The left overs from First Impressions
Well for you die hard fans of Rant-A-Thon, (I know there are so many of you and not because of the number of the comments on the site) you can remember that I promised to go more into to three subjects in the First Impression post.
The first one was the number of the mosques under construction. Now it is important (it may seem stupidly obvious) to let you know that back in the days (when I was here before) mosques are primarily used as place for prayers every evening. In my huge neighborhood (Ekbatan) on Thursday nights (in Iran and most Moslem countries Friday is the day off and Thursday is sot of similar to Saturdays) the kids of all ages (14-80) would come to the long shopping center (a hybrid between a mall and Bazar, lots of shops and boutiques selling everything from dried seeds and fast food to shoes and electronic) and go up and down, look an be looked upon. Also we have a Mosque dead in the center of the action which we generally dreaded to go by, this was the area that the people who were religious, or were associated with the Basij, or the people who wanted to be seen as being religious would gather. Sometimes the basij people would start walking the center as well and would give warnings to the guys with short sleeves, girls with shorter that acceptable overcoats (called manto here a Persianized version of German Mantel) and so on…
Now in Ekbatan there is no evening prayer, sure the call to prayer is sent over a speaker but the doors of the Mosque remain through out the day. This is firstly due to the fact that being associated with the local mosque is no longer socially desirable since the members of the community avoid (if not look down upon) such people. Now the young and old gather in front of the mosque (the design of which reminds me of good concert hall) and do the things they do, such as smoking grass around the place.
In any case now that the public use of the mosques are seriously down, one wonders why there are so many new ones under construction? For example on the east of the main campus of the University of Tehran there are already two newly built (they weren’t their when I was) and yet there is another one under construction. I don’t know who the hell plans the public projects in City of Tehran (I’m not sure if there is only one person) but from public usage stand point there is no need for it anymore. So I’m believe that Mosques have switched purposes from a religious/informal security to serve as security headquarters in case of a disturbance such as the one 9 years ago In Tehran Uni (Primary holding locations of detainees).
It makes sense in a twisted sort of way, if there are political uprisings, you cannot send everyone to the jails, there are problems with that, their locations are known, the family and lawyers would show up (even though the legal system is tipped in favor of the State, there are still some rights). Now the responsible authorities can “truthfully” say that such and such a person is not in their custody and to prove it show it to some UN agency or even the Amnesty Int’l. Even if it is known that that hypothetical person is being held in a hypothetical Mosque, the police can deny it, (they do not oversee the Basij or the Mosques) and there is little possibility of an NGO or even the UN can demand an inspection of a religious site.
The second thing I wanted to talk about is short and sweet, People don’t like to be photographed, there is suspicious look when the camera is seen in you hand. They either think you work for the government, some foreign country, an opposition group (there are opposition groups outsides Iran, at least in name). When you are taking pictures of the walls and roads and trees and such everybody is happy and then they smile at you. So no pictures of people if they are gonna find out I took it.
Also the movie “Cease Fire” from Tahmineh Milani (she is not from Milan) is a highly recommended film for those who like The Iranian Cinema. It’s a comical story of a marriage in which the guy is a little bit too psychotic, and the woman too suborned. For those of you who have seen the Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten it will be enjoyable. Where as Ten takes a more broad and encompassing look at women, and marriage is only part of the plot, (which gives that film a universal messages), Cease Fire is humorous movie that the marriage is almost a character in itself.
Also the main female character is very very Iranian looking, oh Mamita.
enjoy the film
The first one was the number of the mosques under construction. Now it is important (it may seem stupidly obvious) to let you know that back in the days (when I was here before) mosques are primarily used as place for prayers every evening. In my huge neighborhood (Ekbatan) on Thursday nights (in Iran and most Moslem countries Friday is the day off and Thursday is sot of similar to Saturdays) the kids of all ages (14-80) would come to the long shopping center (a hybrid between a mall and Bazar, lots of shops and boutiques selling everything from dried seeds and fast food to shoes and electronic) and go up and down, look an be looked upon. Also we have a Mosque dead in the center of the action which we generally dreaded to go by, this was the area that the people who were religious, or were associated with the Basij, or the people who wanted to be seen as being religious would gather. Sometimes the basij people would start walking the center as well and would give warnings to the guys with short sleeves, girls with shorter that acceptable overcoats (called manto here a Persianized version of German Mantel) and so on…
Now in Ekbatan there is no evening prayer, sure the call to prayer is sent over a speaker but the doors of the Mosque remain through out the day. This is firstly due to the fact that being associated with the local mosque is no longer socially desirable since the members of the community avoid (if not look down upon) such people. Now the young and old gather in front of the mosque (the design of which reminds me of good concert hall) and do the things they do, such as smoking grass around the place.
In any case now that the public use of the mosques are seriously down, one wonders why there are so many new ones under construction? For example on the east of the main campus of the University of Tehran there are already two newly built (they weren’t their when I was) and yet there is another one under construction. I don’t know who the hell plans the public projects in City of Tehran (I’m not sure if there is only one person) but from public usage stand point there is no need for it anymore. So I’m believe that Mosques have switched purposes from a religious/informal security to serve as security headquarters in case of a disturbance such as the one 9 years ago In Tehran Uni (Primary holding locations of detainees).
It makes sense in a twisted sort of way, if there are political uprisings, you cannot send everyone to the jails, there are problems with that, their locations are known, the family and lawyers would show up (even though the legal system is tipped in favor of the State, there are still some rights). Now the responsible authorities can “truthfully” say that such and such a person is not in their custody and to prove it show it to some UN agency or even the Amnesty Int’l. Even if it is known that that hypothetical person is being held in a hypothetical Mosque, the police can deny it, (they do not oversee the Basij or the Mosques) and there is little possibility of an NGO or even the UN can demand an inspection of a religious site.
The second thing I wanted to talk about is short and sweet, People don’t like to be photographed, there is suspicious look when the camera is seen in you hand. They either think you work for the government, some foreign country, an opposition group (there are opposition groups outsides Iran, at least in name). When you are taking pictures of the walls and roads and trees and such everybody is happy and then they smile at you. So no pictures of people if they are gonna find out I took it.
Also the movie “Cease Fire” from Tahmineh Milani (she is not from Milan) is a highly recommended film for those who like The Iranian Cinema. It’s a comical story of a marriage in which the guy is a little bit too psychotic, and the woman too suborned. For those of you who have seen the Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten it will be enjoyable. Where as Ten takes a more broad and encompassing look at women, and marriage is only part of the plot, (which gives that film a universal messages), Cease Fire is humorous movie that the marriage is almost a character in itself.
Also the main female character is very very Iranian looking, oh Mamita.
enjoy the film
posted by The Hopeful Cynic at 7:50 AM
4 Comments:
few comment on Tahmine Milani and her new film:
She may be actually from Milan! But of course Milan Iran. There are two Iranian towns named Milan:one in Lorestan and the other in Azarbayjan.
Her film is based on Theories of Lucia Capacchione author of the book named "Recovery of Your Inner Child", and here is the link to the translated letter this author has writen to Tahmine Milani:
http://news.gooya.com/culture/archives/048224.php
Valia
merci for this biweelkly fix of amir shoja's rant-a-thon. the thirst of my hardcore addiction knows no bounds...
keep up the good work. i find this very interesting.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Damn I censured myself;
I wanted to say "that shows the freaking Italians, we think they are so special with their Milan, but we are "specialer" (as W would have it) than them.
Iran 2 - Italia 1
on the serious note:
Thanks for the correction. I haven't read the book but the theory explained in the movie -of course very briefly, its not a documentary -is rather intriguing.
Post a Comment
<< Home