it is so beautiful to see Iranians all around the world uniting with protests and vigils in support of the protesters of Iran and in remembrance of those who died. I just got back from one in portland. there was a funeral procession with coffins for those who have died followed by 15 minutes of silence where 100’s of portland Iranians were sitting with their hands holding the peace sign. it was so beautiful. then they played Joan Baez’s song for the Iranian people, “We Shall Overcome” with words in Farsi. it made me cry. this was followed by old nationalistic Iranian songs. at that point my tears were like rivers. these songs are so touching because they are about the country of iran minus politics and religion. in our hearts iran is not about these things. it might be hard to convey this idea to americans because the US is such a young country whose history and image has in a way been defined by its politics. but for Iranians, the name of our home country, ‘vatan’, conjures up a rich history and civilization. It brings the beautiful poetry of Rumi, Hafez, Sadi, it brings the scent of tea, roses, and jasmine flowers, it brings memories of sitting by the caspian sea with your family, it brings the songs of the famous singers–Heideh, Vigen, Dariush, it brings the sound of the tombak and setar. every single iranian at these protests has so much love for iran. i have said before how Iran gets likened to a beautiful woman, so endearing and easily able to sit in your heart. she is the loving mother that is always so respected. but in the last 30 years, another metaphor is used more frequently–that of a caged bird that tries to sing but only cries.
things have changed these past 2 weeks in iran but they have also changed outside of iran. because of the courage of the protesters in Iran, we Iranians on the outside are once again proud to call ourselves Iranian. we have come together, united with one cause. yes, now there is a lot of debate about whether this is about a re-election or about regime change. but we all want a change in iran. we want to love all the aspects of our country and love it in the present. we don’t want to only love and talk about iran in the past tense.
ps-no news about anything since june 24th
POMEGRANATES AND DREAMS 