time I got to the middle of the story, enjoying it! It was a fun thing to do on a good Saturday night, celebrating life first by myself, and then with the two of them, and last with those who come read my blog!

Anonymous said...

hahhahhaaaaa, It was funny story of delavar mard the second!!
so he has started early to go in this business!! iam sure he is a very successful businessman now!!
say my regards to him,
bayram

Anonymous said...

why do you write in english, beeeeyiatch? your bihoviyyatness is pathetic. also you are a typical iranian mother, only thinking of the well-being of your own tooleh, and not teaching him anything about honesty, responisibility and respect and care for others. in a word: selfishness. why didn't you teach your tooleh that even if he wanted to "dump" the girl, he still had to do it in an honorable way? why didn't you teach him that he should not have left the girl in a state of confusion and their "relationship" in limbo? and why didn't you teach him that he should have been on time for his appointment to begin with? this is exactly the age for a man to learn how to be a man. no wonder most iranian men are so fucked up, most of them have typical iranian mothers.

Nazy said...

Bayram Jan. Thanks for coming. Yes, because he was three years younger than his brother, he seems to have done everything three years earlier than usual! Be good Bayram.

Nazy said...

Dear Brave Anonymous:

1. To my audience who are a bit nicer than you, I have explained why I write in English. I will give you a clue: I write in English for precisely the reason you shouldn't!

2. From my humble post, in fact, you would not know whether or not I taught my son well. You can't even tell what I taught him. I tell a story, because I am a storyteller. When I write posts about social responsibility, I make sure I detail everything that needs to be detailed. When I write little sketches of memory, a lot is left out. People who read my stories often have no idea of the pain was felt in the stories.

3. Therefore, and precisely because the post was not trying to provide sage advice about raising children anywhere, I will only add a couple of things about this. Whether my children are good or bad or will grow up to be good or bad men, i will know soon enough! I know one thing, though, that as a mother who may have done many things wrong, I knew and continue to know a hell of a lot more about my children's emotional state than many other parents I know. I think they have been raised honest enough to talk about their feelings. That's really important, I think. Hopefully, it will never be a hard choice for them to either be Anonymous and rude, or tell their name and mind their language. Be good.

Anonymous said...

dear nazy, the story was so good, i knew that he is so cute as i imagined! ;) and i wonder , how a mother can be so close to her children , and i realy wish to be this close to my child ( children ;) ) just like you ... :)

Anonymous said...

Wonderful FarNice! Thank you for coming. First of all, from what I hear from your very well-written stories, I think you have had a very close relationship with your own mother. I think the worst thing I suffered as a parent raising children in Iran was the social pressures put on parenting by ridiculous laws. A parent constantly has to be watchful of the dangers of arrest and social intimidation of his/her children, on top of being mindful and worried for routine challenges as all parents are. My story depicts a typical pubescent Iranian boy, who wants to learn about and communicate with someone from his opposite sex, but cannot just meet her in a classroom or in a regular setup; so he goes to lengths finding her, talking to her, and then meeting her. I'm sure you agree that this is fairly typical of the Iranian society these days--nothing too exciting there. What continues to be gratifying about parenting my children is the friendship and equality we enjoy in our relationship. Today, as young adults, they are more my friends and roommates than "children," and all three of us know that when circumstances shift soon for them to move out and away, things will never be this way again. We will find a way to make it feel good and wonderful, but it will be a different stage in life, never again this one. You should know FarNice Jan, you have done it successfully and beautifully my dear. Be good azizam. Have a safe and wonderful trip home and please do upkeep your blog with news about yourself, so we can come and know about you. Don't forget to plan a winter holiday in our part of the world. Take care.

Anonymous said...

Nazy,
Interesting story, it could have been a story about one of my kids. I found your web page quite by accident. I was originally looking for current event stories about Iran to see if we were any closer to going to war, with those “Muslim barbarians” that inhabit that part of the world, to see if there was any comments by that crazy, fascist, Iranian President with the scraggly beard and wondering why Muslim’s like to look so “scraggly. The recent unrest over gas prices in Iran also has my interest. I kept thinking that if the Iranians want to live with nuclear energy, then perhaps we, the United States, ought to give them the opportunity to see what life is like on the “business end” of nuclear power...we did that with the Japanses in WWII and they are running around threatening to kill infidels. The world wouldn’t miss a million or so barbarians whose only interest was in blowing them selves up, cutting the heads off of innocent Iraqis, or murdering American soldiers. Several nuclear detonations would be much more effective than car bombs, wouldn’t it? It might send a clear message to our other Muslim “friends” about playing around with nuclear fire, as well…

…but then I couldn’t tell if the story took place in Iran or in the US; then I read that you lived in Berkley, CA. Then, I read the story again, and again. The story begins to sound like it could have been a story about one of my kids, or even about me, written by my late mother. I especially like the part where he (your son, I assume) jumped into the bushes to fix his hair. Then, I asked my self, “was this something one of those murdering “rag heads” would do?”. I thought they wanted to subjugate women, why would he care about making a good impression on this young girl? It sounded more and more like my youngest son. Then I read the story again, then I read about the blond Iranian professor in Canada and I started to think…?

After reading several stories written by intelligent, caring individuals I realized that maybe, just maybe the Iranians are not the murdering, backward, 7th Century minded, barbarians I thought they were. The story could have written by an American mother (although, the English grammar was flawless, I could detect that it was written by a person whose native tongue was not American English). The caring and humorous manner in which it was written indicated a sensitive, intelligent mother who loved her children and was interested in her child’s development as a person and an individual in the same way that I love and am interested in the lives of my children.

So maybe, just maybe, I can tell my oldest son, as he prepares to go off to war, that if/when he comes into contact with the Iranian, facist foe on the Iraq/Iran border, that maybe a few of the enemy (just maybe) may be part to the same civilized society that produced the caring lady that wrote this story and that there may be a trace of humanity, as we understand it, on the other side.

Terry
Atlanta, Georgia
USA

Anonymous said...

Terry, honestly pal, even for an american you sound too stupid, and that is not easy to achieve. I don't know if it's something in the air or the water of USA or something else, but somehow it has the capability of producing extreme cases of submoronic pigs such as yourself. Motherfucker, how hard is it for you to understand that your attitude is just an extension of your racist past? It doesn't matter that your subjects of hate are not a particular "race" nowadays (although even that element is quite alive still), __it's their religion now__ it is the mentality and mindset that numbskulls like you have that is the same. In other words, you don't say "nigger" now, but you say "sand nigger" or "ragheads" or "towelheads". And who the fuck you think you are to "give the opportunity" to someone else? And yes our president is not handsome that's for sure, but neither is yours, you dumbfuck. Bush looks AND ACTS like a retarded baboon. Finally, Iran has a lot more freedom than USA, because we are not a nation slave to the Jews, but you losers are. No public person in USA, be it a politician, media figure, religious leader, or any category, can afford to speak his or her mind freely about Israel in USA. Slightest critisim of Israel would be tantamount to committing a career suicide in your fucking country. Even after 911 in addressing your nation, your baboon of a president lied and said "they attack us because they hate democracy", without even for a fraction of a second saying it has anything to do with your Israel policy. Didn't even mention Israel. If they attacked you because they hate democracy, why haven't they attacked Oslo, or Reyjavick or Copenhagen? They are bigger symbols of democracy, easier targets, and a lot closer geographically. Now go learn how to drop your racist pig redneck attitude before posting on people's pages, so that you don't make a fool of yourself again.

Anonymous said...

Nazi joon it was amazing. I have this concern of not knowing my child well when he becomes a teenager since what he is going to experience, either here or back in Iran, will be more like what you just explained about your son and less like what I was interfering with growing up. I am gathering information, mingling with young men and mothers of teenagers to get to increase my information.
And honestly, the note from Terry drenched my heart in worry. You have read my post earlier and you know what I mean. I wish people would not judge on propaganda. It is scary and I feel helpless in proofing myself. Your weblog rocks!

Anonymous said...

terry: Sadly, some people get paid by posting the same vitriolic all over the blogsphere without changing their reptitive mantra. I have seen the same exact post in another blog with a few changes here and there.

Anonymous and his ilk's fanaticism is an instructive example on how cultist, twisted, messianic khomeinist garbage consumption by the corrupt and degenerate ayatollahs, ideological indoctrination, and plain individual idiocy can result in such absurd and fallacious and illogical comments. Spewing hatred and bigoted nuisance that only discredits the spewer further. Hie foul language displays his poor upbringing as well and I must say it's a common thread among all the brainwashed Islamists of different stripes.

Islamic Republic is a shameful factory of vulgarity and hate-filled bigotry of the most repulsive type. Nothing to salvage there. Inviting David Duke to Iran as Ahmadinejad's honored guest speaks volume to the rabid racism and bigotry that ails the entire ruling regime.

Anonymous said...

Dear Terry:

Thank you for coming and thank you for commenting. I am glad our paths have crossed in cyberspace. As we stand here, looking at each other as human beings, I am glad to meet you. This is one of the reasons I blog in English, so that I can hear you, and you can hear me. I do live in the San Francisco Bay Area now, but have gone back and forth between the two continents numerous times, mostly taking care of familial obligations, but taking the opportunity to know places, people, and customs of both countries, trying to be both a good Iranian and a good American. Many of the memories I sketch took place in Iran, but if you look through my blog, I also talk about my joyful American life, so that my Iranian audience also gets a flavor of my sentiments about my life in the US.

I must say I am touched by your honesty and forthrightness. Like some others, perhaps I could get emotional and object to being stereotyped and generalized, or worried at the suggestion of a war (even a nuclear one!) against Iran. I don’t. I believe understanding among nations will be the basis for overcoming the ills, poverty, wars, and hate in the world. I think everyone should do their share to promote what they think, what they know, and who they are and in this cultural exchange, many good things will develop. Yes, I am a mother, to more than just my two sons, Terry. I am a volunteer mother to a generation of young Iranians who have been born post Islamic Revolution, and who continue to try to find a sense of identity as citizens of this world. They are bright, beautiful, curious, and thoughtful, and display immense stamina in learning. Almost all of them know some English, and as you can see some of them speak it flawlessly; most of them access the internet in search of information and understanding; and they are well-versed in world politics, literature, and cinema, among other things.

As I continue to tell anyone who would listen to me (!) we must put faces on the “extras” we might be tempted to imagine. Much like Americans, Iranians are devoted to their families, have good moral standards, care a lot about education and learning, care about their environment and the world in which they live, and value friendship and peace. Politicians come and go, Terry, and they can say things we like or dislike, but if nations are taught lessons of love and understanding for each other, it would be hard for any politician to start a war amongst people who have developed that understanding and friendship. I wish no war, no invasion, and no fear for my motherland of Iran. I wish no young man and woman in the world to be injured and killed in a war. I wish no child in the world to fear bombs, landmines, and bullets. I hate wars and I think within my limited means, I am doing my best to avoid them by promoting understanding.

Again, I’m glad you came. If you are interested, please do visit webistes where other Iranians write in English and you can develop a better understanding from them. Iranian immigrants comprise the most educated immigrant community in the US, according to a recent study at MIT. They might have a message you would like to hear. In addition, I have blogger friends who blog in English, and you might like visiting them to find out more about how the Iranian community in the US and in the world think, contrary to what some might think, trying hard to bring understanding, justice, and peace to the world. Iranian.com (an internet magazine entirely in English--http://iranian.com); IranWrites (she has an excellent recent article about Ahmadinejad--http://iranwrites.blogspot.com); Serendip (who has a fantastic collection links to Iranian blogs in English, mostly striving for human rights in Iran--http://fleetingperusal.blogspot.com); Tameshk (who talks about arts--http://tameshk13.blogspot.com/); Iranian Prospect (an Iranian journalist’s articles mostly in the human and women’s rights domain--http://omidmemarian.blogspot.com/); and Blogs By Iranians, a site where many English Iranian blogs are listed--http://blogsbyiranians.com.

I wish you and your family happiness and health, and pray for your son’s safety and speedy return.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous:

You are obviously an intelligent and educated Iranian. I won't give you a sermon my friend (aren't you relieved?)! Just to say that my experience tells me if you have a message that you wish heard, you must find a suitable mechanism (both the medium the process) in which to say it. When we get too emotional in expressing our opinions, our argument has the tendency to scare our audience away and botching our message. This is my home and you are welcome in it, which is why I don't moderate comments, so long as you observe simple rules of social conduct in avoiding use of profanities and insulting language. If only you knew how much I want to hear your opinions, you wouldn't rush in telling me about them with such haste and intensity, scaring me a little bit in the process! It's o.k. if you scare me, I suppose, but then all the fun of coming to visit my house would be ruined for you and others! Be good Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Nimeh Shab Jan:

Oh boy, I didn't imagine this post to become so controversial! Thank you for coming back and thank you for your remark.

We can keep repeating that "sterotyping is not fair." But repeating that statement won't take it away Nimeh Shab! As educated Iranians, we must each try to create dialogues which are helpful to promoting our culture and our way of thinking. This is a hard uphill road with millimetric progress, but it is the only one forward. I have experienced excellent results with my non-Iranian friends, who have taken the time to listen to me and to be my friends for the past three decades. In them I saw a possibility for friendship, understanding, and love which I now suggest to you. We must all keep on working on it. Take care my friend.

Anonymous said...

Dear Nazy,
Thank you very much for your kind words. I see that my first impression of your intelligence and kind spirit is, in fact, correct. An extremist would not have responded to me as you did. When I first saw the response of Mr. Anonymous, I thought at first that the “story” I was trying to tell was misunderstood by the Iranian audience I was talking to. I was trying to tell “my” story because you see my position on Iran is in the process of changing. Oddly enough, I have been fascinated with Iran for many, many years. As of late (probably since 9/11) I have been on quest to better understand the Muslim word…more so than before 9/11. Like most Americans, I was busy in my own life trying to provide for my family, provide a life where my children and wife could experience the good things in life, and since 9/11 I have been reading many books on the Muslim world to try and understand our “differences”. I always thought that we, as humans, had more in common that we were different. I have traveled much of the Western world and the entire US, and thought we were generally the same and I thought I pretty well understood many of the shortcomings of the US when viewed by others in the world. However, since 9/11 I have been very curious about the mid-east- wanting to understand the people more. As individuals I think we can transcend politics.

I am very grateful to both you and Serendip for responding to me. You see, over the past few months I have been reading more and more web sites and blogs by Iranians and was very impressed by the intelligence, sensitivity and poetic manner in which many Iranians express themselves and I agree that Iranians are a very educated, sophisticated immigrant community here in the US; I wish I knew some personally. I have found myself reading as many things as I could written by American writers about the need of the American government to engage with the Iranian citizenry, to communicate with them about our common values. It seems that we, as intelligent people, may have more in common than we realize. I do not think we have to have a war-I hope we are not too late. God knows we do not need an atomic exchange of weaponry.

However, I digress; if you don’t mind let me tell you a little about my story: The point I was trying to make in my blog post on your site (and it is my first post on any blog) that I became a victim of my own fears and emotions and lead the story off by talking about looking at all things Iranian thru very belligerent “glasses”. As I said, my oldest son decided to enlist in the US Army after grading from a prestigious technical school here in Atlanta. His degree was in Computer Science and after working as a programmer for a year he decided he wanted more excitement in his life and went into the Army to become an officer, just as I had done many years ago. As you can imagine, I am even more concerned about the situation in the mid east now than I was a year ago. After reading many Iranian blogs, I began to wonder how we could be at odds when we seem to have so much in common. I was touched by the story of your son, because it could have just as easily have been a story about my son or about me when I was his age. In short, I began to feel or sense the common humanity we shared. Our most important reasons for living are our families and any people that share that same sense of purpose can find more in common that not. As pointed out, even by Mr. Anonymous, I was a victim of my own stereotypical views on the mid east. It was refreshing and gratifying to understand that that maybe I did not have a full appreciation of the “humanity” on the other side of the question. THAT’S AGOOD THING in my opinion.

So the point of my posting was to acknowledge a turning point; you told a funny story about your family that I could totally relate to because I have experienced the exact same thing with my youngest son. Fortunately, he confides many things about his pursuit of knowledge of the “opposite sex” and it is a privilege to hear his stories and answer his questions about girls/women because it almost gives me a chance to relive the days of my youth. My youngest son is now a young man with only one more year in college and we have had a very open relationship through out his life...just as you seem to do with your son.

That’s the point of my posting. I have changed my perception of the Iranian people. I look forward to talking to you and any other Iranian who visits your site, to in include Mr. Anonymous. Thank you for letting me meet you thru your blog.

Until the next time.

Terry
Atlanta, GA
US of A

Anonymous said...

Nazy joon, I believe this is your blog and the communication is yours to take care of. I just wanted to let "you" know my feeling. I have encountered a few other misunderstandings in the past week that made me worried and I just impressed that. However, by all means I believe in dialogue and I rather be given the chance to talk before being judged or even worst hated. I love the dialogue going on between you and Terry, happy to be given the chance to get to know you and Terry better.

Anonymous said...

Dear Terry: Thank you for coming back and for further clarifying your viewpoints. I am honored to have been the first recipient of your comments in a blog! I so appreciate the effort you obviously seem to have been making to understand the why's and how's of the seemingly ugly turn of events in the world. I, too, am concerned about them and I become paralyzed with fear whenever another horrible episode of violence and hate breaks out in the world. Aside from greed, which always has a way of inducing and polarizing any dispute, even on a tribal level in the world, I believe that some of what the new world is expereincing is the difference in living standards of the world's "have's and have not's." I believe that there is a deep reaching out by the poor and disadvantaged of the world to make theselves known and to demand a better life. Corrupt politicians and greedy business people make things worse and provide fuel to the fires that now threaten the world's humanity. Sometimes I think if our mission was "to leave the world a better place than we found it," then my generation has been a hopeless failure in meeting that mission! Then I think that in feeling paralyzed and disappointed, more evils will grow and darkness will overcome us all, so we must do something, anything, to promote our voice, the voice that demands peace, understanding, and hope.

I am glad you are concerned and that you are searching for he truth. I have no doubt that he who searches it will find it. Iran is a complicated country which amidst its mounting adversities, has the world's youngest population in it. Contrary to common belief, Iran's most valuable resource is not oil, I believe. It is the minds of some 50 million people under the age of 30. I think they should be given a chance and a voice to fix Iran and to elevate it to the level it deserves.

I am happy for your children to have a father who continues to search, learn, and grow. That is such a good example by which to live.

I would say one more thing before I let you go. I consider myself a very fortunate woman for never forgetting where I came from, Iran, and how good that country and its people are, and for appreciating my life in the US, where I can live as I wish, do as I want, continue to learn and grow (even at my age!), and to be able to have what only a few very lucky in the people can have--the best of both worlds. Be good Terry, and do come back. You are a perfect audience--interested, energetic, and interesting!

Anonymous said...

Nimeh Shab Jan: The pleasure is all mine! I have never had this many comments on a post! This has been invigorating and interesting. My dream is to have a big house when I retire, into which people of many backgrounds, nationalities, and beliefs come together over meals I will make them to talk about life! Since I am not there yet, and I don't have the means to retire and buy that house anytime soon, I settle for the pure joy of hearing people's voices and ideas whether in their homes and blogs, or mine over the internet! Your blog is one of the ones I truly enjoy visiting, though it won't be easy for Terry to come, as it's in Farsi! I'll just have to tell him and others about it! Be good my friend.

Anonymous said...

It sound there are interesting argues going on here. I would like blogs as we can all come with different ideas and practice democracy in our own small space.
I don’t want answer anyone here, as people should search the truth by their own eyes. I don’t know how much Terry will get from here or how other flews are getting defense by our Mr.(or Mrs) anonymous.
Iran is not what mass media try to sell us. I consider myself an educated woman who came from a minority group, if I consider my gender it is going to be double discrimination, but I got some good education in Iran. My family practice and tought me how to value myself and others beside what we bombarded every d ay by mass media.
The other thing I want to consider is we can not compare two countries together. We have different background, culture, history and our own barriers.
I guess lot s of this madness is coming through comparison. If we have critics about one subject, in general, are we going to put blame on other subjects or facts?
The argue does not sound right to me.
But as I mention first, it is the way we can practice democracy and freedom of speech. If it is a dream outside, in both US and Iran society, we can have it here.
By the way Nazy jan, keep going your way to show your beautiful and lovely countries to other, as it was your original goal. I wish my English was as good as yours and I could write my posts in English too

Anonymous said...

serendip, you dirty jew, you wrote this: "I have seen the same exact post in another blog with a few changes here and there." -- ok, then show us just one or two links of such posts. you will not be able to, because you lied. if what you said is true, then simply put a few links here so we can compare. for your good information, iran is a nation that is more than 99% muslim (sure, everybody isn't religious, but they are still muslims) and less than 1% non-muslim. (ferdowsi, nezami, saadi, hafiz) - (ibn sina, biruni, khawrazmi, razi) - (ibn muqaffa, sibuya, sohrevardi) -- (and hundreds of other greatest minds who contributed greatly to the world) were also MUSLIM IRANIANS. you live in USA and have ZERO clue about iran, its people and its culture. and as it is clear from your pathetic post, even over there, you have a servile and subservient attitude and mindset. also i saw on your blog another big jewish lie of yours: QUEEN ESTHER?!! haha, first of all, "queen" my ass. secondly, there is not even a single shred of historical evidence to corroborate this jewish fallacious tale. even jewish scholars don't consider the story of esther real history, and they classify it as "didactic religious fable". so how could there be tombs and buildings in hamadan over the supposedly grave of that bitch and her smelly uncle, Mordechai the mordekhor? any lower an IQ, you'd be a kosher turnip.

Anonymous said...

Nazy jan'
it is 2:00 am and I just got home from my trip. i see it has been some intressting dialouge here. you are a wonderful mom in all mean, a wonderful freind and a great human being. i love your blog, i love your writting and i love your style, keep doing good work

Anonymous said...

anonymous: I'm glad your bigotry is on full display for everyone to see. You sound a great deal like those agents who used to be obssessed day and night with Dr. Zin's blog. I think he is in the process of changing his blog but comments very similiar like this can be found in the archives of that blog).You use the exact same tactics ; even the same references.
Consider yourself ignored,from now on, I don't wish to debate those who are consumed with hatred. BTW, I'm not a jew but I would've been honored if I was one. Thanks for confirming my assertions. May you see the light.

Nazy said...

Leva Jan: Thank you for coming. I agree with you. The very process of hearing each other's point of view, whether agreeing, opposing or differing from that of ours, is a wonderful experience. I think you handle this task better than anybody else in your blog my dear! Take care.

Nazy said...

Mehran: Yes, while you were away, lots of things happened! Just kidding. I hope you have had a good time in the City of Angels! Thank you for your kind words Mehran.