I have been asked to add a ‘piece of me’ onto this blog. It sounds a bit egocentric but I will do my best to fulfil this duty. I found this photo of my dearest country Iran, taken (I apologise) a few months (years?) ago. However, the picture is still relevant today.
Let me describe what I want to relay with this cliché.
This picture was taken on Vali Asr, an 18km long avenue in Tehran and known for being the longest in the Middle East. During the Shah’s time the avenue was called Pahlavi Avenue in reference to the ruling dynasty. After the 1979 Revolution they named it Vali Asr meaning the ‘Master of Time’ in reference to the Mahdi, the twelfth Shia Imam. This avenue was a focal point during the 2009 Presidential protests, which are sometimes argued to have precipitated the uprisings in other Middle Eastern countries.
On this picture you see Iranian society. Painted on the wall of the building is Ayatollah Khamenei, the actual Supreme leader of Iran, who holds the highest position in the country, successor of Ayatollah Khomeini and elected for life. The other two individuals pictured are martyrs from the Iran-Iraq war. This strong symbol represents the heart of the Iranian ideology; an unjust war, started by Saddam Hussein, financed by the West that lasting eight years mainly because the US was distributing arms to both sides. The government’s whole strategy is very much based on this cult of the martyr, this idea of foreign interventions, the oppression, and the loss of many sons of the revolution. Many arguments have been made around the fact that the regime owes its strength to this famous war and the national mobilization of the eight years following 1979.
On this photo we can also get a sample of the frenetic Tehran, a city of 13 million inhabitants asking for change, for progress. Not asking for a static present fixated with the past and the pain of war. Close to 70 per cent of the Iranian population is under the age of 30. They alone represent the future of Iran; they are the one ready to die as a martyr for a free Iran, a modern Iran, a democratic Iran. That’s the face we should see on the wall of my city.
Respectfully yours,
Nazila
P.S.: to make things clear and anticipate any rude message saying that I don’t admire what the Martyrs did to protect our country against a belligerent Iraq. This is not my message here. They were martyrs of the revolution, one which this government is not honouring. As in their memory is being exploited by the current regime. They deserve recognition and merit but not at the price of a stagnant Iran.
