FOR's Friendship Delegation to Iran: December 2005

Report 4: A Tehran synagogue,
students and women activists

Friday, December 9, 2005:

On Friday morning, we visited a synagogue and were warmly greeted with "Shabbat Shalom" by worshippers as they left Shabbat services. They were especially interested in meeting the Jewish members of our delegation.

Inside the synagogue, we met with Morris Mottaned, who is in his second term as the Jewish representative to the Iranian parliament. According to Mr. Mottaned, Iran has the second oldest Jewish community after Israel, with Jews having lived in Iran for 2,700 years. There is a mausoleum for Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, and for Daniel in Susa.

Delegates with leaders of the Iranian Jewish community inside a Tehran synagogue

Before the Iranian revolution, there were more than 100,000 Jews living in Iran, but there are only about 25,000 left. Mr. Mottaned promised that the Jewish community in Iran would never disappear because they have such deep roots there.

We talked with Mr. Mottaned for nearly two hours. He made the following points during our discussion:

• There are many misconceptions in the West concerning the lives and status of Jews in Iran.
• As of two years ago, equality under the law was established for religious minorities, for example in inheritance.
• For the first time in the history of Islam, there are funds budgeted for religious minorities.
• Now there is equal opportunity for employment
• The Iranian authorities no long question Jewish Iranians when they travel abroad.
• There are Jewish elementary and high schools, and parents can choose whether to send children there or to Iranian schools. About 40% of Jewish parents choose the Jewish schools. The 60% who attend state schools can also attend Hebrew school once a week.
• Iranian Jews serve in the military, and may ask to be posted close to home so that they can have access to kosher food and attend services.
• Becoming a rabbi in Iran was traditionally something handed from father to son. However, in the last 50 years, Iranian rabbis have studied in the United States, England and Israel. There are three rabbis in Iran now, 20 synagogues in Tehran, and others in more than 15 cities.

Regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, Mr. Mottaned said that the Iranian Jewish community opposes violence on both sides and supports dialogue and compromise by both sides.

Saturday, December 10, 2005:

Our second to last day in Iran included seeing more of the country’s artistic riches.

 We went to the Persian Carpet Museum, which has dozens of magnificent hand-made carpets from each area of Iran. There were both city and nomad carpets made with natural colors and intricate designs and natural colors which often tell a story.

We also went to the Melli bank, Iran’s central bank, where tens of thousands of crown jewels are displayed in a giant vault. We saw the peacock throne, which is entirely encrusted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other gems, a huge globe covered with jewels, and the crowns of the Shah and royal family.

Dozen of display cases held not only jewelry, but also jeweled swords, daggers, dish covers, boxes, clothing, and even ornamentation for horses. This opulent display is only 10% of the jewels amassed by the Shahs.

Finally we visited a modern “House of Art” run by the municipality of Tehran. It is the site of exhibits, shops, a tea house and a variety of events. Several events were underway while we were there — a book talk, a new exhibit of nature photography, and a multi-media presentation showing the ravages of war.

The richness of Persian culture was evident everywhere we went. Iran has three UNESCO World Heritage sites. The tombs of poets are gathering places for the people. Our tour guide recited poetry and stories of folk wisdom, and the shops and bazaars were marvelous displays of human creativity.

Sunday, December 11, 2005:

It rained briefly on our last day in Tehran, which was also the most emotional day of the trip. Our first stop was the journalism college, which is affiliated to the state-run news agency, IRNA. Around the entrance, we saw black flags and photos of some of the 68 journalists who were killed in the terrible plane crash of a few days ago. We were ushered in to a classroom with many journalism students, most of them very young.

Delegates Michael Shank and Mary Huessy (second from right) talk to Iranian
students in Tehran

FOR director Pat Clark expressed our shared sorrow for their loss and told them that we had prayed for them. We thanked them for seeing us, despite their grief, as we worked to forge a bridge across the divide of our governments. Our host at the college thanked us for our sympathy and explained that the chancellor was away because of the deaths.

The college has three branches: journalism, news translation, and photojournalism. (We saw some stunning enlarged photos in the hallway). About 500 students attend classes to earn a three-year degree with good prospects for employment.

A pointed question to the delegates set the tone for the uninhibited exchange we would have: What has FOR done to prevent war? Two of our delegates, a Vietnam veteran and a Puerto Rican national, were able to give concrete responses.

We in turn asked why students study journalism when the news trend is toward blogs, which give relative freedom in the global system. A young student answered that journalism students want to acquire the latest techniques and journalistic methods in order to build “nice” relationships with other countries, and to give information without “disguising”. She said, “We realize no country has absolute freedom and all reporters are constrained by their government’s policies.”

A very important issue for the students was their perception of U.S. complicity in the plane crash deaths of the journalists and others, through U.S. sanctions against Iran which prevented Iran from buying necessary planes and parts.

Pat Clark explained that FOR has always opposed sanctions. The students wondered whether we could use this tragic incident as a platform from which to work for the removal of sanctions. Pat said that she would discuss this matter with others at FOR and see what we might do.

We were then given 30 minutes of one-on-one communication. Everyone found this interaction to be very satisfying. Pat was also able to deliver over 500 messages of peace to the deputy director of the journalism school, who promised to share them.

We proceeded next to the Saad Abad – the Tehran summer palace of the Pahlavi dynasty (who ruled Iran until 1979.) In 1943, during the Tehran Conference, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt reaffirmed their alliance with Iran against Nazi Germany.

We learned a lot about the origins of oil-drilling in Iran in the early 20th century by British companies. We also learned about the 1953 coup de etat, which overthrew the popularly elected Iranian prime minister, and the growth of Iran’s parliamentary democracy in the 1940s and ‘50s.

After another delicious lunch, we walked though an urban neighborhood to the home of Ms. Moggadam, environmentalist and feminist. There we met several members of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Women Against Pollution. Among them was the group’s founder, 88-year-old Mrs Mallah, and her husband of 60 years.

Mrs. Mallah, who has a Ph.D. degree from the Sorbonne, said she concluded 30 years ago that unless we rescue the environment, we can’t live together peacefully.

Delegates with leaders of an environmental NGO

She believes women have a significant responsibility in fighting pollution, since they play a role in producing it. For 70 years, Mrs. Mallah said, she had studied women, particularly herself, and found several areas in which women could assist in reducing pollution and revitalizing nature.

• Women as mothers: Women control the power of reproduction and must accept responsibility for there being too many people the world, including two million starving people. Obtaining a balance between humans and nature, requires controlling the birth rate.
• Women are natural teachers: Mothers either guide or misguide their children.
• Women as home makers: Women manage the home, deciding what type of furniture, appliances, clothing, and food their families will consume. However, capitalism manipulates women and encourages consumerism. “Shopping Disease” is encouraged by capitalism.

Mrs. Mallah explained that excessive and unnecessary use of natural resources produces unmanageable amounts of garbage. She suggested two roles for women: promoting knowledge and educating people; and monitoring any kind of activity that destroys the environment. Women can be “whistleblowers,” giving news to the rest of the world.

An example of the work of the group was to contest the building of the new highway between Tehran and the Caspian Sea, which would cut through and destroy the only pre-ice age forest range in the world. The women stood in front of two bulldozers, and wrote letters of protest to the Guardian Council (upper house of parliament) and Majlis (lower house). They have also advocated for Iran to sign the Kyoto agreement.

Mrs. Mallah, who has been arrested herself, maintained that women are more brave than men because they have nothing to lose.  She said the government had not investigated the environmental impact of the highway project, but her group did. They did not prevail against the construction, but did overturn the planned sale of surrounding land to finance the highway.

Her organization has 1,000 members in Tehran and 5,000 throughout Iran, 4,000 of whom are women. Over 250 NGOs exist in Iran. In response to our questions about “green building”, Mrs. Mallah  said a new cabinet position has been created to advance  new energy sources, and all schools include environmentalism in their curricula.

Submitted by Ellen Poisson, Bonnie Block and Kim Brasch