The Bald Angel and Call for Cultural Revolution (Updated)
By Kamangir • May 3rd, 2007 • Category: Iran
A bald angel has caused unrest in Tehran University. What has happened is not very clear but the reality on the ground is that Basij members are protesting and are planning for more protest. There are even mentions of another cultural revolution, after the first one which resulted in expelling many students and professors after all universities were closed for more than a year. That was a few years after the revolution, mainly because rivals of the Islamic administration were operative among students. Now, apparently, an argument on whether or not a Chador-wearing female student is bald has caused the unrest.
There are different accounts of the event. Two are published by a pro-Basij fundamentalist blog which carries the name of IRGC, IR’s infamous
second army, although it is not officially affiliated with it.
Yesterday, a religious and chador-wearing female student was involved in an argument with her prof on the necessity of the veil. At the middle of the argument, and out of the blue, her prof committed a very nasty action. He, while saying “let’s see if you are more beautiful without the veil”, unveiled her. She passed out and was transferred to a hospital.
The blog gives another account which the author calls “the real and more accurate story”,
Tuesday afternoon, Mr … a seasonal instructor in Department of Arts in University of Tehran asked his students to draw an angel. One of the students drew an angel who did not have any hair. The prof asked her why the angel was bald. …. [another female student] said to the prof, because she did not want the angel’s hair to be visible. He looked at her, and she was wearing chador, and said “why do you, a bald person who has covered herself up, say this?” Then he approached her and reached for her hair and unveiled a portion of it. He then said to the students “no! she does have hair!”. The other students burst into laughs and ridiculed her. She was shocked and did not have normal situation for couple of hours.
Subsequently, about 300 students gathered in front of the gates of University of Tehran, on SMS calls, and protested from 12 till 13:30. The protest is reported to have been peaceful. The instructor, who is mentioned to be an eighty-year-old graphics professor, is expelled from the university and the dean of the Arts Department has apologized (source). Pictures and translation of the signs in the photoblog.
Update: Azadeh discusses some of the comments of the readers in the IRGC-named blog: “leave it to us and his throat and a blade”.
Posted by Kamangir
Author's email address: arash@kamangir.net | All posts by Kamangir
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With all the protesting that happens at Iranian universities, it’s a wonder anyone graduates.
Matthew,
You are kind of right.
[...] University a discussion happened between the instructor and a female student who was wearing hijab (see). It was ended by an unwise act from the instructor. In order to make a funny connection between [...]
[...] University a discussion happened between the instructor and a female student who was wearing hijab (see). It was ended by an unwise act from the instructor. In order to make a funny connection between [...]
Thanks for the news. I hadn’t read about that! You know who is that instructor? Noroddin Zarinkelk is the father of animation in Iran! check this out:
http://www.chnphoto.ir/gallery.php?gallery_uid=474&lang=fa
Your blog posts are upto date, well written and give the non-Iranians a good understanding of what really goes on in the Islamic Republic. When I started blogging, this was my objective. I am glad to see the likes of you doing such a great job. Keep it up.
Potkin,
Thanks for your nice comment. :)
Reminds me of the stories my father and late grandfather (may his memory be blessed) told me of the Soviet Union. We left when I was 5 years old, you see.
They had their protests too, but less of them. Keeping rogue ideas (like democracy, government accountability, and religion) at bay was more… organized over there. But then again, they also had more time to perfect this.
“Comrade student, you don’t believe in God, do you?!”
“Of course not! I just visit the Moscow Synagogue out of… err… curiosity”
Kamangir,
This was actually an alright post for someone that supports terrorist collaborators (i.e. Siamak Zand) - good for you.
I agree with the Basiji. In an Islamic country, there is no need for universitie to begin with. In fact, *university* is an un-Islamic construct. All universities in Iran should either be converted to mosques or seminary schools where the only book taught should be Koran. Let’s get with the program. Close all the universities. Iran suffers gravely from shortage of mullahs and sheiks. Why does Iran need more artists, scientists, writers, and so on? Islam doesn’t need any of this…
Below is a comment left on another blog but I think it sums up everything pretty accurately:
“This challenge to the mullahs is temporary. In the Muslim world, you get these fads where a dissident sect challenges the mainstream. In this case, the secularists are the dissident sect. But in the end, the Iranians will–because they are mostly Muslims–return to the basics of the faith. Just look at Turkey, Algeria, or even the West, places where Muslims are growing less and less respectful of the secular order. It will take another few decades to overthrow the mullahs, at best, and even then, a significant part of the population will allow the mullahs to regain much (but not all) of their influence within four or five years. When in doubt, Iran will turn to the legacy of Ayatollah Khomeini and all the other lunatic ayatollahs and mullahs because that’s what Muslims do.”
I’m reminded of this quote by Thomas Jefferson:
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
Wafa Sultan also comes to mind:
“The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings…”
Check out this news:
(CBS/AP) Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the pretext that the female violinist entertaining the gathering was dressed too revealingly.
“I don’t know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday, regarding the actions of Iran’s Manouchehr Mottaki.
Off topic: I had to share this (very funny):
Satire Innovative technologies can help moral police
Thanks, Perfectly done.
Agha Kamangir,
Love your Blog. Damet Garm. I can’t believe these guys are running the country into total darkness (actually I beleive it). What the professor did was stupid but the reaction will even be more idiotic! On a more serious note, I was reading a great article (in Farsi) by the reporter/blogger Farzaneh Ebrahimzadeh called “In Jaa Bam Ast” Here is the link: http://7thcoupe.blogspot.com/
It discusses the situation in Bam today almost four years after the earthquake. It got me thinking about the money that is being poured into Lebanon and Iraq to rebuild those countries but Iranians have to live in camps in their own country. Hejab and camping for Iranians! Hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and …. for the Lebanese and Iraqi!!!!! As long as its fair………
Ahwazi, Iranian money in Lebanon isn’t paying for bridges or homes. It’s paying for guns, rockets, and political activism. The promised reconstruction money remained just that.
Promised.
After all, having an armed militia to destroy Lebanon and be a thorn in our (Israel’s) side is *much* more important than silly local matters, right?
Roman Kalik, I did not mention weapons which makes the whole enterprise in Iraq and Lebanon even more tragic for the average Iranian. The Iranian leadership believes that the Arabs of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon will come to Iran’s help if the Iranian people ever need help, the fact is they never do. The Arabs know it and now if someone would pass on that information to Mr. Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.
A good Iranian government could turn things around in the region
Ahwazi, I wholeheartedly agree with you. If any country in this region has the potential for true positive change, it is Iran.
But instead, the current Iranian leadership is steadily pushing Israel and the Arab states into panic mode. And mate, we’re a nuclear country, our denials notwithstanding. I don’t like the idea of a nuclear country panicking, almost as much as I don’t like religious edicts that allow the usage of nuclear weapons and lots of Muslim deaths if it means taking Jerusalem. *shudder*
Mind you, we’re steadily going towards “united in fear” with the Arabs. That could be called positive, right? Probably as positive as this region will ever get… *sigh*
Before we say any of those tragic events,I am hoping a Tsunami of Iranian people will “Wipe Ahmadinejad From the Map” :-)
Make that a very localized Tsunami, of the kind that is focused on AJ, a certain band of “holy men”, and the Revolutionary Guard.
http://kamandekhaterat.blogfa.com/post-30.aspx
http://balatarin.info/permlink/2007/5/11/1054195