Iran Awakening: Talking about Bhutanese-I

Ramesh Gautam/Norway

Background

’Iran Awakening’ is an autobiography penned by a famous Iranian lawyer and Human Rights activist, Shirin Ebadi (The Nobel Peace Price Winner, 2003) and first published in 2006 by Random House, New York, USA. The book containing twelve chapters followed by an epilogue at the last aims at changing the stagnant attitudes of the western readers and commoners about Iran and basically the Islam. It focuses on how the circumstances are hitting the doors of the common people of the present day Iran, how the pains and miseries were intertwined among the ill fate stricken Iranians in the past and how rough is the way ahead for the Islamic Republic to go on with, to some extent.

Born on June 21, 1947 in a middle class Islamic family, Shirin Ebadi became a judge at the age of 23. The country had already been plunged into the perils of power sharing with the expulsion of a little-known cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to Iraq on the grounds that his fiery sermons utterly attacked the government. Later, on January 16, 1979, the ruling monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled Iran carrying with him the two millennia history of shahs’ rule in Persia and Iran, which was known as Persia until 1935, became Islamic Republic. Soon after this, the conservative clerical forces established a theocratic system of government with the total power and authority vested in a religious leader known as the Supreme Leader. Shirin recalls that her position as a judge could be in a big risk would Ayatollah’s conservative principles overrule Iran but she supported the revolution to overthrow the shah. And so happened. The aftermath of the revolution left the Iranians with utterly bitter tastes and experiences.

The first thing the conservatives did was they ordered the implementation of compulsory veil (head scarf) for the women. Women were forced to confine themselves within the four walls of the kitchen. The wide spread phenomenon aimed at demotivating the women from getting involved in several salaried positions left many women demoted and Shirin was no exception. Separate busses were introduced for men and women. Women were barred from walking out on slippers and sandals without socks. Public gatherings were confined to men. Morality police force was set up and several check posts established to ensure that Islamic panel code inspired by Islamic law was smoothly functioning. Unaccountable number of women were harassed, threatened and punished for wrong hejabi (the way the veil was to be worn).

A group of students which identified itself as the Followers of the Path of the Imam Khomeini seized the US embassy and took its staff hostage on November 4, 1979. Though many Iranians deeply condemned the siege terming it as illegal and in opposition with the international laws, unfortunately Ayatollah celebrated the siege calling it ”a second revolution” and ”bravery of the students”. Shortly the relation between Iran and the US started getting frozen but later it was learnt that the US had started selling the missiles to Iran in exchange for the release of the hostages. The hostage siege ended after 444 days dampening Tehran-Washington relations widely.

Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980. Many teenagers and the boys of early twenties were killed in the fronts defending Saddam’s well equipped armies. Iran was made the battlefield for most of the time and it suffered deadly. The impacts of Saddam’s chemical weapons were too conspicuous and devastating . Shirin accounts briefly about the war and its hazards but the brief account itself is too long to be accounted here. The grudges of the US made Iran encounter with America’s Navy resulting several clashes between 1987 and 1988 and the situation worsened. Iranians started hatching up fathomless wrath and wryness about America. America, in fact, tried to suppress Iran from Iraqi parts. The war ended indecisively in 1988.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that Mojahedin-e Khalga Organization (MKO), which had emerged in the sixties, taking its inspiration from the guerrilla movements in Cuba and South America, took the part of Saddam aiming at overthrowing the ayatollah regime from Iran. Iranians witnessed several harassments, intimidations and executions being blamed of having links with MKO in the later days.

But who won the war? Obviously, Iran did not. The boundaries remained untouched, the maps remained unaltered. Only the hearts of the people were touched, only the sentiments of the people were hard-hit. And Iraq? Iraqis too did feel the highest Richter in their lives. With irrecoverable loss of national economy, with disrupted fates of the civilians, with its own realm accountably deserted, it can never be concluded that Iraq won the war. Shirin says, in her own words, “who were the winners then? The arms dealers. The European companies that sold Saddam his chemical weapons, the American firms that sold both sides arms. They amassed fortunes, their bank account swollen, their families in Bonn and Virginia, untouched.”

To be continued…………….

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