Sorry, I know its been ages since I last blogged. Been really busy with school, teaching and getting sick. Learned that Qum is not the best place to get sick, and have a package of vitamins etc on its way to me!
Well anyways, just to complicate things, the Iranians have their own calender. Its a solar calender and starts from the year the Holy Prophet migrated from Makkah to Madinah. This really complicates things - the lunar Islamic calender is used for all the Islamic dates, the Iranian solar calender is used for school dates etc. and of course one has to be on track with the regular solar calender that is used in the rest of the world! Welcome to the land of 3 calenders.
The Iranian New Year starts with Nawrooz (around the 21st of March). When I last came to Iran, we made up this really corny story to remember the names of the months (It was test-able, so we had to learn them!)
FARVARDEEN said to ORDEBEHEST let's KHORDAD.
TEER MORDAD'ed SHAHRIVAR
MEHR was given by ABAN to AZAR
on the DEY that BAHMAN went to ISFAND
Ok, that probably made no sense to you at all! We're in the month of Bahman right now...
Anyways, the 12th of Bahman marks the day that Imam Khumayni returned to Iran after being exiled in France. The 22nd of Bahman is the day that the Pahlavi Shah's corrupt regime was overthrown and the Islamic Republic of Iran came into existance. These 10 days are called Dahe Fajr (Dah means ten and fajr is sunrise). These's been some coverage on the BBC website on this too!
We learn a bit about the history of the Revolution in our Farsi lessons. The streets of Tehran were filled with hundreds of thousands of people on the 12th of Bahman 1357 from Tehran airport right up until Behiste Zahra (Humungous graveyard in Tehran). People were waiting for a glimpse of Imam Khumayni. (Ok, I only know this cos it's test-able too! LOL)
Yesterday, we were blessed with the presence of Imam Khumayni's daughter (Farideh Mustafavi) at our university. Classes were postponed for an hour (and yes, we stretched it out to an hour and half!) and we all filled the huge basement in the library.
Khanum Mustafavi started her speech with how honoured she was to be speaking and how happy she was the women's education had come so far. Women are now holding high positions in universities, hospitals etc.
She then went on the compare the Iranian Revolution with Imam Husayn's sacrifice on the fields of Karbala, how Imam Husayn has taught us the lesson of freedom and not giving in to oppressors and tyrants... Apologise a bit.... my Farsi still isn't that great and by the time I wrote down one sentence, I missed the next 10! (and yes, we were tested on the content of her speech in Farsi class afterwards!)
She mentioned 4 points that Imam Ali had passed onto his companion Jabir ibne Abdullah Ansari
1. If you have knowledge, share it with others
2. If you don't have knowledge, seek it from others
3. If you are wealthy, share your wealth with the needy
4. If you are needy, strive (not sure I got this last point correctly)
Khanum then shared some stories from her father's family life. For example, a man in the neighbourhood was sick, so Imam Khumayni bought a crate of apples and gave it to the man. A few days later, the sick man's wife met Imam Khumayni's wife and thanked her for the generous gift. Imam Khumayni's wife then went home and told her husband that she was so embarrassed, she had no idea that the apples were given to the sick man and she wasn't sure what to say to her neighbour!
She compared this to Imam Ali, and questioned, why did Imam Ali go out in the middle of the night to deliver food to the needy? why not in the day time or evening? The reason was the protect the honour of the needy (honour = eyebrow in Farsi!)
The other story that she gave is noteworthy for all the blokes out there! Her father never once asked any member of his family to bring him water, make tea for him, lunch etc. He always used to do this for himself. His family would always tell him that he should just say what he wants and it will be brought to him. He replied with a Farsi proverb-type-thing which roughly translates as "I don't have any problems in getting it for myself"
Anyways, at the end of the talk, the girls just swamped Khanum Farideh and tried to shake her hand and ask more questions, but in true Hollywood style, she was whisked out of the library via the back entrance. Our Farsi teacher was amongst the scrum and was a bit embarrased when she saw that we saw her!
School corridors decorated for Dahe Fajr
No comments:
Post a Comment