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Cowardice on Speech &
Dress in Iran: (This was written Christmas
2001, but still applies! I was there again in Summer of 2004. I was still a coward.)
I just returned from a trip to Iran, the alleged pivot point of
the axis of evil. I, of course, wouldn't call it EVIL, but it does
have its flaws. Flaws, of course, which are enabled by the flaws
of its denizens, one of whom is me.
What flaws? Well, while I was in Iran, I was feeling like a total
coward. Well, not a total coward, but a run of the mill, average
coward. Not passing judgment on myself here. It's just an observation.
See, in Iran, every day, every moment, there is a Rosa
Parks opportunity for a woman to say "I'm not going to
take it anymore" and walk out unscarved, making a stand for
her beliefs. I had 2.5 weeks of such an opportunity, and did not
seize it.
No. I just towed the line as usual because it's so easy to sell
out. And I'm not sure what I sold it for , what the cost is. The
ominous "acid in the face" warnings (Is this an urban
myth? How many women have actually been assaulted that way?). Jail
time? A flogging? The harrassment of my parents?
And then if I'm detained, what will happen to returning to the
states and maintaining payments on my credit card debt? And if I
skip a few payments there goes my credit rating! Gasp.
So I just wore the scarf. Coward. See, they never do boil the frog.
They just keep the frog simmering and THREATEN to boil it. The frog
knows. The frog isn't stupid. The frog is uncomfortable. The frog
would like alternatives, and would like the sadistic experimenters
to stop fiddling with the hot plate. (Actually, the Boiling
Frog thing is a myth. Although a friend of mine says she knows
someone who was in a class where it was demonstrated. But I was
never able to cross examine this alleged friend so I remain skeptical.)
Freedom of speech is supposedly an inalienable right. That means
it is an integral part of you and not something that is given or
granted to you. It can not be granted because one person can not
give another the right to speak. Because if someone gives you the
right, then they can take it back, they own it, not you. If it's
inalienable, it's yours.
But you have to TAKE the right by exercising it. It's only yours
if exercised. Alas, there may be consequences to exercising this
right, but that's why America has a 2nd Amendment, dagnabit. Freedom
of speech cannot exist without your right to bear arms and back
it with lethal force! Oops. Where did that come from?
Risk Taking & Free Speech Insurance:
There are several issues here. One is cowardice. If everyone walked
on this planet with full integrity and didn't shy away from speaking
their truth, this would be a very different planet. That's a personal
issue.
Another issue is risk taking. You weigh the costs and benefits.
Does it bother me so much to keep my mouth shut and
wear a scarf if the cost of not doing so is physical suffering?
The thing about
RISK taking, though, is that it is
a fundamental part of change. There is this amazing book Against
the Gods on the history of risk taking, and the history of institutions
that have risen up to enable people
to take risks.
Yes, most of human progress would not be
possible without
the insurance industry
in its various formal
and informal incarnations. Yes, insurance. Wouldn't it be nice
to set
up a financial instrument,
say an insurance
agency, to help embolden
people to take those free speech risks? Think of the progress
in
the speed of democracy,
etc.
We here at Ajaban have the brilliant plan to embark on a joint
venture with a reputable human rights organization (say, Amnesty
International) and an Insurance Company (American Express?) to set
up an insurance program that will enable people to speak their minds.
See you can buy a policy so that if you speak your mind somewhere
and get arrested by a repressive regime, your bills get paid and
you have some health care when you get out, including reconstructive
surgery after torture and career training in the event that you've
missed a lot of changes in your field. (am I just too glib with
these things?) The policy is more expensive the more risky the country
you want to speak out in.
The beauty of this is that we get the insurance industry to calculate
how risky free speech is in each country and we get an economic/statistical
confirmation and fine-tuning for that assessment after claims start
rolling in. Of course we make the most money where the perceived
risk is much higher than the actual risk.
Additional benefits of
applying for Free Speech Insurance - Policy Document:
Another benefit of formal "Free Speech Insurance" is that
the policy form itself is a tool to help you figure out exactly
what it is you want to say. You have to go through this long policy
document to itemize the types of speech you want covered, up to
and including specific phrases. It's a great tool for self-knowledge.
You write down the type of speech you want covered in the places
you want them covered. This further puts the insurance industry
to work in breaking down the actual risk of certain phrases in certain
places within a country, within your own house.
Iranian Self-Express
Insurance:
I was going to call this "American Self-Express" but that's
too obviously an infringement on American Express. Anyway, America
is still pretty overwhelmed by extreme free speech (although Mr.
"Nation
of Cowards" has other thoughts on the cosmetic aspect of
this "free speech" in America as real freedoms erode.
But that's his deal and he can speak about it all he wants. Anyway,
it's alway easier to preach to the choir. This insurance has to
come out of some free-speech unfriendlier country to really be impressive
and relevant. Ajaban.com hereby launches "Iranian Self-Express
Insurance". Step right up, get your policies here.
Drawbacks to the Free
Speech Insurance Idea:
A problem with the Free Speech Insurance idea is, of course, that
it's not free anymore. But it never was really "Free"
as in no cost. So you'll just have to deal with that. And the other
problem is that it might upset people to have the protection of
Free Speech privatized in a profit-making company, when government
should be safeguarding it. Well, maybe government isn't always the
best guardian. I'm not going to name any countries, but...you get
the idea. Also, this fear of privatization is just a conflict one
may have with capitalism. These things can all be worked out if
we are willing. They will be flawed, but flaws are cool.
One other thing. Free speech is all well and good. But effective
speech with some thought behind it, some compassion, a bit of strategy,
that's better. Before you start blubbering on about whatever, we
need to explore issues of speech and conflict. Some skills would
be nice. Neutralizing inflammatory language. Seeing past the position
to the need etc. Posturing, ridiculing, word play, all that good
fun. Links galore to come. Just wait 'til this site gets dynamic
and you can speechify all over the place in good company.
Do you want to be part of it?
Other thoughts:
Finding a Tipping Point for
Free Speech and Dress:
This is all really a question of strategy. The Iranian Self-Express
Insurance™ concept is one strategy. Strategy, you ask. Reminds
me of that Mutabaruka song:
"By the ballot
or the bullet, by the bible or the gun, any which way, freedom must
come." Well, maybe not. What is the best strategy? What
is your goal? For a comparison of Violent approaches to freedom
vs. gradual approaches vs. the alternative of rigorous integrity,
check out Leo
Tolstoy's essay. (Which, later I must contrast with Gholombezom's
use of hypocrisy. Somehow a way must be found to compare the effectiveness
of these methods).
Why "Tipping
Point"? That refers to the optimistic little book on marketing
that looks at major social movements as trends. For a while no one
is doing it (speaking the truth), then everyone is doing it. This
may give you ideas for strategy if you're planning some social shifts.
Irrelevance of Free
Speech(?)
(aka Walk softly and carry a big stick.) Here is an excerpt from
"Walter Mitty's Second Amendment" in "Nation
of Cowards" which will rile some folks up:
"Once upon a time, there was a people who inhabited a majestic
land under an all powerful government. now this government had the
resources to control practically every aspect of human existence;
hundreds of thousands of "public servants" could access
the most personal details about every citizen because each citizen
was issued a number at birth with which the government could track
him throughout his life. No one could even work in gainful employment
without this number.
"True, the government left certain domains of individual action
largely free, particularly matters concerning speech and sex. But
these activities posed no real threat to the state. When not used
to entertain and divert, the power of speech was used principally
to clamor for more or better goods from the state, or for "reforms"
to make the state work "better," thereby entrenching the
people's dependency. And insofar as sex was concerned, well, the
people's behavior in this area also really had no effect on the
scope of state power.
"In fact, the rulers noted that people's preoccupation with
sex and sexual morality - whether premarital, teenage pregnancy,
adultery, divorce, homosexuality or general "who's zooming
who" - diverted the people's attention from the fact that they
were, for economic and all other intents and purposes, slaves. Slaves,
though, who labored under the illusion that they were free. The
people were a simple lot, politically speaking, and readily mistook
the ability to give free reign to their appetites as the essence
of "personal freedom."
"In that fruitful land, the state took about 50 percent of
everything the people earned through numerous forms of taxation,
up from about 25 percent only a generation earlier. However, this
boastful people, who believed themselves to be the freest on earth,
retained the right to keep and bear arms. Tens of millions possessed
firearms, just in case their government ever became tyrannical,
and enslaved them..."
Whew. Stirring words. Get
the book! Read the rest. But be warned. It's PRO GUN! ARE YOU
PANICKING! I need to add a gun control coin to the PANIC
BUTTON so that if you are pro gun, you can press one link when
this site gets too disarmamental, and one link if you are pro control,
and this site is too GUNg ho. Stay tuned.
The Role of Hejab in Iran:
Here's where I will eventually scan in this really cool poster I
picked up in Iran during "Women's Week" which explains
the role of the hejab in Iranian Islam. A fine poster. A dozen reasons:
"The hejab is the flag of Islam, and women are the flagbearers."
etc. Of course, that poster shows hejab as the full chador. In reality,
women in Iran are "free" to not wear the full chador,
to just wear a scarf on their heads (which often slips down suggestively,
ooh, it's getting hot in here). So I will also scan in a series
of pictures which demonstrate how far women in Iran have come with
this covering. Finally, a picture of graffiti from the old days
"Death to bad hejab", e.g., death to women who don't wear
proper hejab (like the afore-mentioned suggestively slipping sluts).
I didn't see graffitti like that the last time I went back to Iran.
Does this mean that the writing on the wall is more in my favor
now? Who knows. Who can assess the risk?
Also, soon to come is a link to a tale of how the hejab came back
to Iran after enforced hejab removal. Yes, enforced removal. My
Grandmother and aunts can tell you about the days when the Shah's
father, in order to "modernize" Iran banned the wearing
of hejab. This was pretty much like public rape, as women who dared
to venture out with their coverings on ran the risk of having it
stripped off of them.
As a result, for some time there, they just didn't venture out
at all, or sent children on up ahead to see if the coast was clear,
as they dashed from one place to another frightened and clutching
their chadors to their breasts.
 Forced
covering and forced exposure are both ridiculous. Don't believe
in forced anything. However, given there is all this force out there
being used in unwanted directions, remember always the aikido approach
of using the force against itself. This type of thing is shown as
happening naturally, even if one does not intentionally try to use
the aikido approach. Just getting out there and expressing yourself,
even with some encumberances, generates momentum. We see this phenomenon
in this article by Camelia Entekhabi-Fard "Behind
the Veil" in Mother Jones magazine. The author talks about
how the hejab, as promoted by Khomeini (seen above, engaging in
free speech activity) has actually empowered Muslim women.
No, I misrepresent her argument. She points out that he promoted
women, WITH hejabs, but promoted them nonetheless.
OK, here. This is what she does. She says "It was the Ayatollah
Khomeini -- a theological maverick whose positions on many social
issues were far more complex than is generally understood in the
West -- who first broke with the clerical practice of banishing
women from public life." You see, the issue was how involved
the women were in public life. Khomeini provided theological ammo
to help mobilize them and mutated the conservative Islamic stance
somewhat. Yes, the women were to be pious and obedient, but militant
and active as well.
As if anyone can control a militant active woman for long. And
so the story unfolds, as all stories do, and "Over the next
two decades, the complex dynamics launched by the Islamic revolution
would alter age-old patriarchal structures and gender politics --
and, ultimately, undermine the power of the conservatives who had
set the changes in motion." This process continues today. Where
will it end? Give them an inch and they take a mile. Or, the journey
of a thousand miles begins with a step. Little cricket. Let your
conscience sing out.
(Are you panicking
because this exerpt seems too pro-Khomeini? Am I suggesting he helped
the cause of feminism? Well, in fact, I do have a soft spot for
the man, possibly because whenever they say his name on the television
or radio in Iran, it's followed by the title "Rezvanollah",
Allah's Rezwan. So he is Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Rezvanollah.
Boob Jobs vs. Boob Hejab's
OK, I'm not sure what all this hejab stuff has to do with free speech.
Except that speech is about revealing your thoughts. Hejab is about
revealing your appearance. So maybe they work as metaphors of each
other. An article once appeared in the Los Angeles Weekly about
how Western images, media, etc. were penetrating Muslim countries.
The tide was seen as unstoppable. The picture layout accompanying
the article featured a bunch of Iranian girls in scarves and raincoats
on one side, appearing to look on with admiration at a picture of
"Bay Watch" babes in red skimpy swim regalia on the other
side.
But my friend, while it's true these Iranian women were covering
their physical appearance with scarves (called "Hejab"),
the Bay Watch babes represent another dimension of physical covering,
on two counts: 1) they respresent a very small portion of the population
which is propelled to visibility only because they are deemed worthy
of being seen, and 2) those in the bevy who were not quite up to
standards enhanced their visibility with, yes, BOOB JOBS!
So instead of a scarf thrown over the head we have saline injected
into the breast. Plastic surgery lives! Let's call this BOOB HEJABS!
Both strategies alter physical appearance.
Not to make it seem like I am comparing or judging either East
or West here. Theoretically, the Hejab is designed to take people's
attention off superficial things like physical attractiveness to
force the easily tempted youth to focus on one another's minds.
But it doesn't work. Those Hejab'ed women get as much plastic surgery
as anyone (OK, you're right, I need an accurate statistical approach
to this).
The point is, the problem of physical insecurity isn't solved by
either social approach. Which brings us back to the beginning. It's
not society's job to resolve each person's issues about how well
they fit in with the world, it's their own job to come to terms
with themselves and their appearance and thoughts, and to stand
up for those thoughts and boobs.
Although I do have a cool invention which could address both the
Hejab and the Boob Hejab issues. Yes, Programmable
Rose Colored Glasses. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
Free Buttock Speech: Show
us your Cellulite.
This brings me to a revealing dream of my own in which I faced this
issue and realized yet another dimension of my cowardice. The triggering
external stimulii was the Calvin Klein ad campaign in which under-age
youth, yes kids (!) were - home porno movie style - being asked
by an unseen middle-aged man to strip down to their underwear.
Shocking shameless ad! Really evocative of that experience of having
your defenses undermined by the pressure of a sweaty old man with
a camera. What, you haven't experienced this pressure? Anyway, on
my drive to work was a billboard of one of these kids, unzipping
his pants. Every day for weeks I saw this youth, boyish good looks,
vulnerable. A sacrifice to the predations of horny old men or was
it the fashion industry?
Then I had the dream. I was at some tawdry sun-drenched motel in
Vegas. Hanging out by the pool. Wearing a bathing suit. And there
was that youth, over yonder. The horny porno men were looking for
him,, I could sense. The boy was cowering in the bushes, naked.
"please! Could you get my clothes for me?" Yes, the boy
needed his clothes to save him from those men.
I looked for his clothes. They were at the bottom of the pool.
The horndogs were getting closer. All I had to do was just bend
down and reach into the pool to get the clothes and save the boy.
BUT THEN I REALIZED! If I bent over to get the clothes to protect
the virtue of this poor shivering youth, why, EVERYONE WOULD SEE
MY CELLULITE!
What a decision was mine to make! Expose my cottage cheese buttocks!
To save this boy?
You see, THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. As for me, I have to admit,
in that particular dream, It's not that I actively shirked my duties
in saving the poor youth. I just hesitated a bit too long to make
that decision, my buttocks jiggling all the while. Yes, I think
instead I started dreaming about exercising or something. And that
poor boy, whatever his fate was, well, he asked for it. I didn't
tell him to be in a Calvin Klein ad. Take some responsibility, will
you?
The benefits of censorship
and hypocrisy (sly metaphor development skills)
Ajaban, as you know, seeks to leverage anything, and I mean anything,
into something that works in your favor, you being the base unit
of action. So with censorship and hypocrisy. You see, the world
is dynamic. So where censorship exists, it is a force which attempts
to stifle and oppress, or whatever. And as such, it clashes against
other forces. These forces all do stuff, which we have yet to measure.
Anyway, you take the vector of these forces, and try to leverage
them...This is hard to explain without an example. I'm just focusing
on being fluid with forces. To try to eliminate censorship bears
the paradox of censoring censorship. I would say, coexisting with
it and railing against it strengthen's character. There is a good
cop, bad cop thing going on here. It's important to have the voices
of some clamoring for censorship because that makes those clamoring
against it that much more dramatic and exciting. I'll try to find
someone who expresses this better. And of course, there is the cost
benefit of - do we really need all that oppression in order to have
strength of character and growth? There is probably an optimum amount
of censorship (which, you know can only be enforced if someone is
enforcing it and someone is caving in to the enforcement, so this
censorship, just like free expression is always temporary).
And, hypocrisy...well, that is a subject for Gholombezom
to address, and he's still in Tahiti.
Comments on Ajaban's daring
in the realm of free speech
This letter from an Ajaban user talks about the ubiquitous fears
and anxieties that every person faces. Self labeling! ("I'm
a wimp") and so forth. The user name has been withheld for
general anxiety alleviating purposes. Let this missive stand here
also as a marker in a personal journey towards free, empowered self-expression.
Imagine the day when you (and this author) tell us your best, your
worst and your mediocre...and we don't shun or stone you:
"I like your website...it's dangerous territory that needs
careful navigation. I thought the stuff about religion, as hilarious
as it was, could be construed as dangerous territory. I admire Ajaban's
guts. Are you sure you want your names at the bottom of the page?
See, I'm a wimp and would be too scared to have my full name on
a page where I totally speak my mind. Paranoid? yes, of course,
it's a natural state for me and I admire people who are not like
that. don't get me wrong. I think your website rocks and I look
forward to the day where I actually believe that freedom of speech
exists and I can speak my mind with no repercussions to my family
and I, but I don't. Living in America helps, but, somewhere in my
being it's officially stamped and sealed that opening my mouth will
mean losing my head. Maybe my next lifetime as a harbor seal will
bring about a refreshing outlook of life, but then the sharks will
still be after me. This is an ongoing thing with me and my filmmaking
is directly related to it. I want to speak my mind, and have learned
the tools to do so. But I don't since the consequences could be
devastating and could result in my isolation. you, on the other
hand, have grabbed fear by the balls and not only are you squeezing
them, you juggle them like play things."
That, or maybe we're just stupid here at Ajaban.
And More!
OK, I lied. No more for now. Stay tuned. Ah! in the realm of free
speech, empty promises are the freest.
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