Sic Semper Tyrannis

bahmani: "I have ever heard

bahmani: "I have ever heard of men covering up for religion. It may have been a style."  i assume you meant "never."

there are plenty of references (qoran, hadith, shiite ideology, ...) regarding refraining from wearing tight clothes by men, wearing western clothes, shaving, and not covering their head.  you can see shaven men (shish tigheh) in iran wearing suit and tie, tight clothes, short sleeves, and fancy haircuts (among young men).  the only times you see men cover their head are mullahs or the younger crowd sporting baseball caps with the logo of their favorite metal band. 

from the above observations, one can conclude that the islamic view of dress code for men in islamic countries has been reformed while the dress code (and the ability of government to crack down) for women has largely remained intact.  i know that girls/women in iran have been able to "modify" their hejab/roosari, but the gov't still reserves the right to crack down on them on a whim accordance to the most strict version of islamic interpretation.  how many times have you seen a muslim couple in the west where the woman is only showing hand and face in sweltering heat while the husband is comfortable in his short-sleeves and jeans?

back to the topic of the blog: why do we observe some west-residing iranian women not sympathizing for the unfair treatment of their counterparts in iran?  your answer: a) they don't care (plausible), b) even west-residing women can be oppressed (partially plausible; only those who also adhere to the double standards of islamic practices).  and i offer c): they believe the benefit of supporting iri outweighs the inequality and misery inflicted on women in iran. it's basically the same argument of military attack on iran: sacrifice human lives to remove the regime.  n'est ce pas?

Bahmani

Youd be surprised at the length the regime supporters are going to eternally marry Islam to Iran.

They are even on wikipedia.

Take this article for example, which claims that Hijab was a completely Iranian concept created by the Achaemenids:

//fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%BE%D9%88%D8%B4%D8%B4_%D8%B2%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%AF%D8%B1_%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86

I'm with TS-9 when it comes to watching sports

I'm pretty athletic.  I run, bike, kayak, swim and play tennis and sometimes even work out at the gym (elliptical, etc.) for a change.  But I do not watch sports on TV.  I don;t watch TV much anyway, but sports is one thing that I stay away from.  I just can't imagine sitting on a couch for hours watching others engage in sports.  I want to do that myself.

Do not Shoot me

what you wrote about me is not correct. I have discussed many political issues on this site including situation of human rights in Iran, need for NIAC to be more active regarding human rights, Mujahedin, Syrian situation, 1357 revolution, and many others.

Oon Yaroo Jaan

I don't believe that we should stereotype women.  Men are a million times more terrible than women.  In fact, women have been victims of men since times immemorial.  Plus, look at all the crimes, wars and murders in the world.  They have all been committed by men.  

I tell you, our world will be a much more peaceful one if women take over.   

I think that the most profound reason is ideology

These people are just blinded by ideology.  They have bought this never ending "struggle against imperialism" thing lock, stock and barrel.  They actually believe the IR to be the champion of their cause.

Some of them are also eternal "immigrant" types who never assimilate, and somewhere, deep down inside, they want to assert themselves as somehat "superior" to their hosts by becoming "anti-them."

But whatever the reason may be, they believe that women in Iran should just suck it up--after all they don't live there.  I mean, a four week trip to Iran, or attending the "Hamayesh Bozorg" festival for a week really does not give you the full "women's oppression" feel.  They believe that women should just deal with everything until the greater goal of destruction of the U.S. and Israel is eventually accomplished.  I wonder, though, have they ever thought about where they will go when the U.S. is finally destroyed and turned into a heap of rubble by the mighty Islamic Republic?    

:)

//www.physioroom.com/sports/football/top_5_football_injuries_1.php

The most telling

The most telling display of the mentality that is the subject of this blog was when Niloufar Parsi siad in a comment once that Iranian women shouldn't complain because they have it much better than women in Yemen and Somalia. That's right: Somalia! Can you imagine the thought process that lead to that statement?!!!

More responses tomorrow. I'm reading a book that I cannot put down. Highly recommend it: The Last Good Man.

Reply to: Hamsade

I have ever heard of men covering up for religion. It may have been a style.

The reason why West-residing women don't come to the aid of their institutionally oppressed sisters visibly or on average, is because they a) don't care, or b) even free women are mostly oppressed.

The closest women come to freedom is the occasional demand for equality. Which is still unfair if you think about it.

If anything, women should be demanding at least several decades of superiority, in order to make up for all the years they have been held under!

To read more bahmani posts visit: //brucebahmani.blogspot.com/

AO Jaan, excellent question! Women are strange brews!

A few years ago I saw, I think on the 60 minutes, 3 generations of women, a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter of this particular family were working as full time prostitutes and they were very proud of it!

In fact, they served some of the most prominent politicians of New Orleans.

So, the moral of the story is that some women don't even have mercy on their own daughters and grand daughters let alone on other women!?

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

are these "women" women. and these "men" men?

i just wonder. because my favorite fluff ball of the london residing cyber bassij on this site pretends to be a man but sounds so feminine that my shia girl friend fati comando is getting jealous of my daily chat with "him".

دموکراسی

آزادی اندیشه
بدون نفرت از ایران و اسلام نمیشه

I wear an Omega watch

i think there are different

i think there are different reasons for this.  one group is well-explained by faramarz.  i think of another group that i think are aghazadehs (or naveh-zadehs).  they don't want to risk their own (and family's) livlihood.  some (and/or theiry family members) actually make a living of import/export business to iri.  same thing, you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you.

someone should ask those who work for an iri lobby group like niac: why do they concern themselves so much with palestinians.  is that a top-priority issue with iranian americans? too bad banafsheh is newbie in niac and is not allowed to respond to comments made to her own article.

bahmani jan, nice essay but you don't delve into why the west-residing women don't see the suffering of their sisters (if they view them as such)?  you rightly point out that it's the continuation of a very ancient ritual of sexual harrassment.  one point that you didn't flesh out: in times past, men also covered their head, wore long sleeves, didn't shave, etc.  why did men stop abiding by these arcane practices while they required women to do so?

Sexual Harassment

Several women have recently begun beating the drum of "Cultural Tradition" regarding the forced Roosari or Chador or Headscarf. I don't say Hejab, because Hejab or "Piety, Purity and Chastity" is an altogether different concept, and we'd best keep them separate. Because they are.

The assertion that wearing the Headscarf or Chador is a social tradition in Iran, conveniently forgets to address how that "tradition" got started in the first place.

If we momentarily go back to cavewoman days, stepping out into the sunlight, there is no way woman invented the headscarf as a way to show deference to any deity.

And if woman did not invent it, then a man did.

That moment when the first man told the first woman to "Cover up! Or else!" was sexual harassment.

Fast forward pause then rewind to the Sassanian or Qajar era when the chador first appeared in Iran. Since we all know that it must have been a Mollah, that first Mollah who told the first woman in the street to "Cover up! Or else!" sexually harassed her.

So the entire basis of "My ammeh, or my naneh always wore a chador even during the shah's era..." is based on the first Mollah, sexually harassing the first woman in Iran.

The fact that it went on and continued unanswered, unchallenged, and that the mollahs who did this with impunity and total disrespect for years, does not deserve to now be legitimized as a "Social Tradition".

Had Iran been a civilized society based on the rule of common law that protected the rights of women instead of a society based on back alley, whispered threats and clinical sexual harassment of its women by self serving sex-sick clergy, I have no doubt that with Islam as the religion of choice, 100% of Iranian women would NOT wear the chador, or roosari today.

It is rightly and certainly a tradition, but a tradition of sexual harassment, now institutionalized and cemented into common Iranian law.

Knowing this, women cannot now defend the "right" of a woman to wear the roosari or chador as a sign and symbol of her deference to a deity. Because what they are defending really, is sexual harassment.

Women who think this way, must acknowledge that the roosari or chador are not prescribed in the Ghoran. So, women who defend the chador and roosari, are really sanctioning and defending the continuation of sexual harassment and the oppressive sexist power of religious mollahs, over women.

Any other explanation is self delusional and self imposed ignorance. Choosing to ignore the facts and real history behind how the chador and roosari came to exist in the first place.

And choosing to be deluded or ignorant is not a crime.

But a hadiseh is not the Ghoran. And a hadiseh written by a man about what women should wear should be considered appropriately.

Unfortunately there are also hadisehs written the prohibit women from objecting. So that leaves it up to the men in Islam to object on behalf of women. Which of course, they never do.

To read more bahmani posts visit: //brucebahmani.blogspot.com/

Shoot Man!

Good One! You are going to get shot at!

You forgot Fanoos and Vildemose.

Like Your Blog AO

I think that the west-residing Iranian women who are not outraged at the treatment of women in Iran have conditioned themselves not to see their sisters in Iran as women but as people who are victims of the policies of the west. This type of thinking would bring them back to your other blogs about why people who hate west, live here, raise their children here and at the end will be buried here.

We have discussed the many reasons why some Iranians in the west think like that, so I won’t belabor the point. But let me point out some more reasons.

Unlike the Central American immigrants who come to this country illegally after climbing mountains and crossing rivers and end up working on the field picking strawberries or washing dishes in the restaurants, the majority of 40+ Iranians in the west, came here on Boing 747, went to good schools and got good jobs. So there is no sense of owing something to anyone. Now if you combine that with blaming the west for everything, and throw in the fact that they can never live in Iran, but they love to vacation there for a maximum of a month, and not more, and add to the mix the guilty feeling about abandoning their motherland, then you get this hodgepodge called the west-residing, west-hating Iranians.

But the good news is that their children will all become All-American-Persian-Americans and will roll their eyes as mommy and daddy blame Jimmy Carter and the Brits for everything!  

correction

I was referring to this poem ه قه ه  

Found out written by Nilofar not Mahvash .

There are too much poetry floating around making one confused !!

AO Jan you said it!

Iranian women haters especially Soraya 'Mad' Sepah Ulrich.

IC Female Gang,

Let's check them out and I mean just check them out. Ok 

Azarbanoo & Maryam Hojat

one liners

" Death to IRI "

" Shame on IRI "

I agree with you, Fred" 

______________________________

Anahid

"Only gets political when someone criticize Hezbeh Todeh's Founding Fathers"

Currently she is taking some time off cruising the facebook beaches. 

______________________________ 

Souri

Since she is back she has not really been back to her usual mood of .. humm , of what really?

______________________________ 

Hafez for beginners

She has been advised to stay away from politics for the sake of all the good and obedient girls. 

______________________________ 

Mehrban

is busy posing as Shahin and supporting her new female poet , Nilofar.

______________________________ 

Nilofar

keeps writing about penis and urine meanwhile enjoy's Mehrban's unconditional love.   

______________________________ 

 Mahasti

Talks French ONLY

______________________________ 

Mahvash

is still busy rhyming and making love to her hubby !! ( atleast she is doing something constructive)  

______________________________ 

Trueseeker9

hates football and wish all the football players get hurt

______________________________ 

Azadeh Azad

is busy making all the men on this site peeing their pants

______________________________ 

Soosan khanoom

Has a crush on shahin but she still defends Islam.  Make up your mind girl !!

______________________________ 

Behesteh

does not give a shit about anyone's comments and is no show.  she is too sexy for this site. 

______________________________ 

Nilofar Parsi

has been sent to moon. No trace of her anymore.

Have I missed anyone?   

-

-

AO, No matter what these women say

I do not believe them.  I personally think it is all about money.  They have been selling their service of propaganda for IR for money.

Typo

There's a typo in the first sentence of the next to last paragraph.  The word combo is "self hate" not "self heate."  Sorry.