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 as 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 younger 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. Now I am speaking about the story that I will write.
The problem of Religions, Nationalities and races…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 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 is 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 came home and my mother cleaned me and washed my face, head or body from the blood. 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 may be 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 TehranGerman 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 year 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 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 that job 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 GermanEmbassy School, as the Iranian government closed the TehranGerman 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 TehranGerman 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. I was a part time teacher in the new GermanEmbassy 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 foreign do not respect you and say clearly that you get less money; much less than 200 times less than the foreign, 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
