Iran Election Stories From Friends and Family

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Finally worked out the technical difficulties with one of the Iranian writers sending letters.  Here is the latest:

December 6, 2009 A Weekend in Bushehr

What a pleasant surprise! In order to dampen the fervor bound to surround National Students’ Day on December 7, the government announced Saturday –  the day before Eid Ghadir Khom, a holiday too. This, one suspects, was in hopes that students would go home for the long weekend and return late for classes on Dec. 7 (or at least minimize any planning on their part).

With young children, families we know, of course, took advantage and drove down south to swim in the shadow of the Bushehr NPP (nuclr pwr plnt) – a nice, quiet beach area with heavy-duty security.  On the way to Bushehr one passes a village with Karroubi graffiti written on it (as well as pro-Ahmadinejad graffiti). Many road signs have “Ranga Rang (Colorful – people of Iran are all colors, not just one)” scribbled on them as well as green (pro-Mousavi) check marks on them.

A lot of people drove down from Shiraz that weekend. People back in Shiraz said that lot of visitors came to Shiraz. It was almost as crowded as No Ruz vacation is every year.

It was reported that the city of Bushehr was abuzz with nervous energy. Many young men wore spiky hair – a sign of rebellion. Protest graffiti was scribbled on all the main streets and many side streets, including on the walls surrounding the NPP. One day a minibus full of young women passed by waving green streamers and shouting antigovernment slogans.

A family we know stuck to themselves for the most part and just enjoyed the beach and the swimming – the lady in her newly acquired, all-covering, Islamic swim suit courtesy of Dubai! (It isn’t the same as a regular suit. It keeps one warm for a good part of the day).

During the trip they helped pull a car out of the PERSIAN Gulf (note the emphasis) when it went too far out in low tide. A fisherman nearby gave them free fish for dinner as a gesture of thanks. Before they left the last day the family walked down to his tent to say good-bye. As they were talking he started to unload on them! He complained that “they” were going to close the beach soon to all traffic, including his livelihood – fishing. When asked who “they” were he said the Sepah (IRGC) of course. He said that basically the people of the village at the base of the power plant were nothing but guards for Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani who each had a nuclear weapon in one hand pointed at the other! He sounded angry at, and dismissive of, the current system.

On the way home another friend passed a village by the plant. There was a lot of pro-AN graffiti. But there were also old Mousavi posters still on the walls, albeit ripped. Some fishing boats had just docked. The friend stopped to buy fresh, big fish from the fishermen. While they were waiting a truck pulled up to load the catch. One of the men working on the truck talked with this friend. He asked this friend if she knew any Americans looking for a husband as he was interested! He then proceeded to tell her how awful the Russians were; that they were ignorant, dirty, dishonest …. A number of Russians work at the plant. So this friend asked the man why he said all these things about the Russians? They seemed alright to her. She asked him what they had done?  He responded that, well, they were poor and ‘badbakht’. He asked if m friend had ever seen any consumer goods coming out of Russia? He felt that the really good things in life came from America and … Israel! He said that the best doctors in the world come from Israel.  Now in all her time in Iran this friend has never heard anyone talk up the Israelis! People usually talk about how great America is, or Europe is – but not Israel. He then said that in his opinion really good things came out from Israel.

On the drive back another family stopped by a small town that has a Qajar era castle still standing in it. They bought some groceries around noon. As they were fiddling in the car a store owner started closing up his shop for the noon siesta. To make conversation the wife commented that the sidewalk tiles in front of his store, with the Achaemenid (ancient Persian) soldiers on them, were beautiful. His head snapped up and he forcefully said, “Can you believe what they did?! They had plans!!!! They want us to step on the honored Achaemenid soldiers!!!!!!!!! If they put their pictures on the wall it’s ok, but not on the ground for us to desecrate!!!”

This family actually thought it was nice to see the ancients of Persepolis remembered since this government seems to do everything in its power to wipe out ancient Iranian history. But this man’s take on it was that it was a government attempt to humiliate and further discredit ancient Persian history. He said that most of the store owners and citizens of the city had protested and taken to the streets when these were put in place. He also said that their little town had 3 newspapers – one a reformist paper. And that the reformist paper had really put up a fuss – so much so that, along with the citizen protests, the city had been forced to abandon its tile design and eventually put tiles down of the same colors minus the Persepolis soldiers on them for the rest of the sidewalks. The store owner told us that the tiles now seen were supposed to be removed soon. Boy – were they blown away! This family did not expect this conversation, nor the emotion behind it. In fact, the three conversations above were all underscored by tremendous anger on the part of the speakers.