8/03/2007

Shooing Her Demons

A young friend of mine is going through a difficult, yet important transition. She is acknowledging some difficulties she has and is seeing a specialist for help. I am so very proud of anyone who can gather the courage to face his/her demons and to seek help in driving them out. I think the younger Iranian generation handle their lives so much better than our generation did, pained with “what would others say?”, fearing labels, and struggling with reservations (roo-dar-vaisi) even with ourselves. Way to go my brave young friend.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for her! People who seek help will always find a way out of their problems. If you don't acknowledge a problem, how else will you drive it away?!

Anonymous said...

God, that "what would others say" trapping is the most annoying part of the Iranian culture...I never understood it and I never will.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Assal Jan. Some things we can't do by ourselves and we must be strong and smart enough to recognize that. I'm very proud of her.

Anonymous said...

Serendip. In Iran and other countries in that part of the world, there is a "tribal" way of thinking which is very old. Because tribes always competed with each other, members of a tribe stayed together, keeping secrets about the tribe to themselves, lest they might increase their vulnerabilities to their competition. That's where that way of thinking comes from, I think. Tribal living has its own benefits of feeling supported and cared for by a group whom you can trust, but on the downside, all the trepidations and reservations about acting as "individuals." Of course, I'm not an expert on the subject. This is just my personal thinking on the subject. I remember when many moons ago a friend of mine tried to break up her engagement with a man, her mother talked her out of it because, she reasoned, everybody knew about the engagement and what would people say? The new generation doesn't do things that way anymore, I'm glad to report.