Veiled or not?!

1347 warnings & guidance

117 detainees

59 referred cases to the court

20 sealed clothes shops

47 attached cars

After calling a halt to those who are assumed to be badly veiled, Iranian police have started a confrontation with the women in the streets under the name of increasing the social security! Above mentioned are the statistics for the first day of the challenging campaign, started at April 21.

Along with the launched campaign of the police, you can see some biased TV reports in which, people in the street just accept that "bad hijab" ones have lots of bad effects on the society & even appreciate the police to confront them!

It's not the first year that the police forces are trying to make people obey the governmental dress codes which are said to be originated from Islam. Every year, at the beginning of the hot seasons, such limitative police moves could be seen in the streets. This year, however, it's been started sooner & in a more restricted way as it seems. Also for the first time it is said that the codes for men's dress are going to be announced. Maybe men & women are reaching equality in being arrested at least!

Picture: AFP/Behrouz Mehri

PS.: It was just a snapshot. You can read more about these challenges about hijab in Iran, in the next days.

Running backward

Sitting here at my desk, I'm hearing the dreamy voice of Mohamad Nouri, a famous, old, pop vocalist in Iran, who is singing about our motherland. Words are pouring out of his mouth & surrounding me like all those memories I've had in this country. All those beautiful scenes I've seen while walking in very ordinary but warm & unforgettable streets of it.

My country isn't in a good mood these days. Not only has our life been shadowed by dark clouds of war, but it also has some other unpleasant sides. The worst one is the lack of hope, I think. Hope to change, hope to see a better situation, hope to live in a better society, in a calmer mood. In spite of all social, cultural & even political reforms we are trying to make, there are lots of people who feel tired. Even lots of our social activists! That is the Achilles' heel of our reformative movements, in my opinion. Not being patient enough to stay and see the result of the ongoing match, lots of my friends are planning to leave the game! Considering the developing market of the English (and other foreign languages) training institutes in these years, we will find out how the dream of living somewhere other than their own country, has been popular among our compatriots. The more educated, young & fresh you are, the more tempted you will get to face leaving! It seems to be ironic that those who can be the only sources of change & reform, are the desperate ones, running away from the deteriorating situation of their country!

As the song is describing the sunrise & the sunset, the rain & the snow, the spring & the autumn of our beloved land, I'm thinking about my friends. Are they happy in their new homes? Haven't they missed any thing in their lives? Haven't been lost in a foreign culture? Hope not!

Blindfolded citizens

The murmuring sound of ambiguity is crawling into the labyrinthine paths of future's ears. Having been surrounded by a state of uncertainty, we have been knocking at all the possible doors as they might be opened to a brighter horizon. There have always been moments in which a mighty push has appeared to trigger a tendency toward giving up everything. Such tendencies are not supposedly considered as unlikely events. Nowadays it is obvious that the number of people, especially that of young ones, who are being grown with built-in adaptability features is increasing. Not being sure to call this increase considerable, I'm almost certain this will be considerable if no consistent change in viewpoints toward calling the certain rights does occur.
Numerous are the occasions within which people face bending of rules while they don't make any corresponding objection. We are not accustomed to pursuing our civil rights; as a matter of fact most of us are not even aware of these rights. Seemingly, we are just taking the primary steps toward citizenship and among the actions considered urgent, exercising our legal rights is one of those of high priority. We're blindfolded citizens.

Peep-show

Having made her will, our Indian guest stepped into the wonderland. Her coming, which had been initially considered as a big risk, as she claimed, was made after clashes between her adventurous character and her husband's concerns about security. Eventually she came and soon after her arrival, those faked images faded away and husband-made concerns turned into unrealistic gossip-based illusions.
Mentioned above was a brief description of an example among thousand others which resembles a quick glance at a snapshot of images of Iran neither completely true nor highly inviting.
Standing like an impenetrable wall, the outer face of our country is not properly representing what is taking place inside. Since the number of English blogs being written by Iranians, especially those of authors who are not disappointed of living within the borders of their own country yet, in comparison with Persian ones fails to build a large fracture, we are just going to add to the holes on the wall in order to create a peep-showlike watching opportunity. We begin with mallet and chisel but we are thinking of a drilling machine.

Finding Neverland

A quick search of the word "blog" on the net shows you that there are lots of them on the fantastic world of wwws. Millions of them in fact! What is our share, Iranians I mean, among all these new ways of expressing minds, thoughts & cultures? Fortunately a lot again! There is a great number of Persian blogs on the net that are showing our feelings, activities & different ways of lives. Times Online says that Farsi is now the fourth most widely used language on weblogs. It is said that there are about 700000 Iranian blogs & at least 40000-110000 of them are active. Isn't it great? Sure it is; but there seems to be a paradox here. Having all these real, written lifestyles described on the unbordered web space, why we can't see any clear image of ours & our country in the world? Why all those tourists who come here for the first time, should be that astonished by our normal & some how modern lives & shout "Oh you are not those terrorists about whom I'd heard!"? Why they hear anything, but our own words directly from us? There is a simple answer: we don't write in English.

Nearly all those Iranian bloggers are writing in Persian, just for other Iranians. There are just very few individuals who are trying to show the real face of Iran to the world through their English blogs. You can find the address of most of them here. You see? The number of those who are inside Iran is so little! Maybe we've been sluggish or didn't have enough confidence to begin to write in a foreign language. But, in the world of communications, those who can't show themselves & their capabilities, can't live!

The blog you are reading is a little step, necessary, vital maybe but not enough. We, all should realize the necessity of direct contact to the world beyond our mother born language & try to make it real. If not, we may regret the lost opportunities of revealing the truth!