Soldiers of iran

bargeboo: in iran, military service is mandatory for any male who reaches the age of 18 and is not going to attend school, be it high school or university. the basic training lasts around 6 months and then "soldiers" are placed in various segments of law-enforcement and military across the country. permission to leave iran is denied to those who have not yet attended this service.

during the 8 year war of iran/iraq, no male child was to leave iran upon reaching the age of 14. many families fearing that their sons might not make it to university by the time they reach 18 and subsequently having to go to war would send these children abroad. often by themselves or to the care of family friends and relatives who lived in other countries. there is in fact an entire generation of traumatized and bitter young men who had to live away from their family, often alone and inside refuge camps. germany was a particularly favourite destination. i myself "lost" three close relatives to this trend.

of course, you could also wait past this tender and most critical age. many had hopes for the end of the war by the time their child came of age or at least for a stroke of luck and genius to combine so a university education might directly follow the high school graduation.  as an alternative you could pay a hefty sum for an exit permit. the money was to act as a guarantee so that the boy who needed to leave, would come back and claim the money. of course, no one did come back. you can now add my brother to that three relative who left iran this way. the official who granted the exit visa knew full well that he would not be back and in fact joked about it with my father. the pretence we used? a computer show in canada that he simply had to attend. heh!

this was to be one of the first major sources of income for the government related to the mandatory military service. of those those who chose to keep their sons around, used any money and connection they could find to arrange for an "easy" location for their service. mostly, the devoted or those devoid of finance and connection ended up at the front.

fear of losing a child to war was very real. memorial shrines (figurative wedding chambers – symbolizing death of an unwed man) for young martyrs were everywhere and culture of martyrdom was very much in high swing.

after the war, the government started to offer the military service for sale. first to those men who had left iran years ago and were now much older but still could not visit because of having to serve in the military. then, over the years, as the threat of war became more and more remote, more special cases were defined, such as  the senario of male children who had no brothers and so their parents would be dependant on them and so on. eventually all pretence was dropped and younger and younger ages were announced, till recently boys/men as young as 22 have been able to buy their "freedom". subsequently many have been able to leave iran through legal channels.

and here, we conclude a general lesson on how almost every thing has been turned into a for-profit business venture in iri! not many know where these billions go to. or how and by whom are they channelled back into the society, if they are at all.

many still go to the service, either because of the huge financial burden or perhaps for them the prospects of ever leaving for abroad is very remote … which finally brings us to the text bellow:

mohammad reza is 20 years old. he is starting his military service and this post is about him going for his placement. 

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<< source : mamazy.persianblog.com/ >>

<< by: ali reza, september 27^th, 2003 >>

sunday morning, (b: sundays are not a holiday in iran ) we all went to base g. for placement. what a night it was. the night before, everyone was thinking about sunday and about what destiny would have in store for us. i arrived at 6:30 and many of my friends were not there yet. slowly others arrived. after 2 to 3 hours of being idle then it was time for placement. from a crowd of around 1200 people you could hardly hear any sound that is how bad everyone was holding their breath! they called a series of names who all got great locations:

 first group of around 10, they got driving for the defense ministry.

then they assigned the second and the third and then 4, 5 and then 6^th group.

then we waited for an hour which was very hard to take.

these guys who were sorted were either very lucky or as always because of taking vitamin c. -connection! – were placed in great areas. for example, a. and n. got the computer department. a. and m. the administration which means they don’t even have to wear a uniform ... meaning its all "happy hour"!

but the best placement has got to be for h. and k. who will be serving in the air force. h. in the security department wearing his pattered shirts and long hair … and k. in the personnel who has it even better!

but what about me?! what rotten luck that we and some of the others have to get all the “guard” duties?! although i shouldn’t complain because some others are basically "placed" in hell! at least i am better off than most because its only a 15 minutes walk to my home!

m. and i are to be placed in "ammunition fabrication" factory and are only allowed to go home three out of 7 days of the week. other times we will be busy keeping post and being on guard in the tower.

[...]

some other friends are also in the "guards". let me tell you a little about the "guards". the soldiers will be on post for 24 hours and on leave for the next 24 hours. the 24 hours of duty will consist of 2 hours of “look-out” and 2 hours of rest/on attention. its pretty hard because we will have to guard for 2 hours, carrying rifles, rain or shine, standing the whole time in a metal box 1.5 square meters big and 7 meters above ground.

never the less, whatever happens i am in god’s hands and i am content with my fate.

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bargeboo: update: october 26^th,  2003

mohammad reza’s prayers have been answered. he has been assigned to be the secretary of the company. he can go home every afternoon and only spends the business hours at the base. apparently he is now working to get exemption from military service all together.