Iranian people keep an eye on their own society and can sometimes be critical of themselves. A criticism I personally heard growing up in Iran is how passive and insensitive we could grow toward our country’s problems.
This passivity and frustration increased after the brutal crackdown following the 2009 presidential election. A friend of mine recently posted the following piece on her Facebook wall. The interesting thing is that, finding it to be very well said, I ‘liked’ the post and asked whether she had composed it (or if it’s a joke going around the country). She was --I gathered--somewhat offended and commented on my question that “for someone who lives outside of Iran, it is a poem or a joke; for Iranians it is the truth of living in this country.”
I was sorry that she had misunderstood me. At the same time, I can see how one could feel the outside world has forgotten about the struggle of ordinary Iranians. Here is the translation of what I read. I can only hope that she and others like her know that we haven’t forgotten about them.
The price of water went up!
The price of electricity went up!
The price of gas went up!
Gas had to be rationed!
And subsidies were eliminated!
The price of bread went up!
The price of eggs went up!
Three billionToman was swindled out!!
And the only thing we did was to make jokes about it...to make jokes…
And laugh and laugh and laugh!
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