We have been persecuted, because our mothers were Bahais
By Amir Sahameddin Ghiassi
18-May-2009
I have been persecuted, too. We are all are persecuted by different people and in different time. Bahais are persecuted in Iran, Shia is persecuted in Saudi Arabia and Moslem is persecuted in Europe and America or Australia. I have been persecuted in Iran, because my mother was Bahai, and again have been persecuted in USA as Moslem and Iranian who is Nazi and is against Jew?
The Jew have been persecuted in Germany by Hitler and 6 millions of them had a terrible dead and 9 millions Iranian have been died, because there were no food to eat 1915 the British army in Iran bought food for his army and did not allow the neighbor countries send food to Iran and even did not let USA brings food to Iran and 9 millions innocent people have been died and laid on the street of Iranian cities and villages. Because the British wanted to reduce the Iranian population so they could easily govern them. 1924 Iran had more than 19 millions populations and 1919 it had 11 million or less.
Why because we do not love each other and just love ourselves and do not care about other people. We should love each other regardless to our nationalities, religions and races. They are all men who want to control people in the world and want to make them for the business purpose and misuse. The human being is one as Sadi, Persian poet says. The human being is just like one body. We should not waste our time our short time for hate and disunity we should cooperate with each other to go further and not backwards. I have been persecuted by my country, people, family…why because I love all people…
I am university teacher in the USA, because they did not let me to teach in my country…I would like to write the story of Djalal, just because I think it would help the young people to understand the difficulties of the life and the difficulties that they may have if they travel in other countries. I love the people in the whole world regardless of their religions, nationalities, races or other man made differences. I do not want to attack any cultures or any nations or religions.
I am trying just to point out the difficulties that the people may have because of these differences. My best friend Djalal and the other friend Sasan have the same or very similar life as me and they have the same difficulties, which I had. So I thought maybe by writing these facts, I can help to solve these problems. Why we should be persecuted, because our parents have other religions?
Why we should have such a hard life, because of the religions or other difference that people made between them? Why the systems in the world should be so indifferent, that nobody will trust the other person? Why the humanity will die and the people more and less are trained to be without feeling? Why cooperation should not replace indifference and why the people should not have any feeling for each other? Why the system in the world trains the people to be indifferent?
As I see the life of my friends and myself that are similar to my life, I think why we should not try to solve these problems? As a teacher I am interested in the life and futures of my Students, I think they are my spiritual children? I love my friends, too and that is the reason I am trying to bring their lives in the story. It may help a lot of other people in the same situation. To be indifferent or to be not indifferent that is the question, which I will try to answer.
I think if the people listen to each other without any judge in front or in the future, we will have a better life. With cooperation and love many of existing problems can be solved. The two friends of mine explain their lives for me and they said I can use their life stories, as an experience for other people, may be the problems with other people, especially the young people will be solved. So I tried to make combinations of the three personalities in this story. We are three suffered for the same problems and I will try to solve this problem. What can we do, as we born in the families with two or three religions?
What can we do, as we could not work in our native country and we must come to other country, and try to survive. The problems of language, accent, religion, culture and having no friends whom are native and could help and show the ways, are the problems, which I am trying to point. The finance problems and the experience in other country, which does not match with the experiences and problems in the new country. I do not blame these problems to the people. I would like to mention those problems which should be solved. So all people in the world can live in peace and unity. Why we should suffer so much in our short life, which is full of natural problems like cancer, and we add a lot of artificial problems to our life, too. I was in Iran university teacher, expert in the telecommunication company, teacher in German Embassy school, and consultant…I lost all of these positions, just because my mother was Bahai, I have been robbed by one of my best friend in Iran and he involved me with the ministry of just and a lot of police stations. He misused the religion of my mother to bring me in a very hard situation. Mr. Morteza Mosavi Tirabadi and his son Mohammad or Zia planed to destroy my life in Iran just because I helped them and gave a great sum of money to them and I must come here in the USA and start everything from zero point again. So it is clear that I had a lot of problems again. I see that my students use drugs and do not use their energy for a good life. I will try to help them. I have no support here, because I am Iranian and they will say you are a guest and should be quite and if here is difficult you can go back to Iran so I have to be quit and shout my mouth. In a very weak situation I must take a lot of responsibilities and have been attacked from many sides. I will try that the people should understand each other and not to be indifferent to each other and do not misuse love and interest of other people for making money. I would like to write the story of Djalal just as a try of an example for helping the unity of mankind. I do not believe in the hate between Nations, Religions, Races and other differences that the people may have or they think that they have. When I see that the people do not like each other because of color or nationalities, I remember my doves that I had in Iran, they were different colors, white, black, brown and different sizes and shapes, but they like each other and live with each other in peace. Why the human being that has more brain and have more knowledge should not live in peace with each other and why they should they misuses Religions, Nationalities or Races as an excuse for hate, separations and disunity. I think the people should be united with each other in the whole world and solve the problems in the world together and with each other help. Love each other regardless to their religions, nationalities and other man made differences, so much money that we use for hate and wars we can use these monies for the people and make the whole world lucky and happy. I know that now the West and the East are trained to hate each other and do not respect each other and I hope that the third world war will not be between Moslems and Christians as it seems to be so. As a student and teacher coming from East have a lot of experiences and know a lot of bad good things, which some of them are not correct and must be explain for the people in the world. Just because I was from another country or from East and live in the West I should not have so many problems. It is not fair, that the people be persecuted by many governments and religion flowers, because they want to be free of the hate and will love the whole human beings. Are the red roses better than white roses in the garden? In the garden there are different flowers, but none of them (roses) because colors could be better than the other roses with different colors. Is a white rose nicer than a yellow one? Or is a red one better than white one? As Goethe said the West and East should give hand to each other and work together for peace and brotherhood. I know that the system, which controls the whole world, will hate between East and West. This hate will be a big market for their weapons and they can examine their weapons by innocent young people.
Such an ignorant man like the third world leader let them use their experience and let them to examine their weapons in their countries with their people. Saddam and other dictators know 100% that they cannot win the war against the super power, but they do not care if many of their own people will die for a useless war and their country will be destroy by the super power easily. Why? Are they so ignorant and they doing not think about their own people and country? What do you think, they know they will lose; they cannot fight with simple weapons against the super electronic modern ones. But they start the war, because they do not care about the people and their own country.
About millions Moslems, Eastern people and one million Christians, Western people will be killed, if they start fighting, they make billions of billions dollars and other monies which exist in the world and forget about humanity. I had a Sunni student in the USA, Sunni is one of Islamic branches, he said Shia, the other branch of Islam is wrong and they do not have right and they are not real Moslems and must be executed; why? Because as a Sunni Moslem he was brainwashed by his family and his culture and the people who are practicing this religion and culture that the Shia is not a real religion.
If you are born in a family of Moslem Sunni, you generally are a Sunni Moslem and you will be brainwashed as a kid in the school by your teachers parents and other people who believe in that way and you will be brainwashed by your environment, by your friends and the neighbor who are Sunni Moslem and they say that only the Sunni Moslems are right. What can you do, they say so and you as a kid believe this. And I had Shia Moslems, they said the same thing that the Sunni is not a real Moslem branch and they are wrong and must be corrected or they should go away from the society.
I was born in a family with two religions; to a Moslem father and a Bahai mother; my father was a colonel in the police force, a very well respected person and his father was an Ayatollah, something like Khomeini, but in other time. His father-in-law was very important, too. Actually my father had two wives in the same time, my beloved stepmother was Moslem and I had 8 brothers and sisters from that side who are all Moslems, they were all nice and friendly to me and even their children were nice and friendly to me and I love them like my own sons and daughters, even my half sister is very nice to me and I did not do anything for her, but my full sister whom I loved so much and I still love her very much, took all my capital and because her husband did not want to give my capital back, she ignored me, too.
She was and is Bahai and I did whatever I could for her, but she did not appreciate all my effort and ignored me later as she sees I lose my money and power. My mother tried to raise my sister and me as Bahai, my sister used to go to the Bahai center in Tehran once a week for the religious lessons. I could not go, because at that time my father controls my mother and me. But in the time of my sister, he was very ill and could not control my sister and my mother as before.
My father died very early of a serious deasies and I do not know if that was cancer or other bad daisies. In that time I was in high school, and I became the head of the household at the age of 14. My friend Djalal had the similar life like me, but his half brothers and sisters were not nice and friendly to him as my half brothers and sisters were very nice and loving to me.
He said that my older brothers and sisters from my step mother had influenced my father before his death to leave all of his estate to them and we were left with nothing except the small house we were living in. There are a lot of people like us with the parents of two different religions and our lives are very similar. Actually I am writing this story because I want to solve this problem, and I do not want that other children experience the same problems that we did. Why the children born in two different religions or nationalities or races should have so many problems from both sides? I know a lot of people with the same problems and they experience the same persecution and difficulties, like us why? In the same year that my father died, the father of Djalal died, too.
In the same year the mother of my other friend, with 2 religions died also. Djalal said I went to Christian private school as in the Moslem school now would have been bother me a lot ,because I was without father; the children would make the life hell for me. The simple words that they would say, hi Djalal father dead. After finishing the high school, I tried to study at the University of Tehran and I studied for two years the German Language. My mother wanted me to be a Medical Dr. so I wanted it, too and I loved to be a medical Dr. because I could help other people and I would be very well respected. May be if I could be a medical Dr. I would have less problems.
And the people of both religions would excuse my two religions heritage. Einstein said. If I am successful the German say Einstein was German and the Jew will say he was Jew. But if I fail, the Jew will say he was German and the German will say he was Jew. If you are rich or powerful the people excuse your faults and in my case the two religions.If you are in a family with two different religions, when you are important and rich, the people from both sides forgive you because you are born in two different religions. As the entry exam for medical subjects were very difficult in Iran, so I went to Germany for studying there.
I went with a bus to Germany with many other students like me; some of them had the same problems, which I had. In Germany to rent a room in university cities was very difficult, especially for foreign middle class students. When you have a lot of money you will be welcomes everywhere. But if you are middle class and you do not have a lot of money, it is very hard to live in other country. The people do not accept you so easily. They think they should give you something and you will need them so they try to take distance from you.
I decided to come back, as in one year I could not get a room to live in. I was living in a pension and you cannot live in pension and study, because I must sleep with 8 other boys in the same room. So I came back to Iran and finished my BA in Tehran University. I started to work as a private teacher, which also has helped me a lot financially. Now I had enough money to spend. I worked and studied in Tehran, and in 1977, after completing my military service and receiving my BA documents and other military documents I went to Germany again to continue my studying. Again there was the same problem, this time I get a position as a teacher also, but sorrowfully some German do not like foreign and for this reason I returned to Iran, in 1978, and became employed as a university teacher and an adviser in the Ministry of Education.
I also thought German in an international school in Tehran. I did not have any problems practicing my life in Iran when the Shah was in power, because although the Bahai religion was not an official one, its followers were free to be Baha’i and to practice and gather in the Bahai centers all over the country. My mother was Bahai as I said before and so the Moslems counted me as a Bahai and I was a Moslem for the Bahais; with other words I was not accepted totally as a Bahai, for the Bahais and I was also not accepted as a Moslem for the Moslems, both religions did not accept me completely, they tolerated me, but did not accepted me.
For example I could not marry a Bahai girl in my level, because my dead father was Moslem and I had half brothers and sister that was Moslem. I could not even marry a Moslem girl in my level, because my mother was Bahai. In 1979, the Islamic Revolution changed my life again. All the International schools were closed and I lost my jobs as an advisor in the Ministry of Education because my mother was Bahai, and they did not accept me as a Moslem. I was teaching languages in the Ministry of Communication, but 1981, I was fired from all my governmental jobs without any benefit of retirement. Having left with no source of income I began to work for the embassies of Germany, Austria and Turkey, as translator.
In 1981, I got married and I have four children. I had some savings, which I gradually sent to the United States to my beloved sister whom I had sent to the USA for study. I asked her to buy houses for me there as I saw no future for my children and myself in Iran any more, and I was waiting for an opportunity to leave the country. She wrote always lovely letter that I should come to the USA as soon as I can, or even try to come to the USA by illegal way, she wrote may be more than 50 letters and encourage me to come to the USA and here she will help me and my family to come through.
I did not want to come illegally to the USA and I wanted to do it legally. I did not want to do anything against the law in Iran. I applied for an exit visa several times but I was denied because my mother was Bahai. In 1983, one of my stepbrothers who hated my mother for marrying our father, made false reports against me and I was imprisoned for 6 months. I had to sell my house and pay to the corrupted government employees as a fine before I could be released from the prison.
I was very badly treated in jail and was beaten and insulted constantly. In 1987, I was arrested again and this time they accused me of spying for the foreigners. I spent 14 months in the Evin prison without trail and was tortured repeatedly. They were asking all kind of questions about my affiliations with the Germans and Turks. I tried to explain to them that I was only doing my job as a translator and that I had no connection outside Iran.
I was finally released when they were convinced for my innocence but I had to sign a paper that I would give up my Bahai faith and act as the government informer when I return to my job in the embassy and in the Bahai gathering. After I was released I was afraid to return to my job because I did not want to put myself in a dangerous position of working with foreigners in a country that they can easily label you as and spay and execute you. Since my expertise was badly needed I could go back to my old job in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. In 1990, I enrolled in the Azad University of Tehran for a Master Degree program in English Language and Literature. In 1992, as I was a university teacher and they wanted me to have a Master degree in the same field also.
I was advised by the Committee of the university that I can no longer study and teach at the university, because my mother was Bahai. Although Bahais can take the admission tests to go to the universities; they are barred from entering to the higher education institutes because of their religion and in my case for the religion of my mother. Even the Bahais did not accept me as Bahai totally. I wanted to marry 60 Bahai girls and all of them did not want to marry me because my father was Moslem and I did not have good knowledge in the Bahai religion, as I could not go to the Bahai schools in the time I was a child.
I had eight brothers and sisters who were strict Moslems. I had the same problem with the Moslem girls; I could not marry them, because my mother was Bahai. I mean a girl in my level. I could may be marry a girl who must be at least two level down that means without any good education and without good educated family. Or a girl who was married before and was divorced without any university degree, I had maybe chance for them, but I wanted a wife for my whole life, I knew if I marry a girl with poor education and with parent with poor education; they will influence even my children against me and I could not train my children to be free from prejudice and with good education.
Some uneducated family will make fun of educated people and so they want to have in this way their satisfaction. I know another case that a man like me with a PhD married a girl without any collage education and her parents have only elementary education. They make life hell for my friend. Sasan said to me, that what ever I say, the parents of my wife say this is wrong.
They have only elementary education and I have PhD from the university, but they say that I am speaking poor Persian and have no knowledge in the Persian language and social study and they are better, because they have more experience than me, they do not care that I have been finished my degree from Iranian university. They say that the words that I used are wrong. For example they said you said Badenjan, the correct word is Bademjun and one time they said it is over 1 and half million Moslems in the world, and I said that is not true and there is about 700 million Moslem were in the world at that time, 1986.
And they were angry and said that I am ignorant and do not have any good education and make a lot of mistakes. I should listen to them, as they know much more. In reality their knowledge was based on different oral knowledge listen by different people or cheap storybooks and other rumors spoken by the people but their knowledge was not based of classic books or dictionaries. Because they have other values than I have, they worship money and materials and I love humanity and unity of mankind, so even later my children will be influenced by the parents of my wife, not to be very well educated, as they do not respect education so much.
They respect money and if they respect education, because they think with good education, you can make more money. For example my sister had MA degree and she was a beautiful girl and well educated, she must marry a Bahai man who was 30 years older than her, had no degree, was married before and was divorced and even his face and body was less than normal and he was ugly. One of my friend said your beautiful sister married a monkey type man, who cannot speak even properly Persian, his native language.
He was 50 years in the USA and could say only words in English and not a proper sentence with subject and object and the verb in a correct form. What he could do was to cheat American or foreign women and marry them and after a while they know how he is and so they would have divorced him. He was playing and some times he won some money and with this money he could invite the girls or women in good restaurants and bought for them expensive gifts so they were fall in his trap for a while. In this way my poor sister falls in his trap also. So the same was for me, I could marry a girl in low class situation, with uneducated parents and poor education and other negative situations.
I wanted to marry a girl in my level and that was not possible. And as I said 60 of them did not marry me. I was not upset about this. But my sister was very upset about this condition. In 1992, I was fired again from the Ministry of labor and social affairs after 8 years of services and the only reason they gave me was my mother religion also Bahai. I appealed the decision to the High Court of Administrative Justice but my appeal was dismissed summarily.
I was devastated. With several degrees in engineering education and languages and many years of productive work I was left behind without any job and could not even exit the country or work in the private companies. What the government official told me, I can work as a physical worker and in the same time uneducated people worked in my position. My only hope was that I had about $200,000 in the USA for the rainy days but when I contacted my sister to send me some of that money to support my family, she told me that her husband had bought 3 houses with my money and I later found out that he has bought the houses in his name and my sister name and basically refused to return any portion of my money back to as I was in Iran.
My wife, who had objected to transferring my saving to the US and especially to my sister, became very angry with me and wanted to divorce me. I became so depressed that I attempted suicide but a neighbor saved my life and arranged for me to meet with an influential friend of his in the government to regain my job. I was advised that the only way I could get back to my government job was to write an article against Bahaism and Christians in the newspapers and publicly request the government for forgiveness.
I refused that offer, as I would prefer to starve rather than to act against my principals. I was actually a person who had the bad chance. I was not Bahai, but I could not write anything against the religion of my beloved mother. The Bahais did not accept us totally as a Bahais, as we had Moslem father and 8 brothers and sisters who were famous Moslems, and the Moslem now did not accept me as Moslem, too, because I respected Bahais and Christians.
What can I do as I born in a family with two religions? How could I be against the religion of my mother or my father? You love generally your parents both and you cannot decide to chose one of them and hate the other one religion. In 1995, my aunt from my father’s side died and left me property. One of my half brothers took me to the court and because the justice system is corrupt they paid bribes to the judge and he ruled against me.
Before I could appeal the case I was arrested again while I was at the house of a friend of mine who was a Bahai. I spent 4 months in prison without being charged. I was very badly treated in prison and was called dirty and dog Bahai. Even I was not a Bahai. They did not execute me because of the international outcry over the execution of Bahais in Iran. When I was released I requested an exit permit. I was told that if I write article against the Bahai, I would get my exit permit. I was in such bad shape but still I could not write against any religions any thing in the newspapers, because that is exactly what the business people wanted. Hate between religions, so they can brain wash the people against each other religions and with this hate they can sell their weapons to them, and they can kill each other and I did not want to be one of their agent and part of this cruel system.
The system wants the disunity and hate, so they (the system) can govern the people easily. If the people fight with each other they have time to rub their wealth. I remember as a child we read a story, that two men were fighting with each other for a donkey they robbed and the third one took their donkey and their properties and run away. I was now in this point. I must choose between hate and love. I will be very badly punished if I would have chosen Love. Love for the humanity and respect other people cultures, religions and other personal believing. So I chose the love. Sometimes I think why we should have for the short time of our life so many problems. Our life is so short and even this short life is accompanied by a lot of natural problems. Than we add to these problems other artificial problems to those natural problems. We should make the life easier for each other and not more difficult.
What can I do as I born in a family with two religions and I have an Iranian passport. In Iran I do not get job, because my mother was Bahai, the Bahais do not accept me because my father was Moslem. In the USA I do not get a good job, because I am Iranian. Why we should have this entire problem for the short time of our life. The system of the world wants indifferent people. I came actually to all these problems, because I was not indifferent to the people, if I was indifferent, I may have none of these problems. The system wants indifferent people, so they can do what ever they want, and nobody will be against them, if you see somebody is killing some one on the street, you go your way, because you do not want to be disturb for other people life and problems and that is exactly what the business people want.
If I was indifferent and did not listen to other people problems and did not try to solve their problems or did not try to help them, I would have none of these existing problems that I have now. Any way they wanted my promise to relinquish my mother’s faith and cooperate with the government in condemning the Bahai faith. I did not agree with this suggestion. Later I could go out of the country as some of my friend did get good position, so they helped me. I came to the USA with the intention of getting my money back from my sister, but her husband did not want me and said “if you come to our house I will call the police.
The police will take you to jail. You must pay an attorney to protect yourself in the USA and I have an attorney who protects me for my cheating activities.” But you do not have money, so you cannot pay an attorney, so you will have no help from the court side. I wanted to send the interest of this money to my wife and children in Iran who need my support. When I came to Florida, where my sister and her husband live they denied that I ever sent any money to them.
My sister told me that her husband drinks and gambles all the time and that she could not do any thing for me because she fears him. So I went to the Washington DC area and now I am trying to have the minimum of life in the USA. I cannot return to Iran as all my money is with my sister. I do not have any money to give to attorney to fight with my brother-in-law in the expensive court system here of the USA. The judges do not listen to me, because they are so busy and their time is so costly and they want just to listen to an attorney, in Iran the judges listen to the people and they are not so artificial people and you can explain your situation to them. Some of them are indifferent and some of them at least listen to you. But here they are indifferent with what ever happen to me.
In the time that my own beloved sister, whom I supported so much and gave so much money, has no interest about me how can other people have any interest about me? I have no home here, no proper job and no family to go to. The Iranian regime has been deprived me of my right for practicing my faith which is respecting other religions. I was persecuted because I did not want to be against any religions and did not want to write anything against other religions. I have suffered a lot in the hand of brutal and indifferent people, Moslems and Bahais, and can no longer tolerate the imprisonment and torture.
I am a victim of the faith of my mother and my father and my only crime is my respect to other religions. When I was in Iran, I helped a lot of Americans friends at the time of revolution and now they are helping me to stay here. I want a chance to serve the people with my knowledge and expertise; I wanted always to serve the people. I love other religions and people and respect them. I want to be a useful person again and to be a good teacher again. Eastern and Western people should love each other. Eastern and Western should respect each other cultures and their different life styles. All religions were from the East. All of them have told the same thing, the same route of Abraham. Jewish, Christian, Moslems and Bahai are saying the same thing and all of them believe the same God and respect the same 10 commands and are related to each other.
Moslems say the Jesus was the spirit of God and a great prophet and Christian say he was the Son of God. What is the different between Son of God and spirit of God both are only words and say the same meaning? All religions say that we should be fair with each other and love each other, but the people use or misuse religions for hate and disunity, what God sent for Love is used for hate and war. Is this fair? Many people suffer from the hate between religions, nationalities, race and other differences, which are man made differences. Jesus did not bring 6000 different churches with Himself with so many different names.
All of them are man made churches according to the people interpretation or the selfishness of the people who wanted to have their own church and have their own business and benefit. Some people want to be a pastor so they can have respect and easy money. Jesus died with 33 as a poor man on the cross, some pastors have a good business and a lot of money by using his name and they do not even believe in God or Jesus. They act as they are deep believer, but they do not believe in their heart in Him and they do not love people, they love only their money and the easy respectful life, they can have through religions, and they say we made the people stupid of the promises that we give and made them like donkey and we use them. I had German pastor as a good friend and he said to me that my business is the easiest way to earn money.
I do not believe what ever I say. I cannot prove even to myself that there is a God. But I say this to the people and they believe, because the people have to have a God and I give this God to them, so they are satisfied and I have my respect and money from them, just like a doctor who gives medicine to the people and they give him money. I sell my God and they give me money to live nicely, they are happy and I am happy, if there is a God or not; it is not important. The people need to fear and need to have hope for the other world, they do not like to think that after the death they have done, they are done, and nothing stays.
They want to have heaven and internal life; I am selling this to them heaven and internal life. So I said you should at least train the people who listen to you for humanity and love for each other that is what all religions actually tried. Then he said if I do not say “that only this religion is the best one, so they do not come to my church and so I have less believer and less donations. “ We should train the people to love each other as the great people said and gave their life for this matter. I hope that my try will help some people to work for the unity of mankind.
If we work together and do not spend money and energy for hate we can solve the most of the existing problems in the world, which are based on the religions, nationalities and races, but in reality that is a business, that brings money to some people. That is just an economical problem, which uses or even misuses religions, nationalities and races for making money. That is a way of making easy money for some people. The money, which can be used for hate, can be used for peace and people.
The cruel system should not bring the dictators to power for their own benefit and remove them when they do not listen to them. When they (dictators) start to work for themselves and or for their own people, the system will change them, so again a lot of innocent people will be killed. I said to my pastor friend that we couldn’t prove by science that there is a God or we cannot even imagine the God in our mind, but to be fair we cannot also disprove that there is no God, with other words our thinking system is so limited and our mind is so weak for all these matters. As an ant or even elephant cannot think about our life, so we cannot think with our limited brain about God, so we could believe Him by heart and not by our limited brain capacities .
My father told me, the system bring dictators in power and as long as they listen to the big boss, they can be king or president for ever. But when they start to use their own brain and work for their own benefits and or for the people they will be removed; by the force of advertisement, which can be prepared against them and if this does not work, they use real force and remove them. To bring them to the power they use a lot of innocent people; some of them will be killed and to remove them again a lot of people will be killed again. But the system does not care about the humanity and the unity of mankind what they want is more money. My question is who gives drug to my students in the USA.
Why the system does not prevent this? Why the teachers in the USA have no respect from the society as in the Middle East or in Europe? Why the police and people in the court have so much power, but a teacher who should train the students has no power even to ask the student to bring his/her book with them. Why police and the people in the court have so much power and the teacher has not even had the same respect by the system and school system respect the students have. The words of a student have more validation as the words of a teacher. I asked one of my students to bring her book with herself, she went to the counselor and she called me in her office and said, she does not need to bring her book; she can look in her friend’s book.
Do not force her to bring her book and do not force her to learn. She is free not to learn in the class. So what can you do as a teacher? Other mother came to me and said my son is coming to school to have fun with the girls, and you are forcing him to learn and you always asking him questions. What a huge crime I did to that student, I asked him questions about the class materials. And the student and his mother did not like that. If they cheat in my class, I must forgive them, but the police and judge will forgive them, also? I do not know if my story will help the unity of mankind and the humanity or not. But like many other writers who tried to share their experience with the people, I will try to do that, too. I remember in the time that I was reading the father Gurio from Balzac the French writer; I did not expect that the similar situation in his story can happen to my friends and me. Baba Guiro was a rich man and he had two daughters, they were beautiful and they were ready to be married, so Baba Guiro gave all his wealth to his two daughters in the hope that later the daughters will help and support him, when he get older; and the money also will help them to marry good husbands, too. He thought I do not need money, let give the money to the young daughters so they can use it and will get nice husbands. After he gave everything, what he had to his daughters; he went to his older daughter to stay with them, also she was married and the father wanted to stay with her and her family. After a while the daughter said my husband does not like guest, so please go to your younger daughter. Baba went to the younger daughter and stayed with her for a while, but again after some time the daughter said go back to my sister I am tried of having you here and my husband does not like guest, too. So they put the old man on the streets of Paris. When Sadegh Hedayat a Persian writer wrote” there are some wounds in the body that eats the flash like a deasies so we think that the writer was so pessimistic. But that is true, you help and give everything to the people you love and they destroy you. Now I am speaking about the story that I will write. You will see how similar the problem with two religions is. The problem of Religions, Nationalities and races…My other friend told me also that I was born in a family with two religions. I am not the only one with a Moslem father and a Bahai mother; many friends of mine have the same problem. As I said before the father of my friend was Moslem and a military colonel, the son of an ayatollah and his mother was a Baha’i high school teacher. It is clear that you love your parents, both of them so you respect their religions, too. But it is not so easy when the two religions do not accept each other hate each other or at least they do not tolerate each other. The Moslems say that the Baha’i is a wrong and false religion, their followers are bad people and must be sent out of the country or be executed if they are active in the Bahai faith and the Baha’is say that the Moslem should investigate and found the truth; they should read Baha’i books and found the reality and the true. The Islam is a right and good religion, but it is old and must be renewed by the new prophet and its rules and regulation are for the past and these law and regulations are not possible to be acted now. On the base of Islam the Bahai religion has been established. And the Moslems say “Mohammad is the last prophet and we do not need to investigate other religions or read other books, the Islam is a good and the last religion and other religions after Islam are false religions. Even some Moslems do not read their own religious book, the Koran. I remembered one of my student said the Koran is a very good book and in that book everything is written from Physic to Medicine, I said did you read such a glorious book, he said no, I said why? He said he does not know good Arabic, I said there is a translation in Persian, too. He said the translations are not good enough to understand the Koran. I said that is just an excuse, if you say such a book is so good, and you do not even try to read it; that is not fair. If you are a good Moslem you should try to learn Arabic and read the Koran in Arabic with the help of Persian translation. He said I have no time to do that. I must work and study to have a diploma to get a better salary. With reading Koran I do not get a diploma to get a better salary. So I have no time to investigate Koran and read it properly. So you can imagine how hard it is for the children born in a family with two religions. For me it was very hard. As I wrote before, I am trying to write the story of my friends, whom their lives were similar to my life. Djalal and Sasan were the two closer friends to me and both of them have almost the same problem that I had. On the street the Moslem children through stones to me and said bad words about Baha’i people and even very bad words about their leaders and prophet, and called me sag Babi, which mean Bahai dog; and often I came home with bloody face or head and they said bad words about Baha’i people and Baha’i prophet continuously. I did not know at that time the different between the two religions. I was only 8 years old. In the house especially when we have Baha’i guests, my father forced me to pray in Arabic in front of the Baha’i guests. He wanted to influence the Baha’i guests that Islam is a better religion by forcing me to pray in Arabic language loud in front of them, that I did not know the meaning of my pray at that time. For this reason it was hard for me, too. I must do something that I do not even understand. Now after many years I remember all these and thought; may be if I write this it will help the other children who’re like me (us) in the past, in a family with two different religions. And maybe the father and other members of the family have mercy for the kids. And they will not force them to do something that is difficult for them and they do not understand also. I was teacher in Iran in different universities and international high schools. I started my teaching position in Tehran German School.
It was a nice school with a very friendly German principal. His name was Herr Werner Dau and was like a real father to the students and the young teachers. I was hired by the school board and I have been paid about one third of a salary of a German teacher from Germany. Our salary was a little bit more than the salary of Iranian teachers in Iranian schools. So the salary was attractive for other Iranian teachers who were in Iranian schools. So many of them were trying to come into the German school, especially when they were hired by the Iranian government, they could keep their salaries from the Persian government and have another extra salary from the school.
But you must have good friends or good parties to come with the government salary to a private school like German school. My mother was working in a private school, but she was only paid by the government and the private school paid only the teacher whom they hired directly, so they did not pay the government teacher. But in German school it was different. They paid the teachers whom they hired and they paid the government teachers even more than what they paid to the teachers whom they hired, also they paid more money to the government teacher.
So you can imagine how attractive was the job as a government teacher to work in the German school. So after one ear that I was teacher there; the first government teacher came as a teacher and Persian director to the school. Now he was trying to influence the Germans that the government teachers are better than the private teachers whom they hired. This government teacher had even more salary from the school as I got. But he wanted now to bring all other his family members and friends to the German school. So he tried to send me and some other local teachers who were hired by the school system directly out of the school.
As long as Herr Dau was director he could not influence him. But after two years Herr Dau was retired and should go back to Germany. Now it was his time to influence the new young principal of the school that the private teachers whom are hired by the German school are not as good as the government teachers and they should be fired and the government teachers should replace them. They can teach much better. Actually in Iran everybody who finishes the university can be a teacher. So after a while they will be trained in the system.
But in Germany it is different. The teachers have other education as just finishing the university with a degree. That point was his argument; in Germany you should have other exam to be teacher and not only to have the university diploma. University degree is not enough to be a teacher in Germany. Any way after three year that I was teacher there, he made so many problems for me that the school agreed to send me out; for example, he gave me 3 first grade classes, so it was so boring to repeat the same materials 3 times every day.
So he could then bring his brother-in- law and other members of his family or his closed friends as teacher in the German school and so he manipulated the school system with his people. I went to British school and was a teacher there for a while than I went to Germany and was a teacher there. I have tried to say this fact to the Iranian government people that why I should be fired; just because I was not a government teacher, but nobody was interested to listen to me.
My argument was why a teacher from government should have two times salary and the other teacher whom is not hired by government should lose his only job and the only salary; and give this job to other teacher who has already a job as a government teacher in the government school. But the system ignored me. In the time that I was teacher in the German school I was 22 years old and that was my second year to be a teacher. Before I was teacher in an Iranian private school. I loved my students like my own children and tried very hard to be a good teacher and the spiritual father, because I thought the parents have trusted me and gave me their children so I must do my best to teach them as much as possible.
Later I was teacher in Indian school, Korean school…and universities and later I was teacher in German Embassy School, as the Iranian government closed the Tehran German School. With the revolution in Iran the Mark had two or three prices. As the inflation in Iran was very high, so the price of Mark in the free market was going up and up. So with the inflation the prices of everything were going up. But our salary was the same. The Iranian Islamic Republic closed the Tehran German School and so the government teachers tried very hard to keep their positions and keep the school running, but the Iranian government did not want that the Iranian children or German-Iranian children with an Iranian father go to that school any more.
Only the German children or the children with Iranian mother and German father could continue that school. The new school was much smaller and the government teachers have gone to government schools. I came back from Germany and was teacher again in this school. A part time teacher in the new German Embassy School. Now the war between Iran and Iraq started and the inflation goes up and up. And because the Mark had three different rates, so the German teachers and the other Germans and foreign changed their money in the black market and changed it again in the bank with the government rate.
I remember that one German killed an Iranian colonel in an accident. They paid the blood money with the money that they got from free market; also for each Mark 200 rials and than they got back from their insurance company for each 40 rials that they spent for the blood money one Mark back; with other words they got 5 times more money from the insurance company in Germany than they spend that means five times more German Marks. So that was another good thing for foreign. They spend their money in Iran, which had been changed in free market and get back the difference by the government rate.
So I wrote to the insurance company that they should ask for a receipt from an Iranian bank to know how much they get for a German Mark. If they do not have a receipt that means they changed their money in the free market or black market. It will be then clear where they changed their money, official or free in the black market. So the Germans get angry with me and again after 8 years I was sent out. But the problem was not only the money that the Germans get now 200 times more salary as the Iranians. They looked down on Iranians who get so little money for the same work; they looked down to the Iranian teacher and other Iranians who worked there as a second-class people.
One of the principal said to me that you are Iranian and must be paid badly, because you are not deserved to have a better life. You will be heart that in your own country the foreigners do not respect you and say clearly that you get less money; much less than 200 times less than the foreigner, just because you are Iranian. The other Iranian passport holder teachers in the school who were also German and married to Iranians have been paid like Iranians so they were not happy with this situation, too. So we have a gathering and because I was the head of the local teachers, they said I should write a letter to the German government and explain the matter for them that the inflation is very high here and the Mark has three rates and we are paid badly.
I sent also a Persian newspaper in English that showed very clearly that a Mark had three different rates in Iran. After I sent the letter the local teacher let me alone and I lost my position as a head of the teacher. The principal of the school said that I should write another letter and say that I was wrong. I said I was not wrong and what I wrote is pure facts. So they said if I do not write the letter I will be sent out of the school. I have been sent out of the school, so I went back to the university and worked as a university teacher there.
Again the students were nice and friendly and I thought them as much and as good as I could. I had a very nice and good friend. And I gave him some money as a loan to repair his house and give it back to me in 20 days. Now he does not want to give the money back and wrote to the government that my mother is Baha’i and I am Baha’i and I am teaching at the university the innocent Islamic Students; in an unclear way, that I wanted to influence them and wanted to change their religions. So this time I lost again my job.
He even made the life as hard for me as he had a lot of friends in the government and they make the life hell for me. I went to one of my best friend who was like me. His mother was Baha’i and his father was Moslem. He said he had a lovely sister in the USA and she is working there and has a family and she wrote always to me” come Djalal to the USA here is the land of opportunities and you are university teacher and can get here a good job easily”. Djalal was like me and was sent out of job because his mother was Baha’i. Now he says Amir Come we can go together to the USA and can work there easily.
I will send all my capital to my beloved sister and she said that she will buy houses for me there. Forogh was his only sister from the Baha’i mother; she was a very lovely and friendly girl, as I knew them. Some time in the past we went together to the cinema. She was about 8 years old. Djalal loved his sister more than a sister. He would do everything for her. He trusted his sister so much that he said to me. Amir if you have some capital “come and I will send it to my sister for you to buy a house for you there, too”. In that time we could not go out of Iran, because of the war between Iran and Iraq has been started and we could not go outside Iran any more and it was not possible to travel outside of Iran, the ways were closed. But we thought soon the ways will be opened again and we can go to the USA, the land of opportunities. Djalal started to sell his properties and send them to the beloved sister.
And the sister said always “come, o come to the USA even illegal you can find a good job here”. That was Djalal hope to go to the USA. One day in the future. He waited until the way was opened, but again because of religion problem he could not go out of Iran, so he waited again few years until he could go like me out of country, so in that time in the near future he may be able to fly to the beloved sister. After the war was finished; still Djalal could not go, because his mother was Baha’i. So he waited again until he can find another legal way to fly to the sister.
All the letters that came from the sister were lovely letters and encouraged Djalal to come to the USA. It was 1993 that Djalal could fly for the first time out of Iran. I saw him in Istanbul and he was as happy as he had the visa for the USA and could go there soon, he thought at that time all his problems have been solved. We both got visas and went together to the USA only in different cities. One day I got a letter from Djalal that his sister did not want him any more. As he sent all his capital to her now the husband wants to keep the money and is not willing to share his capital with him, her husband was a Baha’i.
Djalal asked me what I could do. If I go back to Iran my wife and her family will be angry with me because they were not agree to send so much money to my sister even my mother was not happy as she sees that I sent everything to my sister, but I loved and trusted my sister so deeply that even I did not dream she will be changed so deeply and be so indifferent to me. But because the mother was a lovely lady she did not say anything. Now Djalal wrote that they even did not take me to the home, which bought actually with my money.
I was here few days on the street until a friend helps me to work and found a place for me to live. Now I am a collage teacher in Florida. In the European school or Iranian school the students are very well trained to learn. And if the students knew or feel that the teacher like them and want to help them and feel the teacher is interested in their life and learning, they will even learn more to make the teacher happy. If you push the students to learn and even force them to do their homework the students and their parent are thank full and appreciate this.
In America in the American schools I experienced the opposite of this, as I tried to push the students to learn the school system did not support me. A student has cheated in my class 15 times. I sent him to the office and called his parent to come and see me. I thought with their support; I can correct the student as he was a smart boy, but he did not want to listen to me. I called his mother to come and see me. I thought what I want to make him like other students who were working with me. I had two Latin classes in the same room. Latin II and Latin III. The Latin III students were nice and friendly and all of them were working well and all of them were good and students. They were nice, friendly, polite and hard working students.
I had no problem with them. In Latin II, my students were good, too. All of them were nice and friendly, except one who does not want to learn and wanted to have fun in the class. He was a smart boy, but he does not like me, because I wanted him to learn in the class. There was another girl in my class, who was very similar to my cousin. She was a beautiful girl and smart, too. She does want to learn as little as possible and wanted to have an A also. She always tried to have A without learning and working enough. Actually I liked all my students like my own children and wanted to transfer my experience and knowledge to them as far as I could, but as I was foreign and did not have any support from the school system; so it was hard for me to survive.
In European school the school system support the teacher generally. I was teacher in German school for many years. Always I was supported by the school system generally against the students even the parents have supported me. In Iranian school system also the parents and school system support the teacher even if he did not like the student very much and is not interested in their future life. But here was it different. The girl wanted to learn as less as possible but she wanted to have her A grade. But this boy wanted a grade by cheating. Her mother did not come the first time and I waited for her and she did not appear.
For the second time I had a telephone call from the assistant principal that I should go to his office. I went to his office the mother was sitting There she was with her son. She started that her son is a good son in the house and his room is clean and he is a smart boy. I agree with her that he was smart and is good boy. The only problem that I have with him was that he wanted to cheat in the class and have his A easily without working for it. All other students were working in my class and listening, he was the only one who did not want to cooperate with me and listen to me. Even the beautiful girl Ashley was most of the time listening.
Than the mother said he does not respect you. I asked why? There was no answer from her side. She started to say that he comes to school for having fun with the girls and socialize with other children and you are forcing him to learn in the class and asking always questions from him. This time assistant principal shouted and yelled at me with a very loud voice, why I always ask him a lot of questions. Let him sit in the class and relax. Let him do what ever he wants. I do not know why the assistant principal supported this time this student so much. I had two other cases in Latin I, two smart girls wanted to have good score without working for it too. I cut them by cheating in the class.
They had the answers in another paper and I sent them to the office. The school system called the parents and me in the office and the school system and the same assistant principal have supported me and said to the parent if they cheat again they be will sent out of the school. From over hundred students that I had in seven different classes only 5 of them wanted not to learn and wanted to have fun in the class also. I corrected most of my students to be good students. Tiffany and Elizabeth both of them were good and smart, but they prefer to have good score without learning for it. But after the school supported me they both have been changed to good nice students and they learn very good and I have no problems with them any more.
Actually I love my students like my own children and I wanted that they get good score and do not waste their time in the class. But I do not know why with this special boy; the school system did not support me. They believe more the words of the parent who supported their boy and the boy words than my words and me. After yelling and shouting of the assistant principal, even the mother said later to me “poor man” she sees the matter as a fight not as cooperation. She does not see me as a teacher who wants to help her son, but she wanted me to force to give a good score to her son; and without his trying to get a good score. As the school system supported me with the two other girls.
I thought this time they will do the same. But this time I was wrong. The mother even asked the assistant principal if they can monitor with a camera me in the class, because she afraid that I force her son to learn. That was the first time I listen such sentence. My son is coming to school to have fun with the girls and you are forcing him to learn. You cannot damage his future and you must give him good score. Now the boy was out of control and wanted to be a hero in the class and so the girls will admire him by his cheating and not respecting the teacher.
I was here in the USA, because in my own country I could not work; so I did what ever they asked me. Even in the time that the assistant principal shouted and yelled at me in a very bad voice and rude manner form; I kept quite and did not react against that, because I wanted to keep my position. Sorrowfully that brings me to a very poor situation that the students especially the boy knew now that I am in a very weak situation and he can do with me what ever he wants and the school system and parent will support him and not me.
Now he wanted to make himself as a winner and me as a loser. He said clearly that he does not want to learn in my class and he wanted good score from me, too. And if I do not give him what he wants my boss the assistant principal will get it for him from me. I did not know that what ever he was saying could come to be truth. As he has disturbed my class and was not listening to me and tried to influence other students to do the same; I asked the teacher union which collect money from my salary every month to support me.
So they ask the principal to move the boy to other class. Now he was in other class and I must give the other teacher materials for him to work in her class. She did not teach the same subject. She said that he is working well in her class. Now we came to the end of the school year and I must give the final score. In the final exam he wrote an F and now hews with his parent and school principal and the other teacher in the office and they wanted that I change the F to A or B. Now the student said that the materials in the exam was out of the book and I must bring the book and show them exactly that the questions are not out of the book; whatever the student said I must show them in the book and prove it.
The Latin book II had 24 lessons and I just questioned him 20 words from the first 3 chapters. And he gets an F. Now I said to the parent that I will give him time to learn these 3 chapters again and I will make another exam and if he knows these three chapters, he will get a better score. They changed one time my D to B for him and this time they wanted for his F a better score, too. But all of them wanted a good score without any trying and working from the student side. They insisted that I should give him now a good score.
The principal said that the parent could sue him. I do not know why. They force me to give a good score. Now I knew whatever the student said is right; that school system in this particular case will get a good score for him. I said I am sorrier for the boy than for me, you are training him to cheat and be rewarded; do you thing that later the police and judge will forgive him for his cheating activity. You are abusing the boy. The father said you are not right my boy never cheat. With other words the student cheats and the teacher is punished. I asked in other case a girl to bring her book with and she had never had the book with herself. She went with her mother to the counselor and the counselor told me in her office that she can look in her friend’s book and she need not to bring her book with herself.
With other words I could not even ask the student to bring her/his book with in the school. So these 5 students in whole 7 classes that I had could not be corrected and the system was so indifferent; they even did not try to correct them. The other students damage the computer and torn the books in the class, I sent him to the office again; now I must prove that he did that activities and he was saying he did not do these and the school assistant principal believed him and not me; the computer has been damaged by itself and the book was torn by itself, too. Later the same student put the projector in my eye and pointed laser in my eye, too, so the teacher is a victim and the police and judge have so much power and the teacher is a helpless person, why the student who has so much freedom in the school, later the judge should have so much power over him, he is trained not to respect adult or the teacher, why later he is forced to respect the police and judge, why the teacher should not be respected and the police and judge should be respected by her/him.
Is not this a dual moral? I remembered the other side of the case, which I was student and the teachers, were so cruel and hit the students and punished them when they have no Homework. I was sick one day and next day I went to school. The teacher sent me out of the class to the principal and he without any question he hit me. I was so angry that I wrote bad words about the teacher on the wall and now they hit and punished me so badly that I had a lot of wound in my body. From one extreme to another extreme. If the students will be very well trained in the school, later they will have no problems with the police and judges. Now the other side, the students do not respect the teachers and are cruel to them.
Subject: Let work for the unity not for We should be united and be a great country. The United States of Middle East… alone we are nothing, together we are something…We were in the past one, we should be one again. The USA has a lot of nations, why should we be separated? How can we be a big country if we are separated? Kurd, Turk, Pars, Mad, Tajik, Afghan are one. We are not different. The evil makes us to look in each other in a different way. We are one, if we were one we are strong…if separated we are weak. In this story; it is the story of three personals and as their lives and situations are very similar; it looks that I repeated. Djalal, Sasan and Amir; they have very similar lives. The similarity looks as I repeated. Submit your writing to Iranian.com: log in or register
