Fear and trembling in Tehran
I realized that
our national penchant for conspiracy theories does not spare natural
disasters
June 3, 2004
iranian.com
Friday was an exceptionally humid spring day in Tehran. I was taking
a rare afternoon nap when I felt my bed move and the room close
in on me. I am not sure if it was the movement of the floor or
the rumbling noise from inside the walls that woke me up, but
I knew immediately that we were experiencing an earthquake.
I
ran into the living room where my husband was holding my son
(my daughter was in the garden) under a doorway. After the
trembling stopped we headed downstairs and stood with other residents
of
our apartment blocks in the middle of the garden. We stood
there talking for a long time, not knowing quite what to do, before
we decided to come back up.
Ever since I have had children I get easily scared. I simply
want to live to see them grow. I was scared out of my wits
on Friday
afternoon. The memory of the Bam earthquake (took place in late
march killing more than thirty thousand) and the knowledge of
the precarious geophysical position of Tehran injected extra
horror
into the loud roars and heavy trembling that seemed to last forever.
The earthquake, whose epicenter was about forty miles away in
the Caspian region, was later announced to have reached 6.2
on the
Richter scale.
Tehran is an over-crowded city where the very few
building standards that exist can easily be bought. Everyone
knows and experts agree
that an earthquake of more than six Richter would level the
city in the most horrific way. There is a popular myth, which is
very
telling of the mood here since Bam: a few months ago Japanese
engineers, invited to help secure Tehran against an inevitable
earthquake,
refused to stay overnight because of the bad condition in which
they found her buildings. They flew back that evening to a
more earthquake-ready Tokyo. When we came upstairs, having lived in the U.S.
for twenty-five years, I automatically turned to the television
set to see if it
would tell us what to do next. When I saw the so-called “experts” advising
people to perform the Namaaz-e Ayaat, a special prayer
meant for such occasions, I realized that I could not rely on the
practicality
of any information or advise meted out by the authorities.
In moments
of uncertainty and fear one needs to hear someone who knows more
about the disaster at hand than oneself. That is why in most
places there are people whose job it is to worry about things the
rest
of the population seldom ponders--like what to do when an earthquake
takes place. It is a grounding feeling to have the head of the
Fire Department or Department of Emergency Services give practical
advise.
I tried to remember my years living in California
and the instructions that I was given then. I told my kids about
where to stand and
what to do. I prepared a bag with necessary provisions, including
our passports! My husband explained to me that in the event of
the “Big One” hitting Tehran, the airport too would
close. I packed the passports right there with the bottled water
and band-aids anyway.
Talking to friends and neighbors I realized that
our national penchant for conspiracy theories does not spare natural
disasters. There
were even some who claimed Iran is getting rid of its nuclear arsenal
ahead of IAEA inspections! “Our dogs did not act odd, like
they should before a natural disaster. This means that it was an
underground nuclear explosion and not an earthquake,” explained
a second-year computer science student living a few floors above
us. The lady who cooks for our neighbor said, “this is God’s
wrath at all the money the mullahs have stolen.”
Most people spent the night outdoors --in parks
and private gardens. Usually on these occasions when one member
of the family panics
everyone else finds relief in making fun of them. Having turned
into an American mom intent on doing something pro-active to
save her family I became the laughing stock of my husband, children
and even my eighty year-old mother who had come to spend the
night
in our building. They made light of my fears and we all went
to bed.
The damage in Tehran and surroundings was minimal
by Iranian standards -- only
around forty-five fatalities near the epicenter. But everyone is
bracing himself or herself for another one. You see, they say that
before the earthquake hit Bam the residents had felt trembling
and rumbling all day but made the fatal mistake of not leaving
town.  In the two years that I have moved
back here I have never seen our building or my work place have
an earthquake drill. My kid’s
school has never had one either. When I tried to organize a drill
for our building, everyone laughed at me and dismissed my idea
as futile.
Perhaps I too should learn that special prayer because
no amount of planning on my part can help here. Time to embrace
my Iranian
fatalism and stop seeking the comfort of cool-headed experts
on the television! .................... Say
goodbye to spam!
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