les miserables -

<< source:  pesareshomali.blogspot.com >> 

bargeboo: and here we have another bloger, who lives in gilan (iran’s northern province, near the caspian sea). siavash has an acid tongue and writes about almost everything. the underlying tone of each post however seems to be his bitterness and his bewilderment that he feels in today’s iran as a young man. he recently posted some entries about his participation in the national exam to enter university. so by this fact and also judging by his photograph in his weblog my guess is he is around 17.

i have been following his blog for a while now. he writes beautifully and honestly. his location, basically any city other than tehran (iran’s capital) makes him an even more interesting writer since he seems quite aware of issues, even though he lives far from the “action”.

many of his posts refer to the iranians who now live abroad and their attempts in maintaining their “heritage”, whatever it is.

now on a personal level, the post bellow has particularly hit home with me.  i have always felt that as a race we seem to be quite nostalgic. we seem mostly ashamed of our present circumstances specially because our past glories are not really that long-ago … it was what…30 years ago? so its not like we are talking about ancient rome or egypt here. we still remember, we still can recall the taste of dignity and we so very much yearn for respect.

we are quick to explain how we “used to be” and how “what we are now, is not truly us”. “the persians who are not arabs”; “the iran which is so very different from iraq”; “the terrorists that never were” … etc. etc. etc.

i have come across many opinions over the years: some who are just sad; many who are angry; some who quote past glories and want it back; those who have denounced their origins or have adopted new ones, preferring to be hyphenated.

many who see progress, those who see opportunities and then those are just simply exhausted by it all. so i guess we are as complex as they come. how we are to ever reach common grounds its beyond me.

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by: siavash bariani

 july 28, 2003

come on, stop it already! so what if you are iranian. no one cares if you are an aryan (race of persians). don’t go about huffing and puffing all proud. its over now. from now on if they ask you where you are from, don’t stand proud and don’t raise your voice. hold you head low and whisper out of ear shot: iran. seriously! come on, no reservations … its all gone. over and done with. finished.

by nature you are wretched.  you have nothing but a splendid past to be proud of. you loser! you want to go to another country, they take your finger prints. meaning, you are guilty until proven innocent. your substance is iranian. you fool! you have never been able to handle criticism and if you heard any you were ready to choke the critic. you killed your most qualified men in “haham-e fin”*. you by nature are just ready to be dominated.  stop singing that song of yours: “oh iran, oh land of many jewels, …**. haven’t you seen the movie” not without my daughter”? see how they describe you? you loser. come on, my man, don’t hold back. you are iranian, and so am i. so why are you cringing? so why do you keep on associating yourself with the old times? this is the today, right now, present time. at this time, where do you stand in the world?

oppression and misery is not born out of conspiring bullies. the fact that less than quarter century ago we had a blood-thirsty head of state shouldn’t be surprising. if someone is shutting us down that means we let him do it. if he wants to fuck you in the ass the first time, if he sees resistance, then he wont have the balls to try rape again, so now you know.

my dear, don’t worry, settle down. you didn’t do anything in these 700 years. don’t crap in your mouth. its finished. now just bend over and hand over your ass. atta boy!

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* reference to “naseredin shah”, king of iran who in 16^th century killed the legendary “amir kabir”; his right hand man who brought much reform and integrity to governing body of iran before he was ordered executed by slitting of wrists in the “fin public bath” (hamam-e-fin), in kashan, iran. it is generally known that corrupt agents in the monarchy, namely the king’s mother, influenced the king to order the death much to his regret later in his life.

** reference to the very popular nationalistic song, composed during the reign of last shah of iran. the lyrics are as flattering to iran as any national anthem. this song has become particularly popular in the last 5 years as a symbol of nationalism movement and resistance to the rules of clergy in iran.