A Note from the author, July 2007

Wait!

This epilog will make no sense unless you've already read Mountains an Mullahs, the story to which this epilog pertains.

Click here to read Mountains and Mullahs.

 

It has been seven years since my snowboarding adventure in Iran, which was almost two years before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Now, with Iran a heated topic in the media, I can’t help but reflect upon my time spent there, and the people I came to know.

For some time, I stayed in touch via the internet with a handful of the Iranians I had met in 2000. Some of these individuals had told me that discussing politics, especially anti-Iranian sentiments, with an American was dangerous for them. My impression was they risked serious repercussions, perhaps even death, for sharing viewpoints with me.

After the U.S. began military actions in Afghanistan and then Iraq, I suspected the danger increased for those few who continued to converse with me, oftentimes using different e-mail addresses, and never using their real names. One, for instance, called himself or herself RUMI. I was surprised and admittedly “refreshed” when RUMI wrote me that the “average Iranian” view of America was different from the reports by the mainstream media here in the U.S. That story, or so it seemed, amounted to crowds of Iranians with the classic, “Down With U.S.A.” signs, and burning effigies of G.W. Bush. These individuals I heard from, college age or slightly older, affirmed how they supported our country’s actions because they agreed with the message it sent to the international community -- in particular, to tyrants and dictators -- and to their own government, which denied its citizens many basic liberties and freedoms that, one youth reminded me, “you take for granted there in America.”

Some of these freedoms included women being able to ride anywhere in a bus and not just in the back, and to walk anywhere in the company of any man and not just a close male relative. Citizens are not allowed to meet or assemble and discuss politics and world affairs, or local affairs for that matter. Gathering to discuss “anything” in a group was considered suspicious. To dance in public was taboo. To leave the country freely was impossible without negotiating coils and coils of red tape. Still, when I was there in 2000, I was told that “things were getting better.”

Then, after 9/11, I read in our newspapers that the fundamentalist religious leaders were gaining more support, and my contacts confirmed this. The Iranian youth I heard from said that they feared and opposed these hard-line fundamentalist leaders because they ruled by implementing fear and tyranny, under the guise of Allah’s will. Granted, these young Iranians were “liberal” interpreters of their religion, but none of them showed any signs that they were anything but firm believers in the doctrine of Islam. Not one, for example, expressed any interest in Christianity. Islam was at the root of the lives they wanted to live. They just wanted looser interpretations, or as one individual put it, “modern” interpretations of Islam. They joked about sneaking around to go to parties, or to watch a PG13 or Rated R movie, but there was no joking when they talked of the personal freedoms, or civil liberties they are denied.

Slowly, these emails I received tapered off, and the last email I received was 11 months after the U.S. military action in Iraq. Since then I have not heard from any of these individuals and I worry that harm might have come to them for speaking their minds to me, or to anybody for that matter;** they had proven themselves to be outspoken… I wonder if they are still alive…

Recently I wrote them again, and though none of the e-mails got “bounced” back, I have yet to receive a response.

Despite our country’s political faults, most of us can speak our minds without fear. Americans can shout “Fuck the president” from the rooftops and sleep soundly in their beds that night. This is not the case in Iran. Does this mean war is justifiable as a necessary evil?

There are so many big issues surrounding our country’s relationship with Iran. I won’t attempt to wax political here; I’m not prepared enough to field any questions beyond my own experiences there and the topics discussed in my article. I do, however, hope that Mountains and Mullahs and these reflective thoughts spur a discussion, and bring to light the fact that even in “Axis of Evil” Iran, the average citizens, just like you and me, are for the most part just trying to live their lives…

…which reminds me of something I saw while traveling with my girlfriend (now wife) in Portugal back in 1998. We came across a skate spot with some graffiti spray painted in English. I’ll never forget what it said: “How can we be enemies if we are friends?”

Eric Blehm

Click here to go to ACW’s reaction to the above. (Do not go there if you don’t want to be subjected to ACW when the DGMS Syndrome kicks in.)

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Mountains and Mullahs ACW's Reaction to the Mountains and Mullah's Epilog