I forgot what it was like to walk in the streets as a woman. I forgot how you have to build an iron wall surrounding you. Actually not all the women want the iron wall. Not only do some women have no boundary around them, but they try to suck in the attention. It is interesting that even though religious laws persistently attempt to curb sexual temptations, the situation between men and women is much worse here than in the states. People in Iran always criticize American culture for its lack of morals and ethics in regards to sexuality. They refer to pornography, the movies, the divorce rate, the affairs, the promiscuous youth, etc. But at least I can walk down my street and not feel like the eyes of most of the men between the ages of 16 and 40 are looking through my clothes. And mind you, my clothes are a headscarf covering most of my hair, a black trench coat, jeans, and boots. The only skin that shows is on my face, neck, and hands. My attire is only slightly risqué because my trench coat is about 2 inches above my knee, is belted, and some of my hair peeks out from the front of my headscarf. But still, the comments, the suggestive stares, the stopping cars, come my way.
It is worse here because I am in a small town where everyone knows everyone. It is obvious that I don’t belong although many people already know who I am. Most of the women here wear chadors if they are married or they are much younger than me. There are very few single women in the their twenties here, let alone out buying groceries or bread. If I was in Tehran or even the neighboring cities, it would not be as bad. For in those places, the women who play into this back and forth game are plenty and are more obvious. I am very simple looking compared to them.
But I have to admit that I welcome the challenge. I used to just divert my eyes to the ground with my head down, but I decided that not only was that not right, but that was not me. Now I walk proudly in front of the line of men sitting in front of their stores with my head up and back straight. I like for them to wonder who I am and where I am from. I like to stare back, saying “yes? What are you looking at?” with my eyes. I like to have comments deflect off of me, and as my farsi gets better, I would like to have sassy comebacks. This is an opportunity for me to be more powerful instead of feeling like my power is being taken away. Flirting can be fun and light, but here it is different. Here, not all the time but most of the time, it is inappropriate and feels too invasive.
Rostami, an old classmate of my father’s whom my grandfather hires to clean up the orange grove, launched into a tirade about the bleak future of Persian culture. He was out working in the garden today when an accident between a motorcycle and car happened right outside of our garden gate. He heard the yelling and fighting. As he recounted the story to me, he was shaking his head, disappointed by the behavior of the young people involved, especially on the eve of the new year. He sadly asked, what has happened to our virtue? We were once highly respected for our principles and honor, now where is our culture headed? What has happened to this society?
My answer of course is the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It has suppressed, it has smothered, it has muddied the water, it has discouraged, it has demoralized. The revolution dismantled social structure by casting out intellectuals and others of higher social standing. In their place, uneducated, reactionary, bigoted people took positions of power. Out went any regard for honor and virtue. The kind that comes to mind when one pictures the stately images of Reza Shah (the king of Iran in the early 20th century), or the elegant pictures of his son Mohammad Reza Shah with his queen both adorned with jewels, or the exemplary stature of Mossadegh. No those pictures went out the door. And in came adherence to religious rhetoric on the surface, with corruption and immorality hidden underneath. Even though pictures were burned, palaces destroyed, the history taken out of school books, that memory still exists for some. Unfortunately, it is not being widely passed down to the younger generations.
March 22, 2009
Categories: iran . . Author: Anahita Azizkhani . Comments: Leave a comment