Tales of the Heliosphere

We sit riveted to our TV screens and computer monitors by the images coming from Iran. We see people putting their lives on the line in the streets, marching into harm's way, rising up against tyranny, fighting on behalf of freedom. Or is something else happening?

The demonstrators have gone into the streets protesting the election that appears to have been stolen from their favored candidate. Yet this candidate comes from the theocracy that rules Iran. He is a founding father of the Islamic revolution that replaced one dictatorship with another. Are his supporters in the streets merely pawns in a power struggle among the clerics who rule Iran?

Perhaps the images lie to us. Certainly the images depict events that are truly happening. But whether those events depict an evident truth or mask a lie is not yet clear. So, we read and watch the news out of Iran and wonder whether what we are seeing is true or a lie.

Fiction is truth masquerading as lies. We read and watch fiction knowing full well we are being told a pack of lies, but we also know that truth lies hidden in those lies. (Here.) Iran is blessed with storytellers who tell truthful lies on film. Here's a sampling, in no particular order of personal preference.

Crimson Gold: A tragedy about the last days of a pizza delivery man in Tehran, doomed by shame and lack of opportunity.

Offside: The misadventures of young women who, motivated by love of country and the game, must disguise themselves as men in order to attend Iran's World Cup Soccer match.

Baran: Another story of disguised gender, but this time a love story, and a story of Afghan refugees surviving in Iran.

The Mirror: It's not uncommon for Iranian movies to have a naturalistic feel to them. This film goes further than most and breaks the Fourth Wall. Midway through the film, the preteen actress playing the young girl making her way home alone through Tehran, suddenly decides she's had enough of acting and storms off. The rest of the movie follows the actress as she continues to make her way home across Tehran, but now the action is unscripted. Or is it?

Secret Ballot: Iran has elections. This comical movie tells the story of a female elections worker and a male soldier collecting ballots from far-flung polling places in a remote rural province

Children of Heaven: A young brother and sister hide the loss of a pair of tennis shoes from their parents. It's a family movie that culminates in a foot race across the city.

Color of Paradise: The saddest but most beautifully filmed story of a father and his blind child. It will haunt your memory for a long time. It still haunts mine, 10 years on.

Marooned In Iraq: One of Iran's naturalistic movies. The plot involves a Kurdish singer from Iran who travels to Iraq in the wake of the first US-Iraq war to find his former wife. Not a musical by any means but there's lots of singing performances by the main character and others he meets along the way.

Ten: Women in Iran struggle to live under the oppression of the Islamic Republic. Their stories are told in conversations during car rides across Tehran.

-tdr

Labels: Iran, Islam, Movies

Move along. All cultures are equal. Nothing to see here. From a press release of Amnesty International USA.

Child of 13 stoned to death in Somalia

"Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was accused of adultery, but sources told Amnesty International that she had in fact been raped by three men, and had attempted to report this rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo. It was this act that resulted in her being accused of adultery and detained. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.

"She was detained by militia of the Kismayo authorities, a coalition of Al-shabab and clan militias. During this time, she was reportedly extremely distressed, with some individuals stating she had become mentally unstable.

"Amnesty International has campaigned to end the use of the punishment of stoning, calling it gruesome and horrific. This killing of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow demonstrates the cruelty and the inherent discrimination against women of this punishment." (Here.)

To say nothing of the society that allows it and the religion that endorses it.

-tdr

Labels: Ethics, International, Islam

Blame Canada! The linked article (here) got the author, Mark Steyn, and his magazine, Macleans, dragged before a Human Rights Commission in Canada for supposed hate speech against Muslims.

About par for the course for Islamists. Don't like what others say about Islam? Intimidate, intimidate, intimidate! But why a supposedly free country would allow the trial of an author and a magazine for publishing political opinion others find disagreeable is beyond me. (Follow the proceedings in all their totalitarian glory at Macleans blog here.)

-tdr

Labels: Canada, Islam, Law

The Associated Press publishes a story today about Iraqi militia leader Moktada Al-Sadr going back to theology school.

"Al-Sadr currently has the relatively low title of hojat al-Islam, which leaves his supporters no choice but to seek religious guidance from top establishment clerics — many of whom al-Sadr sees as out of touch with common Iraqis and accuses of acquiescing to Washington's demands." (Here.)

The AP story only hints at the low regard in which Al-Sadr is held by most Iraqi Shiites. That Al-Sadr is viewed that way by most Iraqis is probably news to most Westerners. But anyone who has taken the time to find blogs written by Iraqis about their own country would have learned long ago that Al-Sadr does not enjoy much respect among most Iraqi Shiites. Here's an excerpt from a post on the blog IraqPundit from May 7, 2006.

"The other Moktada, the one known mostly to Shiite Iraqis, is a half-wit and a loser. He is certainly not a cleric, since he found his religious studies overwhelming, and abandoned them. On the other hand, he is almost certainly a cold-blooded murderer. His viciousness is matched only by his ignorance and his mumbling incoherence. His significance may be measured entirely by a following of thugs who are as vicious and stupid as he is. He is an impediment to the emergence of a decent and stable Iraq." (Here.)

The AP story also briefly touches on the Shiite doctrine of "wilayet al faqeeh," which is described in the story as a doctrine "which supports the right of clerical rule. The concept was adopted [by] Iran's Khomeini, but carries little support among Iraq's Shiite religious hierarchy." What the story doesn't say is that the doctrine, and the theocratic rule in Iran, is widely regarded as heretical in Shiism. Even among Iranian clerics the doctrine is not universally embraced. (Here.)

To its credit the Christian Science Monitor in 2004 published a story on the theological differences between Iranian and Iraqi Shiism over the doctrine of wilayet al faqeeh and how that mattered to the development of democracy in Iraq.

"A rare insight into Sistani's views on Iran's Wilayet al-Faqih system was posted on the Internet last week by an anonymous Sunni tribal leader who met with the reclusive Shiite cleric at his home in Najaf.

"'He does not believe in 'Wilayat al Faqeeh' as the clergy in Iran do.... He repeatedly stressed that religion has to be separated from government,' the letter said. 'He said that he firmly believed that the clergy should not interfere with the running of people's lives, with government or with administration. He had forbidden his followers from putting their noses into the state's affairs. He said that clearly and categorically (several times to stress the point!)'

"According to Sheikh Jalaleddine as-Saghir, Sistani's representative in Baghdad, the ayatollah recommends a multisectarian government for Iraq." (Here.)

It's not just nationalism that separates Iraqi Shiites from Iranian. They also differ in their view of the proper role of clerics in government. It's why Iraq's Shiite Ayatollah Al-Sistani continues to support democracy in Iraq. It's also why the United States has a chance to be influential in Iraq among Shiites despite Iran's presence next door.

-tdr

Labels: Islam, War on Jihad