These Walls Can Talk

My neighbors are so loud sometimes.

When we first moved here, I noticed a man's voice yelling loudly at all times of the day and night. I didn't know any of the words he was saying but the language of shouting can be universal, no? Of course it was disturbing so I asked my husband to investigate. Long story short, we realized the family members up there were just typical dramatic talkers, and that our apartment walls were thin! And after watching several Iranian drama shows, "loud conversing" between men and women is a common thing, hahaha. 

The neighbor's across the hall have a very temperamental child who tantrums. Once they were having a birthday party for him. It lasted at least 8 hours. Lots of guests, lots of woohoo-ing, and lots of clapping! Next door to us is a family with a newborn baby. We can hear the child crying the way crying newborns do. I'm sure my family can get too loud at times as well. Sometimes I don't mind the noise because a lively atmosphere is fine. Most of the times, it's quiet during the day. But somedays when my family is all asleep around 11 PM, we can hear the neighbors in all corners making a ruckus. Sometimes sounds like running around, yelling, or even drilling. It's been quiet lately though so who knows why or what or when. That's apartment life.

If this was happening in America, I'd be complaining to my husband who might end up having to complain to the manager. But since we still feel like outsiders here, it's a lot less disturbing for some reason. It's like we're still outside, looking in. I sort of laugh it off and think, "Iranians are so lively and fun." But it does get annoying, yes. It's a good thing I have a pair of super duper ear plugs for sleeping at night! 

--

So Spring has sprung and it is hot in Iran. We fortunately have a 'water cooler air conditioner' which keeps us chill when it's working well. There are more flies getting into the apartment which I hate, but it is manageable. And of course flies got in our homes in America. This is just what's new around here. At least it's just house flies and not mosquitoes!

--

There is a Presidential Election going on. Compared to the American elections, this one is not dragged out for years with long campaigns. The whole thing has lasted a few months. There have been 3 televised live debates. The candidates criticize each other but it is far more civilized than the mudslinging of the U.S. politics. While driving around, I notice people have put photographs of their choice on their car windows and there are larger posters hanging in public places for both the Presidential and local elections. The election is in a couple of days. Here's a sample of the debate which was shown on the English language Iranian channel PRESS TV:

---

Oh, and here's a random clip of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE in Farsi, which is being shown here also. I love this show! 

---
So, while the Elections in Iran are far more dignified than in the States, there is one thing that is far more civilized in the States and that is the DRIVING. It is too scary here for someone who grew up with traffic flowing in a straight line and people waiting to cross the streets at a stop light. Here, "jaywalking" is the only way to get around. Families put their kids on the motorcycles with them, no helmets, just tight arms and good faith. As you are driving or even walking down the sidewalk, you may see a man on a motorbike driving towards you. My husband has been taking driving school here and it is no picnic. It's very strict and emphasizes safety and following the law. There are commercials on TV and posters all around the streets reminding the people to follow the safety rules. Yet, people do not follow the rules. At the same time, though there is a lot of honking of horns, there is not much road rage. I've never seen anyone yell at another. It's just a strange way of life. I will certainly never drive here, and thankfully my husband has nerves of steel, quick motor reflexes, eagle eyes, and lots of patience. Our car has seat belts, and we rarely go for a drive anyhow. There are also plenty of times when the roads are fine and the cars are straight in a row. By the way, the written driving test here is very difficult to pass especially if one's Farsi is not so perfect yet. 

--

Ok so that's a short update. Keep in touch. 

Sound the Trumpets

I was probably 10 years old, living in Texas, when I told a grown up that I wanted to move to London and live there.

The grown up:

“It’s very racist there. You want to live somewhere with signs saying “No blacks allowed?”

Me:

“You mean England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses?”

Grown up:

“It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds.”

Ok, so only the first part of that conversation happened. I did not believe the grown up anyway. I assumed this person was mistakenly referring to how in the 60s, London was racist. But now it was the 80s, man! That bad news was history.

The last two lines of my “conversation” are from a beautiful Sinead O’Connor song I heard years later called "Black Boys on Mopeds." It was written almost 30 years ago, but the issues are devastatingly similar to today. 

The parents of Colin Roach seek justice in the death of their son,
London 1983

And I’ve been hearing the same song in my head since the 2016 Presidential election mayhem began, especially the line 

“And I love my boy, and that’s why I’m leaving. 

I don’t want him to be aware that there’s any such thing as grieving.” 

Once it was clear that Trump was actually going to run as a candidate, I kept thinking to myself, “Thank God I’m leaving.” But then again, I was going back and forth between being relieved to be leaving and being terrified of leaving America, my home of nearly 4 decades.

So even though, as I mentioned here in a previous post, we began our plan to move to Iran before the election campaigns even began, I’m so glad I was able to leave America before Trump was elected. I don’t think my already anxious brain could have handled any more escalation of that racist poison so inherent in America.

The saddest part is, when I was a kid in America, it felt like the whole world had already learned the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King Jr., and the crimes of hatred and genocide through the Holocaust.

Of course, as I and all the other little kids grew up, we became aware that the world wasn’t really so much moving forward as much as running in circles. Still, our collective imagination never anticipated that Donald Freaking Trump would become the President of the United States! Well, we thought about it and laughed, but it became serious fast.

I had an inkling that American politics was a sort of game show anyhow. I’d heard that Ronald Reagan was an actor before he became the U.S. President, but that was decades long ago, a time of classy black and white movies, right? But THEN, when Arnold Schwarzenegger, The TERMINATOR, The Freaking Kindergarten Cop became the Governor of California, it was clear that yes, ANYONE could gain the approval of a large mass of people--if that ANYONE was charming enough.

Notice a pattern here?

Then came Bill Clinton. There was some talk about him smoking weed and not inhaling and a so-called cool performance on the Arsenio Hall show, but I didn’t notice much. I was too busy deciding to wear a headscarf/hijab when starting high school.

I had become motivated by my inspirational friend, Farah, when she told me about her decision to wear it when we started 10^th grade in Arlington, Texas. I was nervous, but thought, I want to try that too! I’ll not go into my experience here, you can read about it here on my other older blog: Scarf Ace: Wearing a Headscarf in America. It was obviously not easy, but for me, I ended up having a mini-nervous breakdown from all the harassment I got. I stopped wearing it even. 

Then many years later after I got married, began to wear it again. It was easier at first that time. I could stay at home instead of heading into the lion’s den of hell, er, high school everyday. But it was still a struggle to wear hijab in America.  I went through so much anxiety and by the time we were preparing to move to Iran, I had become a shut-in, only going out if I really, really, really had to. My attitude would go up and down, high and low, but overall, my life was definitely negatively affected by feeling like an alien in public. It didn’t help that we began moving a lot, and with me being slow to warm up to new things, I never quite felt at ease in public again.

Of course, while Obama was the President, there was this thin veil of comfort for minorities such as Muslim Americans, but I knew even then, because of the endless stories about terrorism in the news, and the horror of 9/11, being Muslim in America, especially being VISIBLY Muslim was not going to get any easier for me.

So anyway, there I was sitting comfy in Iran, watching DT get elected. PressTV ran

live coverage with several analysts. 

On Facebook, I made a comment about how a Trump presidency might be less destructive to the MidEast than a Clinton one, and a few people agreed, but then I had a couple of people in the U.S. tell me that me sitting here so comfortable in Iran made it unfairly easier to comment on the bigger perspective regarding Trump and the society in which he rose to the top. Basically, since I no longer lived in America, mentioning any positive of DT was too convenient. Anyhow, whatever the case, the American government has been killing and oppressing Muslims in the rest of the world, so the logic remains as to why this same injustice would not eventually come down to its own country’s Muslims.

"I've said this before now
You said I was childish and you'll say it now
"Remember what I told you
If they hated me they will hate you"

Sinead O'Connor, "Black Boys on Mopeds."

As the newly elected DT now seems to be adding known Islamophobes to his team, and hate crimes have increased towards American Muslims and Black people and other minorities, my heart is heavy even all the way over here in Iran.

I try to focus on the GREAT people who have always existed in America: the kind, the compassionate, the gentle, the seekers of justice for all. They do exist. And hearing about neighbors connecting and standing together, and vocal opponents to the racist, bigoted, and violent side of the country is a testament to the inherent truth and justice within us.  

When it comes to defending the truth and justice, it can obviously be a difficult, sometimes impossible task. The greatest example we have is of our Imam Hossein (peace be upon him), who fought to the end against this falsehood of power over the weak and the crimes against humanity perpetuated by those who claim to be good and right, but are the worst of the worst, the Yazids, the oppressors, the tyrants of every time.

Some people may think I’m sitting easy here in Iran, but nowhere is perfectly safe. As long as there are enemies of God, there will be injustice and pain in the world. And although it is true that the city of Qom is one of the gateways to heaven, there are gateways all over the world. That is why God sent messengers to all nations. The way to true freedom is out there yes, but mostly it is within us.

The Daily Iran

Up until now this blog has been titled: "On The Road to Iran: An American-raised Muslim Asks: Am I Really Moving to Iran?" But today I've changed it to "Iran At Last: An American-raised Muslim Moves to Iran" because I'm here! I'm finally here! 

Anyway, here are some snapshots of daily life in Iran so far. 

Here we are arriving at our local grocery store, "shopping center."

It's not shiny or familiar like SuperTarget or Mega-Walmart, but it had a wide variety of little shops inside from perfume to tea cups to clothing.

My beautiful daughter checking out the pretty items

This is the Iranian version of Sprite and Cola--tastes the same!

They call this Toast cheese! Melts nicely for grilled cheese sandwiches!

My kids were surprised that there are so many English words on the packaging here!

Flour for making pancakes!

The pancakes I made. Didn't have sugar on hand so put in some of the M&M's we'd brought from Texas. They don't seem to sell pancake syrup here, but we found this tart cherry syrup-- us adults enjoyed the taste. 

Ah, yes. Veggies and fruit. Those are radish leaves which have a sharp spicy taste. The sizes of some of the produce are smaller than average U.S. sizes, and the taste is really sharp and fresh.

Of course I chopped them up for a salad.

Then I mixed some up with rice and added a couple of fried eggs. Obviously, one of them eggs didn't hold up too well. 

Now I was skeptical about this "Sliced Burger Cheese" because it was frozen. 

Hmm. Not looking good.

But, hey, melted fine and kids enjoyed their sandwiches. 

My husband says breakfasts cereals are not common here, but he found a larger grocery store that carries some we like.

And I mentioned in my previous post, we laughed at this Spongebob ketchup (it has a spicy taste). There's a lot of Spongebob merchandise here in Iran, which I really love to see. It reminds me of America! 

My daughter says she doesn't like the texture of this ice cream, but the rest of us enjoyed the taste. I guess it does have more of the texture of Pakistani kulfi. 

Here are some TV programs we see here. There are many female news anchors!

The weather guy.

And I was so happily surprised to see Charlie and Lola here, even if was in Farsi. There's something about seeing familiar characters that help ease the adjustment to a new culture. 

And then there was this Christmas Carol with Scrooge! 

Kung Fu Panda

Sense and Sensibility

Oh, and PressTV here is actually covering the United States Presidential Election, which is one thing that I was hoping to escape when moving to Iran! 

Do I enjoy seeing Trump and Clinton here? Me:

And here's a glimpse of our neighborhood from my balcony and the garden underneath it.

I realize that some people might wonder why I'm so excited to see English and American programs. They may think I came to Iran to be in Iran, so why hold on to my American ways? They may think it weak of me to not have had an interest in learning any Farsi before I arrived as I described in an older post. But they may not know that living in Iran was not my first choice (as I explained in a past post), so I'm having a harder time letting go of my American side.

I remember when I first moved to Florida after living in Texas my entire life, Texas seemed like a beautiful treasure that I had taken for granted. I'd go around singing the Texas song from Spongebob and my heart would ache at wishing to return to its familiar streets and places. But then, after a few years away and often visiting, Texas became special only because my family and friends were there. Then when we were leaving Florida, I started missing its familiar routine. And then after we moved from California, I missed my home there, the gorgeous mountains, the Muslim community there. 

So I'm sure that my longing for America will eventually fade the longer I stay here in Iran. But for now, I'm still very attached to it. Cue America The Beautiful!  In time, I'll be singing the praises of Iran and its many blessings for sure!