Monday
July 11, 2000
Two roads
I found this article ["Generational
gap"] a stark reminder of individuals in Iran, who, I can say,
"just don't get it" or just do not want to get it.
Judging by my experiences in Tehran, on vacation, I can say that the
new generation of Iran is falling into the culturally indoctrinated spiral
of the pre-revolutionary generation. That is to say, in this glorious period
of reform in the Islamic Republic, there are over-eager youngsters who
are missing the point completely.
I am have never been to judge from clothes or musical preference, but
disrespect to a religious intermediary of any faith (regardless of the
fact that one may have a reason to or not) is unpermissable.
More specifically, I fear that Iran may go into two directions at this
ideological junction we are at.
Road #1, the one that is personified in this feature, which is a position
of Iran similar to that of Turkey or Egypt's, where the whole of the population
has accepted cultural domination (not influence) and has its political
and ideological morals numbed.
Road #2, the exact opposite, that is to say, the reformist movement
does not fall too far ahead of the system but too short and fails to remove
the injustice of extremism.
Whichever the case, I find the images presented in this feature of a
stark reminder of a nightmare of the "blind" people of Iran,
as we know it.
Arya Abedin
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