Terrorized to insanity
Walking through a most violent display not on
donkeys, but motorcycles, with swinging chains and waving
knives
June 18, 3003
The Iranian
I was on my way back from Tehran's Simin Language
Institute. I don't know any more where it may be, but for me it
was on the
way
to
Kurosh
department store on Pahlavi Ave. I would go there in the afternoons
two or three days a week to work on my English. I particularly
liked
walking down Youssefabad, down hill, and then under the
tall trees of the big avenue.
I was just thinking about that because I know who these "motor
savaar" bikers and "lebaas shakhsi" civilian
thugs are. I remember one day in particular when all the older
kids were attacked
and
their
heads shaved, beaten up and terrorized to insanity. It was quite
something. I was very, very scared.
Coming back from Simin that
day, I was wearing a beige T-shirt with some English writing
on it. And it was short-sleeved. Pressing my books on my chest,
while trying to cover up the English titles, and walking through
a most violent display of battlefield formations and maneuvers
not on donkeys, but on mopeds and motorcycles, with swinging chains
and waving knives.
I walked slowly and tried to disappear. I remember
seeing an older kid, sitting with his legs in the
joob, and holding his head; another one was crying, his head
shaved. Almost everyone was screaming. Walking up Youssefabad, I calmed down
a bit, but somehow, I really never got rid of that
shaking feeling again.
***
All of Tehran, and particularly Amirabad, Gisha, Youssefabad,
I love you. I am proud of you. Unless we do it ourselves, no one
can be blamed. Lack of enlightenment cannot be blamed on the primitive
man.
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