Zahra Rahnavard’s Norouz Message
Mar 18th, 2010 by pedestrian
2006 – Zahra Rahnavard stands before a painting in her exhibition.
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I was always uncomfortable with the Zahra Rahnavard/Michelle Obama comparisons that were prevalent during campaign season. I found them quite derogatory and belittling of Rahnavard, as I find the position of “first lady” quite an archaic institution all together. I don’t see what is so progressive about the Queen Ranias and Michelle Obamas of this world who are tutored to wear couture and pimp the rulers of their countries. I admire Rahnavard’s ability to have a voice completely of her own, and that may have never been a continued possibility had her husband become president.
So I’m glad that Rahnavard has released her own Norouz message. Khordaad88 will have the full translation out later today. Here is the first part:
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We wish our countrymen, inside and outside the country, no matter where they may be, a happy Norouz. Norouz, this ancient, eternal holiday.
[new year prayer] O savior of hearts and sights, guide of night and day, you who transform our being and our condition, transform me to the very best.]
How strange that this ancient ceremony has been so elegantly woven with an Islamic narrative, and not only with a beautiful Islamic narrative, but with the modern society we live in today, and at a time when the green movement has engraved its own beautiful signature on it.
Transform me to the very best is the very wish of the green movement. The green movement wants to work for the betterment of its own condition, and the circumstances of its nation. And evolution in any effort is a beautiful symmetry. The green movement is not a movement that works to overthrow. It is a movement that seeks evolution, an evolution from the status quo to a better circumstance. But allow Hafez to light the way, and let us use the trust we have in him every day of our lives:
To thy complain, love reacheth, if like Hafez
Thou recite the Koran with the fourteen traditions
These fourteen traditions, of which Hafez speaks, and has united with love, tells us that it is something in which we can trust. It is not fortune telling, I don’t believe in fortune telling, and the Holy Koran states: “you are what you are” – do not put the responsibility on someone else’s shoulders. Rather, we take inspiration from him:
Arrived the glad tidings that grief’s time shall not remain:
Like that remained not; like this shall not remain.
Although, I am, in the Beloved’s sight, become dusty and despicable;
Honored like this, the watcher shall not remain.
Since the veil-holder striketh all with the sword,
Dweller of the sacred territory, a person shall not remain.
Of the picture, good or bad, is what room for thanks or for lament
When, on the page of existence, the writing shall not remain?
O candle! reckon union with the moth of a great gain;
For till dawn, this commerce shall not remain*
Dear Hafez, who is our trusted guide on those cold, winter nights and in celebrations, when we are pained and sad and when we are joyous, who “to our complain, love reacheth” – we are encouraged to love one another. We have said before too that the green movement is an enemy to no one, it only has a vision and a demand.
In the midst of the new year, we want a return of freedom to our country. We want the rule of law, which has been, in its modern form, a human effort of the past few centuries, to return to our country.
We want deceit and darkness to end, we want an end to discrimination, be it class discrimination, financial, cultural or discrimination against women. We want respect for personal freedoms, and this doesn’t mean we do not pay heed to the collective and its concerns, but that we believe the individual too has a right. And usually, in highly ideological systems, the individual is not allowed to have an opinion or desire of his own. But this is what the green movement is asking for.
Our people are the very creators of the green movement. The green movement is not like a library where a few books have been placed. The green movement is the very people and their visions. We are all together, we are countless. Our country, in terms of ethnicity, language and geopolitics is one of the most complex. But we thank god for the Koran which states: let’s respect this reality – which states that if there are numerous tribes and clans, they should make an effort to get to know one another. Color and language, they are holy. They are signs of god. This plurality is indeed quite beautiful.
[...] Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard addressing the Iranian people for Nowruz. We are awaiting the English translation of Mousavi’s statement, but the first part of Rahnavard’s has been posted by Pedestrian: [...]
hi dear; i used your old post to see who is released and on break and who is still behind bars. If more names can turn green, please let me know. http://iranfacts.blogspot.com/2010/03/updated-list-of-prisoners-and-those.html
yikes, what an ugly smily! it was : – x
I enjoy Rahnavard statements more so than Mousavi’s in all honesty, I find that her statements have more conviction to them and are more straight forward than that of Mousavi. She also bring up the demand to end discrimination against women, by which I hope she means equality between man and woman and not some nonsense along the line of what Islam allows.
On your point regarding the role of first lady I have to disagree with you, I feel that they should have an important duty of trying to promote the image of the country and getting the views of the administration across on matters that wouldn’t otherwise get a lot of attention. Ultimately choosing to run for the position of leadership in a country will be a family decision and there will have to be an agreement and sacrifices by the parties involved, you can’t have the first lady running her own business and agenda as that could potentially create a conflict of interest in my opinion.
In a just society there wouldn’t be any reason why a female wouldn’t be the leader anyway, and her partner would fulfill the duties normally assigned to first ladies.
Also on a different topic is my family the only people who use Saadi work on Nowruz instead of Hafez/Qoran or Shahnameh?
Naj, thanks for the post.
Artanian, I agree, I too enjoy her more than Mousavi. She seems more assertive, as if she knows what she wants more than he does.
Maybe I didn’t phrase it correctly. My problem isn’t with the role of first lady in and of itself, but with the current day image of that job, and especially the media’s take on it. I just mean I hate how the first lady has become more or less a clothes horse. The Economist had an article about it, The momification of Michelle Obama that I really liked. Especially if you look at someone like Rania, who is the queen of a really corrupt, backward empire. But because she wears Armani couture (not only because of that of course, b/c her husband sold his soul and his country too), the media builds a modern, progressive air around her. Given that Rahnavard was never in that position (first lady), the fact that she’s able to project an image above and beyond her husband’s is a credit to her, and I think it’s a discredit to compare her to Michelle, or any other first lady.
Ah yeas I agree with you on Rania! I find her popularity rather agitating and her attempt at promoting/sweetening the image of Muslims as if she was a worthy intellectual or scholar, or even a person of considerable worth! She seems to be oblivious (on purpose most likely) to the fact that for her to keep her position and fortune as Queen, many would be good people were probably tortured and/or imprisoned, yet she tries to promote the image of the people of the region by sweetening it for foreigners with things that would be more appealing to westerners, on our behalf. The fact that she is popular among westerners just makes us all look backward animals that need a stupid would be monarch and dictators who are western oriented to dictate to the people on how to live in my opinion (many Iranians obviously seem to be of this belief seeing as how popular the monarchs can be among the expats).
Tho would I be right to assume one of the reason you dislike her and her husband is because of Jordan signing a peace deal with Israel? Because I think the mistake was instigating a war on Israel along with Egypt in first place, the peace accord was probably a good thing for them and their people.
What I will particularly never forget about Rania was an episode of Oprah where she was guest – it’s about the only episode I’ve watched since 3rd grade. She went on and on about how “similar” Westerners and Middle Easterners are, how “identical”, blah, blah, blah … sounds harmless enough. But then, to “prove” her point she showed a 5 minute video to prove to the audience these similarities. The video rolled, and the audience oooohed an aaaahed watching three Jordanian mothers buy Nike shoes for their kids and get them lunch from MacDonalds and she sat there beaming, so very proud of herself for “proving” her point.
I find that so sick. “The market rules the day” was never so literally translated than in her video. But to me, that just presents the Rania symptom, the disease. So long as they are our puppets and buy our shoes and wear our clothes, they are “like us”. So long as she wears couture and pounces around like a trained puppy, all is good.
Oh no, the peace deal is an entirely different issues. It’s the fact that in Western media circles, and even intellectual circles, Jordan is the “modern, advanced” society and everyone else, including Iran, are barbarians, simply because the king and queen speak good English and dress preppy and are poodles to the States. When in fact, they are as backward or advanced as many other countries in the region (depending on how you want to look at it). They aren’t demonized to infinity like we are, which is a good thing, but for all the wrong reasons.
Could you please loan her to us, even for a bit? I’m sick to death of Michelle Obama who is always putting on cocktail parties and walking around with hideous wide belts and $5000 bags.
lol Lola … we’ve waited for her for decades now! no way we’d give her up now!