Misc

These walking travelers are so cool!

As someone who has done long distance racing for many years, I totally appreciate the grit these people have. This is GREAT.  I am dissappointed with the shallow naysayers here who are sitting in their comfortable faux foreign couches and denigrate these brave folks.  Try walking in their shoes for 8 hours let alone 8 days.  And you don't have to walk to the shrine since it may be 'below' you.  Do something truely sophisticated like walk to a mall or something.

Javedan Iran!

Mamad Ali

kourosh jan

when people were throwing their money and jewelery over the wall of imam reza's in shah's time, the money was going to shah's cronies such as valian (ostandar) and those under him.  when we talk about education, we shouldn't mean going to school of dentistry or engineering.  we should educate them about the superstitions (khorafat) of religion as choghok mentioned. 

as you know, one of the five pillars of islam is pilgrimmage to mecca.  please tell me where would saudi arabia rank in terms of tourism if the pillar of hajj was not included.  right now, they're ranked at #21 (above netherlands, switzerland, japan, australia, ...).   going to saudi arabia is not some sort of time-honored tradition, neither is going to najaf, medina, karabala and mashhad.  these are religious traditions, and in one case (hajj), a major duty of a moslem.  i'm suggesting that these people (especially the poor) should be educated by their own religious leaders to help themselves first before they help the mosque.  but of course, that would be wishful thinking.  i'm not disrespecting anyone's privacy.  i'm just pointing out what i'm observing.

there are devoted religious folks from other parts of the world who make pilgrimmages but that's from their own will and not something sanctioned by their religion (as in islam).  in fact, there are even indian hindus and chinese buddhists who make pilgrimmages on their knees!

hamsade ghadimi

With all due respect, The practice of throwing Jewlery and other valuable over  the wall of any shrine, has been a time-honored  tradition in iran, EVEN when shah was at the helm, Imam Reza's shrine was a Busy and Bustling spot in mashahd. Who knows where the money went back then? For many this is tradition ragardless of having a mullah on a menbar's backing it.

As has been said a million times here, why can we just leave religious people alone and respect their privacy? mage nemigim religion is a private affair and hence should be viewed as one of the fundamentals of having a secualr government? the same goes with basically denigrating such long journies taken by rich and the poor, from all parts of the world, to wherever destination they deem to be holy.

There is superstition

I do not see it as problem if a person needs a soulsearching and goes on a pilgrimage to find him/herself. It has been good for many people.

On the other hand, to think that it helps your problems by going to a tomb of a man and no matter the man died of heavy drinking and toxification (that was what happened to Reza, drinking and not "poisonous grapes") .

In Iranian TV they keep showing TV shows where they show people putting knots on trees and ridicule them and asking them how many times your answers were heard by doing this. I would like to see them ask people how much did you benefit by tossing your hard earned money on the grave of a drunken guy.

ziarat 101

as worcester said, it's not level of education.  and it's not poverty either.  unless you think poor people are dumb and their poverty has nothing to do with lack of opportunity.  perhaps you've never met dumb rich people who go to ziarat. or poor and educated people who go there.  this is the brainwashing of their faith.  the woman says that she works as a kargar and gives her money to gharib.  have you guys ever been to emam reza's shrine?  there are loads of people (rich and poor, educated and uneducated) throwing money and their gold jewlery over the wall of the tomb.  every month, they come and sweep the money and jewlery into sacks and probably use it to pay the basijees to beat up people.

if the faith was for the people (mardomsaalaary), then the mollah on the manbar should say use your hard-earned money for the well-being of your children.  don't waste it on ziarat whether mashhad, or najaf, or mecca.

pers666, i heard 1400 years ago that the oppressed iranian people urged the arabs to come over and bring their religion with them.  they wanted to change their name from khashayar and irandokht to mohammad and zahra.  they wanted to wear chador but it just wasn't tolerable under the sassanid.  they also sanctioned the invited arabs to kill and rape as many people who they deemed infidel.  thanks for a lesson in history.

Va

Pers66

"Politics aside, we come from a country were the vast majority of its population is Muslim, if we each look back 5-10 generations, we come from a Persian culture were the majority of religious faith has been Islam by choice! When you come from such a culture and you bash its religion it like “ toofe sar bala” it will come back and land on your own face!"

If I had a dime for everytime I read or heard the above argument, I'd be Donald friggin' Trump!

Just because the majority is muslim does not mean they were "peacefuly convinced" to become muslims. This is the argument that Islamists use to justify their embarcing of islam 

Mistakes made long ago do not get erased by the passage of time.

In a free society, people can criticize others' point of view without the fear of retribution, so it is OK to criticize Islam.

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IRAN FIRST

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Like the Man said,

Like the Man said, "Religion is the opium to masses".  There are idiots like that everywhere (e.g. see the Pailin lover Christian Evangelists).  I know a woman who has a PhD in engineering from a celebrated school in the US who goes to Iran every year and HAS to go "see the Imam"!    So it is not the level of the education.  It is also not the location; see all the idiots that go and pad the bank accounts of Saudi family every year and they go from every where.  What it is, is the effects of religion.  Sad part is that it is in human nature for all of us to believe in the man in the sky, etc...When I was a kid, I went to the shrine with my mom and her cousin.  The cousin's son had leukemia which was then a universally fatal disease.  They connected the kid with a rope to the shrine.  Well, the kid who was my age, died.  I don't hate my mother and she was "secular" but yet stupid and hopeful that a rope may lead to a miracle.  On the other hands, if we had leaders who have more than oat meals in their head, and would not aggressively condone this kind of behavior, maybe this gradually changes.  BTW, guess where all the money to the shrine go; could it be a certain  low-level Mashadi Sheikh who is crippled and is called Rahbar?   I do wish that instead of secularism, we could replace every Iranian with a German.

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khar is every where in this world

Pilgrims walk on their knees, yes knees, from the Pyrenees to the North Western of Spain (Camino De Santiago - Santiago De Compostela) to visit a holy shrine of some one or rather.  Faith, if we can call it that, or stupidity, is rampant all over thw world.  It is not the execlusive domain of Muslims of Shiites.  Stupidity is what religion espouses.

Ignorance

Ignorance is he mother of all problems. You can see the same phenomenon here in this country. I remember back in 1999 (just before the year 2000), an evangelist in Texas called Moon. He charged $10,000 for each person from South Korean to visit Texas to witness the arrival of Jesus on the first day of 2000. I am sure the same is true in Judaism and Bahia's faith. As I said before, all that stems from ignorance and lack of knowledge. Currently scientist are trying to find out the origin of universe or in biochemistry, scientist working hard to unwrap the formula explaining all complex events that is happening within the nucleus of human cell. Hope Iranians will one day wake up and realize that religion will not help Iran to go forward. 

قبول باشه

با این همه سقوط و تصادف طیاره و قطار و ماشین در راه مشهد، اینها از ترس جونشون پیاده می‌رن زیارت حضرت غریب. مو بایستی با نشادر و هزارتا سیخ و ترکه خرم رو وادار کنم تا امامزاده بالای کوه بره. ولی‌ خوب خرم ایمان نداره.

So the origin of faith is poverty?

The most practical point of this film is “faith”

This old lady despite her age, poverty and social status, goes on a 4 day pilgrimage walking for hundreds of miles based on her fait and love for God and to visit her beloved saint…with all her limitations and what life or God has given her, she still goes out of her way for her faith…

Something many of us have yet to experience! Whatever our own faith, Zoroastrian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu..How far are we willing to go for our faith?

Politics aside, we come from a country were the vast majority of its population is Muslim, if we each look back 5-10 generations, we come from a Persian culture were the majority of religious faith has been Islam by choice! When you come from such a culture and you bash its religion it like “ toofe sar bala” it will come back and land on your own face!

No doubt power and politics has infected the face value of all organized religion today, but let’s not mistake that for having true faith in God. (We all see and find God based on our own personal experience)

Before our time for secularism or democracy comes we must learn to respect all Iranians and their choice of religion and faith, Zoroastrian, Jews, Christian and Muslim Baha’i.

lets stop all the Muslim bashing!

عجب

. تا خرافات باشه همینه. تا تلویزیون ایران هم مشوق این
گونه اراجیف باشه امسال این آدم‌های ساده لوی و دور از واقعیت که گریبان
گیر فقر هستند روزی شون رو از یک مرده میطلبند.

Heartbreaking...

This poor old lady must have suffered so much in her life as direct result of not receiving Proper Education and consequently facing life long Economical hardship that has lead her to this level of Sadness and helplessness... , while the world is going forward in a complete different direction and with so much speed...

It's a massive shame for us (more fortunate Iranians inside or outside), to continue being just a silent witness to so many poor people left so behind in our country...

The only salvation for future Iran and Iranians is to fill this massive gap between such people( The poor) and the rest of us (The Rich) here! First, by providing Proper Education and later lead by providing Proper Health and Economy for our nation.

Free Iran. 

secularism!!!

we need secularism in iran. we need to bring secularism to iran out of thin air. right now! forget about this lady and millions of others like her!

lets sign the secularist manifesto!