Poems, jokes, names, what will be next? Mulla Nasreddin's stories?

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Poems, jokes, names, what will be next? Mulla Nasreddin's stories?
by Anahid Hojjati
22-Dec-2010
 

 

These days, I am seeing more and more cases of extremism which are not from radical Islamic people but from supposedly liberal people. Couple days ago, a facebook friend whom I have addded without really knowing, thinking that he is a reader of my blogs had an interesting post. In his facebook post, he had written about Ibrahim Yazdi's life history and he had much negative to say about Yazdi. But my issue was not with this person's criticism of Yazdi but at the end, he listed tens of names of poeple whom should be criticized since they have asked for better treatment of Yazdi by IRI. Among names, I saw names of people who have worked for human rights in Iran including Shirin Ebadi and several other peopele whom I admire greatly for all they have done for causes such as freedom and human rights in Iran. Another case of criticism which is unwarranted in my opinion, was issue of jokes and why we should not tell Rashti jokes. 

New canddate for criticism is names. It alway starts with something easily agreeable. The fact that if you name your kid certain names, they have better chance of becoming successful in Art world. OK, this is certainly agreeable but after few exchanges, the person starts criticizing many names and demonizing parents who give such names to their kids. Persian poems have already been subject of criticism. So in past month, poems, jokes and names have all been criticized. What is next? Mulla Nasreddin's stories? It is as if some poeple do not have any better  cause.  Also it is much easier and takes less courage to tell someone that they should not tell Rashti joke or name their kids Eskandar as opposed to writing  poem/article/story against IRI. Some of the people writing against poems, jokes and names have good intentions. They point to the fact that some issues can not wait for a just government in Iran and need to be addressed now. I agree but these manufactured issues are not my issues, specially when in one case, I realized that lies were even used to make writer of certain article seem to be an expert in the subject matter by giving the writer a university professor title which was fabricated.

It will probably not end with poems, jokes and names. You just sit back and look at what will be the next candidate(s) for criticism. This kind of thinking (explained above) reminds me of Maoists and how blindly following this path of crticizing and trying to change culture of a country in extreme ways in a very short time is attributed correctly to Pol Pot and we know how that one ended.

even Pol Pot.  Note below link which is a poem I wrote about criticism of poems and jokes, I should probably change it to add names to it too or it may require a whole new poem about people who criticize names :).

//iranian.com/main/blog/anahid-hojjati-98

 

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Anahid Hojjati

Dear Ali, thanks for your comment

by Anahid Hojjati on

I have watched little of George Carlin's work. I think I have seen parts of a performance he had regarding religious matters and it was very interesting. I did not know that he can be in some ways like our Mulla. I will check the video you shared. Thanks for reading my blog, commenting and also for sharing the clip.


Aliafandi

Western Mulla Nasreddin humor.

by Aliafandi on

West has their version of our Mulla Nasreddin called George Carlin. He's a comedian, philosopher, actor and was one of those who always brought out new meaning to words, statments and behavior of humans. Here is one of his work, enjoy:

 //www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o


Anahid Hojjati

When I was friend with my ex in university

by Anahid Hojjati on

One time he told me one of those names and how it meant gay, I had no idea. I guess one of the Iranian guys in university had taught him.


Anonymouse

Dunno "baranee" but4 Iran w/o gays, gay men r called many names!

by Anonymouse on

Everything is sacred


Anahid Hojjati

Dear Anonymouse, good point :)

by Anahid Hojjati on

Now that is a name. I guess his new movie is either out or will be very soon. Got to see it. Years ago, I heard a family friend changed his last name from "baranee". I don't know if you have heard or not but 35 yrs ago in Iran, I heard "baranee" was a reference to being lesbian. Have you heard of this?


Anonymouse

Gaylord Focker!

by Anonymouse on

He sure has made a lot of mileage and money out of such an "unsavory" name! One billion dollars worth so far!  

Everything is sacred