My friend Sasan
I hope my writing which is the stories of my friends and mine will be guided to the Unity of mankind and we can have our short lives with paces and love.
As my mother was Baha’i ,I was persecuted and I could not teach at the university any more. I thought I should write my stories and the real stories of other friends of mine, may be these writing will help the people to respect each other and listen to each other and try to understand each other. I think the life is short and full of difficulties any way and we should not add other and more difficulties to this short life. We should try to make life easier for each other and love each other as all prophets and philosophers guided us. Jesus told us love each other as I loved you. Mohammad said be with each others like good friends and be like good brothers to each other. Zoroaster wrote good thinking, good action and good speaking should be your goal. Why we should be persecuted by each other because of religions, races, sexes, shape of the body and nationalities. What can we do if we born in a family with a Christian religion or Islam…how could we change our nationalities or races which are an artificial matter any how.
If we born in a family of Moslem we generally will be a Moslem. If we born in a family of Christian religion we will be generally Christian. A Good one or a bad one. But the name of our religion will be generally the name of our parent religion. But what can we do if we born in a family with two or three religions. Especially if the people of these religions are trained to hate each other.
was a university teacher in Iran. My father was a Moslem police colonel and my mother was a high school teacher. She was a Baha, i. I helped one of my Moslem friends who were in very bad shape. His wife died of cancer, his business was occupied by people and his houses were occupied by others; they do not pay him anything and used his business and properties free to save money and get rich. His house in which he was living was badly damaged and needed repair. He cried so many times and asked me so many times for help that he influenced me badly so I tried to help him.
I was also teacher in GermanEmbassy School in Tehran and the university. I was a very beloved teacher and the students like me like their own father. They were very close and friendly to me and I enjoyed to teach them, because they love to learn and respected my way of teaching and helping. In that time the German teachers make a lot of money as their salaries were in German Mark and this Mark has three different prices. The German Mark had black market price, official price and government second price. The price of one Mark was between fifty and two hundred Rials.
So the people changed the Mark in Bazaar in Tehran and get for each Mark 200 Rials. They paid their costs with these Rials and after that they could changed the rest of their Rials in the bank back to the German Mark and get for each 50 Rials one Mark back and the German Embassy in Tehran help the Germans to get their Rials back in German Mark; for each 50 Rials one Mark back. For example if a German had killed an Iranian by accident with his car and he paid the money for blood in Rials, which he could get easily in black market, he could get for all Rials that he paid for the blood money, he could get for each 50 Rials one German Mark back. This means he could pay the blood money and had a three times of the amount of that blood money cash in his hand. Because for each German Mark that he paid for the blood money, he could have 4 German Mark back from German insurance company.
So you can see even killing the Iranian people was a benefit for them. In this time I was teacher in that school. I was before also in the Shah time a teacher in TehranGerman School and that time the salaries of German were 4 to 6 times more than us. But after revolution their salaries were 30 times more. So some of them, they looked down to Iranian, as we were paid so poorly. The other situation was that in the Shah times the Germans who worked in Tehran were from a higher class and they respected Iranian more. They were more tolerated and friendlier than after the revolution.
For example they told me that you are happy and must be very lucky to work with us. The other one said” I wish I could change every day the Iranian teachers and give the advantage of working in GermanEmbassy School to other teachers, too.” But some of them were friendly and respected us.
My friend Morteza who lost his jobs and money and properties knew that I work in that school and he knew also that I have some German close friends.
My friend tried very hard and through help of his friends and by spending a lot of money which he gave to the people with authorities in the ministry of Just; he could get the authorities and he has sent the occupied people out of his apartments with the help of police forces . But the people damaged the apartments and to rent those apartments to normal people was not easy; he should first repair the apartments so he could rent them. But how he can get money he needed to repair the apartments. Also the house in which he was living was damaged, too and needed to be repaired. He said many times to me Amir , please help me and try to get some money for me to repair my house and apartments. I need the money just for 20 days. I will rent the apartments fast and I will pay the money back fast.
I said I do not have 1,000,000,0 Rials cash money. With this money you could buy a small house or apartment at that time. Or you could buy a big garden around Tehran. He said you have the credits and the Germans earn a lot of money borrow money from them, give it to me and I will pay it back just in 20 days. I promise you, see my children are hungry and I have no money. If I repair and rent these apartments, so I will have soon a lot of money and I will be saved. He knew him for twelve years, he was always nice and friendly to me. I was private teacher of all his children. They were nice children and they learn with me very well. I liked them and I wanted them to be successful. I was not as a teacher not indifferent to them.
Morteza cried every time that I was in his house and thought his children for 3 to 4 hours. He paid always my salaries. Late but he has paid in full. As he paid always my salaries and he cried every time and asked me. With the time I wanted really help him. Sometimes like or love blind you. You do not think properly and you cannot consider the risk which always may happen.
One time he looked at me his whole face was wet with crying . He said Amir I have six children and they need money. They need food and support. I pay you, because I think they need to be educated. They have no mother, and I try out of house the whole day. I must try to get my capital or part of my capital back. I go every day to the ministry of Just to get my capital. He had a big company, but his share holders and friends who worked with him in the company have left Iran after the revolution. He was alone and they were connected to the old regime so they could not stay in Iran any more. They helped him and he could run the business. But now he was alone and they have gone.
He said to me all my friends and relatives who help me have gone out of Iran, and I am alone here. I have only you. I trust you and let you in my house to help me and my children. You have such a huge credit with Germans and embassies. Get loan from them, give it to me and I will give it back just in 20 days. I will give you all necessary documents. Checks, receipt, documents of my houses and garden. I will also give you the passports of my children, so they cannot go out of Iran. The papers which are the receipt of money in my name and the people must pay to me. I am not a poor man, I have a lot of papers and documents which show that the people should pay me.
Next day I have spoken with one of my close friend, Herr Mueller and explain the situation. I said to him, that he is a good friend and he was always very nice to me. I know him for 12 years and I did not see any bad action from him. He said Amir I do not him but I know you and if you think there is no risk, I will give you 50,000 Mark and you can give the Mark back to me in 20 days. Sorrowfully, Herr Mueller was not asking a lot of papers or documents. He trusted me, as we were close friends. I called Morteza and gave him the money.
After 20 days, Morteza said that he is very sorry that he could not rent the apartments. He needs two more months to rent and get the money. As I trusted Morteza , I believed him and went to Herr Mueller and told him that my friend is not able to pay now, but he promised to pay in 2 months. Herr Mueller was very upset and said you told me 20 days. I need my money now and now you say 2 more months. I lose the interest for 2 more months. I said Morteza said that he is willing to pay the bank interest to you. I know that he will pay. He is such a good person. Manfred said as you trust him so much and he promised to pay the interest so it is OK and I will give him another 2 months time.
After two months Morteza called me and said that he is sorry and he cannot pay the full amount. He can pay 5000 Mark and he will pay the rest in 6 months. Because he does not want to say less than 6 months, as he is not sure if he can pay in one or two months. But six months if enough time for him to gather the money and pay me. I went with 5000 Mark to Manfred and handed the money to him and said the story. Herr Mueller was not happy, but he said to me are you sure that he will pay in 6 months. I said yes, he has given me a lot of documents. See the papers of his houses, garden, checks and …passports of his children. He said he work just for his children and he want they should go to Germany and study there. The study of his children he said is more important for him as money. And without passport they cannot go to Europe.
was really sure that this time Morteza will pay the whole amount plus the bank interest as he promised. After six months, Morteza came in my house with 15000 Marks and told me. I am sorry, I could not gather more than this. I called Manfred and told him the story. He was very angry and told me Amir I do not know him. I do not want to see him. You should pay me the rest of the money. I translated the words to Morteza and he said Amir, take this money and go to him and try to get one year more time. This time I have enough time to gather the money.
I went to Manfred and gave him the 15000 Mark and told him the situation, he said Amir I cannot wait any more he is your friend and you are responsible for his action. I know you and I trusted you. I do not know him and I would not give any penny to him. You are my trusted friend and not him. I will give you one month time to give my money back. I explain the situation to Morteza and he said you can help me and rent the apartments and come to my house and sell my carpets. I will also give you half of my garden if you sell also your carpets and gold or silver and gather money. Next day I took one of carpet seller to his house. His daughter opens the door and sadly showed him the carpets, but the carpets were not good and did not cost enough to cover some costs.
The man said the carpets cost about 200 Mark each. And his 5 carpets cost only 1000 Mark. His color TV costs also another 1000 Mark and they did not show anything else to be valuable to be sold. And the children were not willing to sell the carpets and TV. And the 2000 Mark was really not a good price for all those materials. But when you want to sell you should sell very cheap.
What can I do; I started to sell my carpets, gold and silver and other materials which were costly. I gathered about 20,000 Mark and gave to Manfred. As my father-in-law saw my situation, he said that he can borrow money from a friend for few months, too. So I can pay Manfred off. He gave me also another 10,000 Mark and I paid off Manfred. My nice and the friend of my sister have also helped me and gave me some money to pay the interest of the Manfred Mark. So I was totally free from his payments. He thanked me and I thanked him and the situation was quite.
After one year, Morteza told me again that he cannot pay. I must take money with high interest and pay my father-in-law, the friend of my sister and my nice. Morteza told me he is very sorry, but as I said you can rent the apartment and take the rent for the payment for the money. I brought people to the apartments, but the price that Morteza wanted was almost double what the people offered. So I could not rent his apartments. Later I heard that he rent by himself half price what he suggested to me. It is clear that nobody will rent double if he can rent half of the double. So I know that he had cheated me. Still he said that he will give half of his garden to me. But the price that he wanted was more than normal price. And he did not support me for the paperwork of the transaction. I preferred to wait one more year and get the money with the inflation adjustment.
Know the Mark was 400 Rials, and every other thing was double also. The people who gave me money wanted the inflation adjustment. They took generally a foreign money and want also the interest rate for the foreign money what ever bank gives which is very fair. Sorrowfully the inflation in Iran was very high and the prices were going up. Morteza now was an indifferent cruel person and was thinking of himself only. He did not pay my salaries, too. So after one year that he did not pay my salaries I stopped the teaching his 6 children.
Now he was relaxed and after one year he wanted another time for 2 more years. And in this time, he asked me to go to the people who must give him money and explain to them that Morteza needs money, because he must pay me. But these people after all my effort paid him the money and not directly to me. And Morteza did not pay me.
After 2 years, he said to me. Amir I do not have extra money to give to you. I will give you money tomorrow of in 10 years. The country has government and ministry of just and you have enough papers to go and get your loan. I am not the only person who has loan. Go and get your right. Before that he said always that the Baha’i are good and Moslem are bad. I said my father and my family are Moslems and they are good. But now he started to say bad words about Baha’i so that they are dogs and dirty and they are bad and out of Islamic religions. The needy friendly Morteza now was an animal who wanted to damage me and disrespected me. That was too much for me and I slapped his face. So he attacked me and his children came and helped him also. I must fight with 6 persons in the same time and it is clear that I could not defend myself properly.
After a while I came out of the house and went to his nephew house which was close. I washed myself and said the matter to him. He said that he will bring me to my house. As I had another private class in one of my friend house who was a medical doctor, asked him to bring me there. He brought me there and as I was full of pain and blood, the doctor said that I do not need to teach his daughter today and he brought me to my house. I was resting at home when the police came to my house and wanted me to go to police station. After I went home Morteza gather people and make a note that I beat him and went to a police station and acted against me. Now the two policemen came to my house to arrest me.
I said to the police that I will come to the police station and I went there, but they put me in jail. After that again my father-in-law came and gave the documents of his house and they released me. Now Morteza had a plan to damage my life. He went every day to different police stations and with the help of his friends. Everyday were police in front of my house. That was the reward of my help to him. He wanted that I fear from him and let him go. As he was a professional person in this matter, he could tease me very easily.
As he knew a lot of people, he make the life very hard for my. Every day the police took me to different stations and sent me to jail. My brothers have to support me, but Morteza knew a lot of people who were involved with the ministry of Just. So for him was very easy to have different excuse to arrest me. I first must know people and explain the situation to them and if they were not indifferent, they had supported me.
I went also to important people and explained the situation, but most of them were indifferent and said that is not my problem. Or they wrote a letter, but the letter was gone to the wind. When Morteza did something the system were behind him and they came after me, but when I went to the court and wanted my right my papers were sent from one court to another court and my papers were always on the way so nobody has interest to read them.
After seven years that I run after my papers and Morteza must pay me the money, but the ministry of Just forget the high inflation in Iran and ordered him just to pay the 30 Mark in Rials for each Mark actually 50 Rials. Now the Mark was over 500 Rials, but as Morteza gave me his receipt in Rials, he must pay me just 700,000 Rials. As he paid me about 300,000 Rials with the time. In reality he won a lot of money his garden and even the rent of his apartments were 5 to 10 times more, but he paid the same money which he had 7 years ago.
Later he did the same thing with other person, but this time the person was a government official and put him in jail and he died in jail, but he damaged my life and damaged my capital, too. You can imagine with 17% of inflation, how much I did get after 7 years. That means less than 3/4 of my capital has gone to Morteza. But the just system in Iran is so, they let the people rub you and they do not care. All my letters to Iranian official have been ignored. As long as they do not have any damage, they do not care.
remember that two of the persecutors t
Morteza also wrote a letter to the university that I am a Baha’i and I just came to the school to change the religion of my students. So the university sent me out. The government told me if I do not write article in the newspapers against Baha’i and Christianity, I will lose everything and all my other jobs.
They make the life so hard for me that I should come out of Iran. Sasan one of my best friends was in the USA and wrote to me as you have so many problems, come to the USA and here you can work and study.
As Sasan was like me and we were both born in a family with two religions, I decided to come to him and I would know that he will help me. Morteza told me one time that I man with one hand was going on the street; suddenly he saw another man with one hand; so he went to him and started to cry. The people asked him, why you did not cry before, he told them that this man understands my pain; the other people cannot understand my pain and they are indifferent.
Morteza told me another story, too. That one time a man looks very tired and sees another man is riding a horse. He said to the man that I am very tired, can I use your horse for a while and you come with the feet; as I have gone the whole two days on feet. The man said OK. I will give you the horse, but next station in the coffee house, I will meet you next day and I will get my horse back.
The other man said OK and jumps on the horse and said to the other man, I will take your horse and go; I will never give back your horse and you cannot catch me. The other man told him OK, but do not tell any body this story, because later nobody will help any body and the Love in people will die.
Morteza showed himself as a very good man. He planed so long that I thought he is really a good man. But now as he had my capital, he was trying even to kill me. Sorrowfully the indifferent system in just in Iran gave him the possibilities to be so bad. When the persecutors are so indifferent that they told me clearly, what should I do and I do not have any interest; to whom should you go?
Actually they were trying to find a way to punish me and send me to jail and they were helping him totally. After he damaged my life he was so happy and so proud that he started to rub even government.
Two people in the revolutionary courts name Mr. Malki and Mr. Bahmani knew with what type of person I have been involved, but they could not help me.
Sasan had almost the same problems. When the people of one religion are in difficulties, so everybody tries to take his part. Even the people in the same religion try to take their part and their advantages. A person said to me the people are like animals, when they see weak people, they attack him or her. If they know you have problem and you are in a weak situation, even you family and friends will take advantages of the situation. It is hard, but sorrowfully true.
Sasan told me that the world system tries to divide the other people in groups, these people who run the whole world have the most capital and they have power. They are against the unity of mankind; they want hate and disunity so they can sell their weapons and drugs to the people. If there is a nice society and the people are helping each others and are very well educated who will use the drugs?
But if the people are selfish and cruel and will hate and kill each other so we should buy weapons to support ourselves. You see the Moslem Shia is killing the Moslem Soni and both of them say I am the right Moslem and the other one is wrong. So the Moslems are killing Moslems, the Moslems are killing Hindus and the Hindus are killing Moslems. So everybody is busy to kill each other and they do not go after education and love.
magine if the whole world work with love and unity and we can save all these billions of dollars or euro for the people and build for them universities, schools and hospital and create work and research, than we will have a nice life.
But we should persecute each other because of religions, races and nationalities. We do not listen to each other and we do not open our heart to each other. I am right you are wrong that is our way. Sasan told me one day, my father who was Moslem forced me to fast. It was the fasten time of Moslem and my father as a good Moslem wanted me to fast, too.
My mother has no influence and she let my father do what ever he wanted, only in secret she took me to the Baha, i gathering. So my father was trying to educate me as a Moslem boy. He took me to my other sister and she thought me the prayers in Arabic. I was only eight years old and I must pray 17 times in a day the Arabic prayers that I did not understand their meaning.
For eight years old boy is hard to pray 17 times a day. For me it was the whole day, I could not play at all. Home work and 17 times pray was too much for me. But my father loved me and wanted me to be a good man later and go to paradise. And have nice angel beside me.
Now it was Ramadan month, the Moslem or Arab month in which they should fast. We should not eat when the sun is in the sky. Sometimes it is 10 hours in the summer sometimes more. As long it is not dark we cannot eat.
Now I went to school, and my father told me I must be a good boy and must not even think bad. I must not fight and my thinking should be also pure and good. But in the school, I was know as a Baha’i so the children always fight with me. This day as I was quite and tried hard to be nice, they were crueler to me.
About nine or ten of them gathered and through stones on me. Than as they see I am still quiet they came closer and bit me. I have no other way; I could not stay nice and good. I tried to defend myself, too. But they were more than 9 boys. They fight with me and told me you dog Babi. In this time the teachers came and saved me. He took me in the office and cleaned me head from blood and helped me with the medicines. He made also a glass of sweet water and gave it to me to drink. I said Mr. Teacher I am fasting. The Islamic fasting. He told me you are fasting the Islamic fasting and they bit you and say to you dog Babi?
Yes, Mr. teacher, because my mother is Baha’i. So that day passed, but my problem with the Moslem children did not finish. I have in the house the same problem. The Baha’i family, especially the children tease me as a Moslem kid. As I must pray the Arabic prayers and that was funny for the Baha’i children so they make fun and said the child of clergy man, the Moslem child.
One day my uncle came to visit us, my beloved father was present, too. I told him Allah Abha. It is a Baha’i greeting. It is also an Arabic word and means almost the same as the Moslem say, Allah Akbar. My father wanted to save me from the hell by saying this word, slap on my face. My uncle later said to me that he was so upset that he wanted to fight with my father. But because my mother loved him and respects him, he controls himself he said.
That problem follow us, even we could not marry easily as other people do. For Moslem we were Baha’i and for the Baha’i we were Moslem. None of them wanted us. I remember one day, I was dating a Baha’i girl. I wanted to marry her. My father was died many years ago. As I said that my father was a Moslem and a good Moslem. She asked me right away, I should bring her home. After that she told me, that I should not call her and not come to her any more. As I had a bad dieses.
Later when my son was upset, he told me that my father was Moslem and had two wives. Now the regime changed and our situation was worst. We could not work and we were hated, by Moslem also by Baha’i. Because the Baha’is wanted us to suffer more and be killed for the religion. Because we were not good and full Baha’i and they like for their advertisement the people should be killed. Even one time an American Baha’i told me if you were a good Baha’i you have to be killed like Mona.
My father did not let me go to Baha’i school. I do not right to have Baha’i friends. I should not read and listen to Baha’i literatures. The secret knowledge that my mother has given me was not enough to know about a religion. I love people and want to work for the unity of mankind regardless to religion and other differences, which has been made by people any how.
