December 8, 2005
iranian.com

Every culture has its icons. In mine, a special place is reserved for the fellow known to my generation as Asqar Taragheh (Asqar, the Firecracker). The allusion is to a character who blows his lid not unpredictably often at the end of a frustrating sequence of events and particularly when there is a failed or futile argument. The one who is habitually quick or prone to anger is also an Asqar Taragheh.

When it comes to vehicular accidents in Iran, eight out of ten male drivers involved in an accident become Asqar Taragheh. The scenes of fisticuff, chokehold and shouting are common. The truly combative sorts may even engage in traditional Persian wrestling (koshti basetani), Greco-Roman (if they are Westernized) or, most likely, in free-style (koshti azad) that is truly a no-holds barred street brawl. If one of the drivers is a woman, the tendency to violence subsides in the male but words between them will fly. Even if the female wished to strike her male-counterpart she could not wage an effective combat due to the state-sponsored restraints on her style of dress. If the drivers in the accident are both females, no fists will fly for the same dress reason, but cuss words will be exchanged and a melee will ensue when the passersby (mostly guys) will pick sides and champion the cause of their damsel in distress. And they said chivalry was dead!

The passerby or bystander is an important element in any Iranian vehicular accident because his presence turns a catastrophe into a spectacle. With his help, a mere accident can turn into a first class loud and violent exercise in judgment and apportioning of blame. It is always about who was at fault and because nobody accepts the other’s version, the gloves come off or go on depending on your lingual preference. 

A long ago I had figured out the three reasons each of which turns an Iranian driver into an Asqar Taragheh. First, is that one can do no wrong. When you hit another car from behind, you are not at fault because the other got in the way, or had no working brake lights or slowed down or caused you to miscalculate! If you have been hit from behind, the son of a bitch did not have working brakes. So you get out of the car and first exchange a few pleasantries telling to yourself that you will behave very civilized, to ensure that the body language conveys the sentiment you place the open palm of your right hand on your chest as a sign of deference, sincerity and peace. All the while your left is down but your fist is clenched ready for action.

The reason why the “discussion” degenerates into a violent encounter is because of the hellish and bureaucratic experience of getting the insurance to pay for the damage and getting the damage fixed. The rage that builds up is more against the system, the time-consuming, bribe-ridden regulatory framework and one’s utter helplessness to navigate the process to a satisfactory conclusion. My guess is that in the United States too the erosion of roadside civility and ever increasing road rage and post-accident violence has to do in part with the predictable insurance hassles afterwards.

The third reason why the accident deteriorates into a violent mob scene has to do with the need in every Iranian to see that justice is done even if it takes the form of a mob justice. Injustice bothers many but with an Iranian the need for righting a wrong is a pathological obsession. The cultural underpinning of this is in the place that predestination of events occupies in the Iranian psyche. It is often the case that a particular event is said to be God’s will and one makes no hay about it. That is however only when one is affected by situation that does not involve directly another person. When there is another person involved, it cannot be God’s will that one should collide with another because God will not disfavor one over another. It must be then that the accident is against God’s will and the other fellow is at fault for it. We are now back to reason No. 1 that one is never at fault!

The C-130 transport plane that crashed into an apartment building near Mehrabad was a first rate catastrophe. According to the newspaper accounts of the incident, the people on the scene grew anguished and soon confronted the law enforcement with anger. Some were despondent over the crowd getting in the way of emergency vehicles getting to the scene; some were angered at the law enforcement for not allowing them into the rubble to seek the welfare of their kin; some were just angered by fact that the incident had occurred. For this last group, whose sentiments are shared by others, it is imperative that the people responsible for this horrible event to be brought to justice.

The plane itself was an old workhorse of the Iranian Air Force bought at the time of either the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi or it was acquired by the IRI from some other country or dealer. The fact is that other IRI C-130 planes have gone down before. What is different here is that the event was not God’s will.

The decrepit state of Iran’s military (and civilian) aircraft owes much to the age of the fleet and lack of spare parts. The United States sanctions on Iran prevent the free flow of the necessary spare parts, assuming (and that is a stretch) that there is a maintenance culture in place. The blood of the people who died in this C-130 crash is on the hands of the United States and IRI – one for allowing sale of planes that then cannot be repaired and the other for pursuing policies that make free export of spare parts impossible.

For all those who think the placing of Iranian uranium enrichment work in Russia is a good idea should have a second thought about what a Russian embargo on Iran could mean for the future of nuclear fuel in Iran!

The pilot of the C-130 did not want to fly the plane because of the reported technical difficulties while still on the tarmac. Someone overruled him. So he took off and the rest is history.

Ironically, the reporters who were on board the plane were being ferried to the south (junub) to witness the ongoing Iranian war games. What does this say about the airworthiness and battle ready condition of the Iranian air force? While defects in equipment and operational human error can excuse much, the unpardonable here is the lack of sound judgment on the part of those who ordered the flight. It is enough to make an Asqar Taragheh out of even the meekest of bystanders.

About
Guive Mirfendereski is a professorial lecturer in international relations and law and is the principal artisan at trapworks.com. Born in Tehran in 1952, he is a graduate of Georgetown University's College of Arts and Sciences (BA), Tufts University's Fletcher School (PhD, MALD, MA) and Boston College Law School (JD). He is the author of A Diplomatic History of the Caspian Sea >>> Features in iranian.com