 Things I want
For me, running into another Iranian would make
my day
By Salomeh Mohajer
August 23, 2003
The Iranian
It’s the eve of a new future, say my parents
almost on a daily basis. I’ve learned to take their comments
in stride. I mean, after all, hope IS hard to kill. Iran lays oceans
away, but has always been dear to my heart. It was my first home.
It wasn’t until I became a history student
at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada, that I realized what
that feeling of emptiness was really all about.
I thought at first it had something to do about being away from
so many of my family members. However, looking back now I always
knew what it was; I just lacked the guts to name it. Naming that
which I lack would be the simple part. Striving to attain that
which I wanted, and needed, seemed to be a whole other matter.
For me, running into another Iranian would make
my day. I’d walk away feeling
connected on a cosmic level. It was this commonality that would bind us together.
Whether we were born in Tehran like me, or Isfahan, or the beloved Shomal,
we would be connected by our country and bound forever within our
history. I know I’m
a romantic and I’ve been told far too often that I look at life through
rose coloured glasses, but the cliché in this situation should apply
to all of us.
As my mother cries in reaction to the voices of the
Iranian students who’ve
revolted for freedom she quietly asks me, WHY? Why, are they the ones to
pay? It is true they are the innocent, and more or less are the ones paying
for the
crimes of their parents and ancestors. Peace does come at a price. Weather
Solon in Greece, or Alexander in Macedonia they had to wield their sword
of power before they knew a time of peace and/order. But, alas, peace is
not eternal. Iran’s problems
lay not singularly at the hands of the clerics, but the people
themselves.
Reading about Iran’s
past has been both joyful and hurtful. For I read about the rich, the
poor and the great imbalance that sustained them both. This was
a society that sat on
the back of the poor and expected them to take it. However, as with the
French our “Mehri” Antoinette’s could not have
their “kabob” and
eat it too. The Iran of the future needs a balance, one in which the
poor and the rich are in equilibrium with each other and not
against one and another.
We need to be united because there are far too many forces that want
us to fail.
I mentioned naming that which I lacked. I want to
be free to come and go to Iran. I want to see Iran through the
eyes of
my parents. So often,
have I heard
anecdotes about their joyful youth, well now I want to see those
streets that they ran through. I want to see the hospital I was
born in. I
want to have
dual citizenship in both Iran and Canada. I want for my children
to one day walk into
Iran without worry of persecution for their thoughts and opinions
but most
of all I want my family to reclaim their little peace of Iran. It
is not a physical
piece of territory but an emotional attachment that many Iranians
would like to claim.
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Things I want