Iran Awakening: Talking about Bhutanese- III
Ramesh Gautam / Norway
Reading Iran with a Bhutanese heart
…………………Continued
Man is a social being, and he deserves to live securely. When his existence, roles, and future are under the threats of getting tarnished, he wakes up and tries to experiment with all possible paths to walk along. But at the same time, he will never be able to belittle his existence, integrity, and origin. And it happened to Iranians too.
When the war was tearing Iran apart, when the children’s future was getting shadowed due to the state-sponsored discriminatory laws and so-called ethics, many Iranians started fleeing the country. Their plea was that the children have no future in Iran. This led to the immense adversity of brain drains from Iran throughout these two decades. But there are many Iranians who are of the opinion that one should not leave the country when it is under the havoc of several circumstances. They believe that one should lay down full flagged determinations to relieve it from these adversities. One of them is Shirin.
But if you ask most Iranians what keeneh, what grievance, they nurture most bitterly against the Islamic Republic, it is the tearing apart of their families. Memories of the war fade, and very few people have the energy to sustain the intellectual distresses over the course of a life time, but the absence of loved ones–the near-permanent separation of sister from sister, mother from daughter-is a pain that time does not blunt. Shall I count for you the number of families I know who once upon a time all lived in the same city and now are dispersed across the globe, each child in a different western city, the parents in Iran?
Iran Awakening, page: 78/79
And this is the exact case for us too. Let’s forget how and why the political movement started in Bhutan. Let’s forget the pains and miseries we sustained living as refugees in Nepal and think about the present circumstance. The family separation issue has already reached an accountable degree when just 22000 Bhutanese individuals are resettled. The brothers who had never chosen to perform Shraddha’s rituals (rituals performed by Hindus in the name of deceased parents) separately are now on different continents. A sister who was bitterly pained by the absence of another beloved sister from her eye-sight for a relatively short time is now going to a language class of a different language. Borders separate them, and they will never meet as they used to. Many older people will never opt for the third-country resettlement, and in a long gallop of time, there can be next to all youngsters opting to be resettled. And think about how the condition will be forth? This issue may not be conspicuous for today, but it will surely continue remaining as a never terminating pain.
One by one, my dearest friends deserted. They packed up their belongings, said their good-byes, and, in my eyes, turned their backs on Iran. Each time I wearily picked up a pen to cross out yet another name in my address book, my disappointment crushed me. I felt as though I were living in an abandoned house that was decaying by the day, in the company of the ghosts.
Iran Awakening, page: 79
Shirin said that one who left Iran was dead for her. She utterly stresses on living in Iran to brighten its face. But for many, sometimes, getting sentimental with the country’s situation is less critical than one’s future. And so, life, children’s future, and many others became essential for many Iranians, and they left Iran. There are many Bhutanese in our aspect who deserve remaining in the refugee camps than getting resettled. The pains and sufferings will always count as something more substantial.
There is always an extensive diversity in Asian culture, and it is seen that culture matters much to Asians. When one migrates away from a place with a long-practiced and beloved culture to a place of strange culture, many problems arise. The transition and transformation will be terribly challenging for one and all. It is apparently tough for an overnight shift to occur, and sometimes, this transformation can be adverse, as has been noticed in many cases of Bhutanese transformation. There can be several issues regarding religion, festivals, rituals, and many other cultural norms and practices. One needs to stand deliberately on the margin of everything, defining himself as a neutral being. This can be a big matter to many.
Each generation needs to stay in the place it was raised. If you and I leave Iran, what are we going to do? Here we’re somebody. We’re accomplished and have worked to reach a particular position in this society. Our friends, like us, are bright and educated. If we go abroad, do you think we’ll be accepted- with our foreign degrees and foreign accents- with open arms? Our kids are young, and they’ll absorb the culture of their new world. And after some time passes, we’ll lose them too.
Iran Awakening, page: 80
This situation probably does not meet our status of leaving the country. Everybody knows that the movement for the establishment of democracy in Bhutan was started with an easy vision. People were not aware and organized for what they would do should the severe suppression been done by the regime. The monarch could easily play an efficient role in dividing people. This was much detrimental to the people in the south. Let’s again forget why people opted to flee the country and come to the regard of resettlement, which has, to some extent, a prominent professional, social, and cultural impact. Many took resettlement as a short-term solution to the protracted refugee crisis and were ready to face the challenges ahead. Today the same thing has happened to most of the Bhutanese resettled in different parts of the world. Regardless of how much they are qualified and specialized, they are compelled to propel with entry-level jobs. Their experience and qualification(degree) have a little value, if not absolutely null. It is a bitter truth that one needs to be reborn and accept several sorts of cultural shocks, as mentioned by Ebadi.
Look, a girl who has grown up abroad from the age of seven will likely marry a foreigner. Naturally, she’ll adapt to his culture, and distance will slowly creep between us. One day we’ll wake up and realize we can never exist in each other’s worlds- her in ours, and us in hers- in the same way again. We should think about this, anticipate such a day from right now, and keep our children here.
Iran Awakening, page: 80
In fact, it is the brutal truth that we are facing today. There are vivid gaps among different generations of ours. With the resettlement, getting absorbed into the new culture has obviously been a little easier for the younger generation and a big punishment to the older. In many aspects, trying to become American, Australian, Canadian, or European sooner than we should actually have been widening the gaps and creating a vacuum. Misinterpretations of the so-called global culture and misuse of apparently liberal cultural norms and values have invited some problems in different parts of our world. If the youths do not take big responsibility to address the issue wittily, the problems are likely to get augmented. If we cannot keep our age-old culture intact, our shout and suffering for the sake of culture will prove meaningless.
At the same time, it is a matter of pride that many cultural organizations established from within the Bhutanese communities are shouldering greater responsibilities to protect and promote our culture, which has incorporated a unique identity of ours. It will be wise to build up small heavenly worlds (where we are) where the flowers of charismatic culture will keep on blooming. And with this, for sure, we will be able to keep on remaining what we were.
It has already been mentioned about the presence and role of MKO in the socio-politics of Iran. In many cases, the Communist Party of Bhutan ( Marxist Leninist Maoist) is allegedly supposed to have relations with India’s separatists and underground outfits like ULFA, NDFB, KLO, and others. Recent reports say that the CPB(MLM) claimed responsibility for the Sarbhang bombings too. It should not be misunderstood that the bond between these outfits and CPB(MLM) will be fruitful in dethroning the Wangchuk regime from Thimphu; instead, this will threaten the national integrity and sovereignty of Bhutan. Bhutanese will have the same fate of the suppression as Iranians had should this continue befouling the Bhutanese politics. Political changes are inevitable in Bhutan, but the short term means which are made instrumental for so-called changes will invite political upheavals and chaos in the country, and the monarch will seize ample opportunities for his nascent reaction in intercepting the wills of the people.
The Dress Code incorporated in Bhutan can be, to some extent, compared with the Islamic panel code inspired by Islamic law. Both the theocracies have ruled out the possible public voices, and the people have been made the victims of state-sponsored terrorism. The Iranian context widely accounts for the public’s helplessness when the rule of law is ruled out. Bhutanese people have been the victims of the same system. But it is also clear that the oppressions go on, and so do the revolts. And the political equations can sometimes be complicated and confusing.
Nevertheless, history should never be misinterpreted, making it loyal to a subject. We can never equal the Iranians on the grounds of misfortunes, pains, miseries, and adversities they suffered, but reading history will help us develop balanced subjective narratives of the events as they happened. We can extract inspirations from Iranians dispersed across the globe on different matters. Let Iran awake, and so do we!
(Concluded)
Click here to read Part I
Click here to read Part II