As I get older, I notice that I am not as quick as I used to be in recalling details. Sometimes, incidents and people have faded out. It is no surprise then that my father recently commented that every so often he wonders if the events that he recalls really happened or whether he dreamt about them.
A good chunk of life fades in the rear-view mirror. I suppose I should be glad that I am able to recall whatever it is that I am able to.
The principal of the wonderful school, where I was a lifer, had plenty of laudable goals that were almost always badly executed. We students had many mean jokes about him, and continue to do that even now whenever we get together.
One of his goals was that students ought to be interested in local and global current affairs, which is why during the weekly assembly under the morning hot sun, we students stood there as one of his hand-picked favorites read out a few news stories for a couple of minutes.
(No, I have never been any teacher's favorite. Not anybody's. Not even my parents' favorite. The story of my life!!!)
Once, the guy who read the important global news at the assembly was the younger brother of a classmate of mine. When reading a few sentences about the Iran-Iraq war, he referred to the then-new leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, as "Mr. Ayatollah." The news junkie that I was even back then, I thought it was bizarre that he said "Mr. Ayatollah." I can't help but smile even now, though decades have gone by.
It was during the early stages of the Iran-Iraq war and The Hindu provided reports on the war every single day. That war was a big reason why "Mr. Ayatollah" was often mentioned at the news reports during the weekly assembly.
"Mr. Ayatollah" Khomeini has been gone for a while. There is another "Mr. Ayatollah" in place--Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini, as if the theocracy was hell bent on making us as confused as one can be when watching the old Abbott and Costello routine on "Who's on first."
In yesterday's post, I referred to the Subcontinent as has always been in the middle of it all, with people coming in from the west or the north, and occasionally over the waters, despite being bordered by mountains in the north, desert in the west, and open waters around the peninsula. Iran doesn't enjoy such naturally protective boundaries all around, and has truly been in the middle of it all, and this was also key to its magnificence:
It is not an accident that Iran was the ancient world’s first superpower. There was a certain geographic logic to it. Iran is the greater Middle East’s universal joint, tightly fused to all of the outer cores. Its border roughly traces and conforms to the natural contours of the landscape—plateaus to the west, mountains and seas to the north and south, and desert expanse in the east toward Afghanistan. For this reason, Iran has a far more venerable record as a nation-state and urbane civilization than most places in the Arab world and all the places in the Fertile Crescent. Unlike the geographically illogical countries of that adjacent region, there is nothing artificial about Iran.
India is a made-up country, an artificial construct. Iran, however, has a long and rich history with a clear identity.
How do women fit into that identity?
A good number of women in Iran decided that they have had it with Khamenei and Khomeini defining womanhood. Now, men too have joined their protests against the theocracy.
It is more than eight weeks of protests, which have not let up, and the world has not figured out how to respond to it. Even doctors have taken to the streets chanting "death to the dictator." The response from the dictator, Khamenei, has been brutal:
Security forces, mostly plainclothes agents, had set up positions around the building and vans were parked nearby to transport detainees. Then, without warning, riot police on motorcycles began shooting metal pellets at the crowd, two witnesses told The Washington Post.
“They were shooting with guns, nonstop, everyone started running,” said a doctor who provided a written account of the attack.
“They used shotguns [with pellets], batons and tear gas without any limitation,” another doctor recalled. “They beat a young woman dentist and an old physician about 70 [years old] on their heads and they fell on the ground.”
Back when I was in high school, I would never have imagined that forty years later Iranians would be fighting for their rights and risking their lives while protesting against "Mr. Ayatollah"! Forty years. Four decades under two Mr. Ayatollahs. How godawful that such oppression is carried out under the name of god!
From the source:
A top Iranian actress has posted an image of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to signal solidarity with anti-government demonstrations.
Taraneh Alidoosti - best known for her role in the Oscar-winning film The Salesman - also held a sign reading "Woman, Life, Freedom" in Kurdish.
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