Iran Essentials: Part 1
Among the incidental virtues of tyrannies is the way in which the small stuff of life simply fall away in their shadow, to intensify the value of the big—love, art, pleasure, relationships. Oppression, like magic mushrooms, has been heightening the senses of urban Iranians for years. Inside the homes, in the safety of “drawing rooms,” the clock is always set to that Austenian hour, when art is as sacred as religion and life is largely defined in the symbiotic relationship with it, each informing the other. Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, for instance, was the rage in the days following the 1979 revolution, a piece which perfectly mirrored the national turbulence. Now it seems that Iran’s last three decades have ended by the very same notes they had begun with, just like Orff’s masterpiece.
It was in March 1979, when Iranian women took to the streets for a historic demonstration. Days after the victory of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the Islamic Dress Code, the hijab, to be reinstituted in government offices. The news drew thousands of women to the streets on International Women’s Day to protest the decision. At the time, it was unfathomable to disobey the glorified leader who had returned from exile less than a month earlier and delivered the nation from 2,500 years of monarchy. Yet, the women fathomed it, organized, and staged a dazzling protest.
Iranians love poetry and the metaphors in them. But on March 8, 1979, those demonstrating women created a metaphor far more apt and enduring than our poets ever had. In their protest, everything that was already wrong, or would be, was manifested. One didn’t only need legs to walk beside those women. Backbone was much more essential. Even the most progressive intellectuals were too intoxicated by the revolution’s victory to stomach any criticism of the new order. If anything, the women were subject to the wrath of those who should have been their most natural allies—secular and leftist activists. Still, they dared say it like it was: “We haven’t made a revolution, to go back in time,” was one of the day’s slogans. And they dared call it by its real name, as did the American feminist, Kate Millett, who was in Tehran for the occasion and told stunned reporters: “Ayatollah Khomeini is a male chauvinist!”
Despite all the blows the demonstrators suffered from the thugs who attacked them that day, the protest did subsequently force the quintessentially intractable leader to retract his order; albeit in the end, the retraction proved to have only been a delay and the hijab eventually did become mandatory.
Thirty years since, the world marvels at what it finds in the new generation of Iranian demonstrators. Women have been on the forefronts of the post-2009 election protests—the phenomenon that has come to be known as the Green Movement. The most iconic image of the last few months is that of the dying young woman, Neda Agha-Soltan. Everything about those few seconds when Neda falls to her knees, then lays on her back, arms to either side as if crucified on the asphalt beneath, seems nearly venerable and utterly halting. But there’s also a metaphor, no less great than its predecessor, in the icon. As Neda’s gaze freezes into the distance, as if she is seeing the promised land, her scarf slips off to reveal her dark hair, moments before narrow streams of blood tarnish her pristine face. In her image, Iran’s democracy movement comes full circle, ending the 30-year oratorio on the notes of the same plight.
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Why do Muslims in Iran say that "Western toys are a danger that need to be stopped."?
Heres the article – Iran takes new shot at Barbie, calling US doll ‘destructive’ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_barbie_dolls
People who havent studied Islam in any depth dont understand the real nature of the Islamic conflicts that are ablaze all over the world. The issue is one of culture. Those who call it "the clash of culture" or "culture wars" are very close to the mark.
Islamic culture is essentially a homosexual theocracy. Men and woman are separated and all "norms" revolve around demonizing all forms of heterosexual expression. In order to maintain a system that supresses heterosexual urges, there must be a "vent". This is where Islamic intolerance comes in.
Inciting hatred for non-muslims and non-muslim culture is an essential part of Islam. Its no coincidence that you constantly see angry Muslim men raging in the streets screaming for blood…Jihad is the outlet….Jihad is the release.
The reason why Barbi is dangerous is because Barbi is free. She wears what she wants. She dresses as she wants. Shes free to arouse any male she pleases…she has choices and she lives in a heterosexual culture where woman and men freely mingle.
They don’t like competition. See article below.
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http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article3805196.ece
Anything western chips away at the control factor inherent in islam.
Barbi may not be the best role model for girls, but she represents personal freedom and a sexuality that islam cannot tolerate. Western culture certainly has it’s decadent elements, but that is a by-product of personal freedom.
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I didnt know that the west made anything anymore. Are you sure that Barbie isnt made in China?
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They don’t want their girls corrupted into believing it is OK to go around looking like a prostitute.
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The real question is: "Why do we care what Iran thinks when we could obliterate them with the press of a button?"
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I think that Muslims fear the rising economic power of the West (specifically America) because it would threaten not only their culture, but also their religion… and the only way to stop the possible monster that America would become is to destroy it before it evolves… but that’s just their point of view…
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"Inciting hatred for non-muslims and non-muslim culture is an essential part of Islam."
one could argue that inciting hatred for muslims and muslim culture is an essential part of America. the real question here is why do you care if people in the middle east play with Barbies?
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Barbie is a slut.
1 every country in the world has its own culture
2 not everyone in the world likes or even appreciates American culture to a greater or lesser degree. some do and some don’t.
3 because the west (especially America) has a relatively huge economy Iran fears being swamped.with for example things like Internet porn, western style TV, western cinema, cigarette and drug addiction and a million other things like that
3 Barbie (western toy) was used as an example of this as in Islamic (Muslim) culture women are extremely sexually modest compared to the west. and they would see Barbie as corrupting their young children.
I live in England and i for instance happen to despise McDonald’s, Edit ..think its a cynical con and cant see the point of anyone eating there Edit..as i have been to America and tasted a genuine, real and ‘proper’ burger.
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