dont forget to scroll down to see me as an Islamic Woman

My Life as a Foreign Woman
In Iran

Each time I turn on the tv, I hear someone defending the peaceful religion of Islam, and I keep hearing that every muslim is not a terrorist. I agree not every muslim is a terrorist. Because I do happen to have had a few good muslim friends.

But will someone please explain to me where does peace fit in with this religion? Or does peace only apply to the simple woman who wants to get along with her everyday life.

I lived in Iran for 6 years and believe me there was no peace to be seen there once the hezbollah took over, (the Khomeni regime) A second 'killing field' took place, there was skin and hair flying all over the place.

There was a revolution, there were mass executions, the clerics, the pasdars (protectors of Islam) killing left right and center. Sunni muslims killing shia muslims, Shia muslims killing Sunni muslims and Bahaai muslims being killed by all muslims. Believe me all this blood shed was taking place in the name of God. Now they were not hijacking each other (not every muslim is a hijacker) but the average male became a cold blooded killer, just because, one of his muslim brothers had a slightly different idea of the religion.

Being a woman and a western/christian one at that, life was one hell of an ordeal there. We were looked down upon as whores. I kept constantly hearing that the muslim men had high regard for women, and they treated them with the utmost of respect. Ok they never hijacked planes carrying women but I must say, and this is 'gospel truth' they used them for jam making cleaning cooking, ironing, and of course child bearing. And one thing I noticed is that, the muslim man would not even get up to get himself a cup of tea. He would calmly order, this person who he had high respect for to bring it for him.

As a woman (hehee) a person of respect, we were not allowed to show our hair, I remember once sitting in a cab (we had to share cabs there with about 4-5 people) He reprimanded me as my veil had slipped back. He said "cover your head", in a very commanding manner. I turned around and told him, after following his orders of course, I said, "can you tell me what is the difference between your hair and my hair?" Hair is hair, much to the astonishment of the other passengers, as I turned to get the opinion of the people sitting at the back of the cab, I noticed no one wanted to answer me and buried their faces deep into their news papers. I guess they were the peace loving ones, who thought of hair as hair, and not some sexual stimulus.

I remember being arrested for using nail polish and mascara, I remember being nearly raped because I was standing on the corner of the street talking to a 15 year old boy. I remember my 13 year old sister who had come to live with me being arrested and thrown into prison, because she had make up on, and one time because she was talking to a boy. The only reason we were not given the customary lashings, was because we were Christians.

Now I am sure there will be some people who read this and say, "Oh the people who did this to you were not muslims". My answer is "My Darlings, the people who I am talking about, are the people of the 'Ayatollah Khomeni' (The Imam) These vigilante, arrests and beatings were performed by the "Sisters of Islam" and the Pasdars, 'brothers/protectors of Islam. Believe me it was terrorfying. They were mad. Screaming "Maag baar America all the time" It means Death to America

One day my friend an Armenian girl, called Yeran, who worked in a prominent bank, came to me and told me "Guess what Christine? woman have been told to stop wearing high heel shoes to work. I thought why on earth? That had nothing to do with disturbing these peace loving people. It turned out that it was a distraction to the men, when a woman wore high heals, her walk would be senual, because the swinging of her hips would be accentuated by the use of high heels. So basically we had to wear huge loose prefrably dark clothes concealing every part of our bodies, gloves, veils, thick stockings under our pants, they were not allowed to be the translucent ones, (all this in 40+ degrees centigrade of heat)

We were also banned from laughing on the street, smoking at work or on the street, as the act of inhaling and exhaling was a sensual act, which result in the the sexual arousal, in these male islamic peace lovers.

Another incident I vividly remember, one day I was driving down a street with my family, we happened to notice a large sign board I had never seen before it was that of a new sandwich shop. It had a picture of Olive (Popeye's girlfriend) eating a large sandwich which had a lot of spinach in it.

We stopped and orderd a couple of baloney sandwiches and then about a week later decided to go back to the shop and order some more for dinner one night. We accidently drove past the shop, as we failed to see any sign board out side. Believe it or not, it was taken down because, Poor Olive Oil had her mouth open, which was un-islamic for a woman, and secondly the shape of the sandwich was in question, it was like a hot dog bun a bit thicker cut from a French baguette bread. So that was a double jammy, woman with mouth open eating sandwich in penis form. Talk about 'filthy mentality', boy these people were warped. I mean in what community is everything connected to sex??

Now, while all this hiding of hair, and banning of make up and high heels were being imposed, on the average woman going out to help her husband provide a better life for their kids and families. There was real destruction taking place at a higher level.

There was a raging war between the 'peace loving' muslims in Iran and the 'peace loving' muslims in Iraq. People were dying like flies. At the same time there were executions taking place, 'the peace loving' muslim hardliners were killing off the peaceful moderate muslims.
And there was widespread bribery and corruption going on for those young men and families, who had to pay exorbitant amounts of money,
who wanted to get out and live in Europe or the USA. The name given to the United States by the Iranian Govt. was 'Shaitaneh Bozorg' The Big Satan.

I will never forget when my 4 year old son Mario, came home from school (nursery) he started shouting and raising his fist saying Mummy "Maarg baar Amrica" which means death to America. I felt wierd and uneasy. And he would not stop repeating it of course he enjoyed saying it, and even liked having the idea of shaking his fist while saying it.

Now is there anything peaceful about teaching a four year old to shout Death to America? Or for that matter, that America could be transalated into 'The Big Satan?'

That is why, just after the bombing of the World Trade Center, we saw people rejoicing in the streets of Palestine, and wheather you noticed or not, a lot of the people dancing were young kids. They are taught to hate America, and the people of America, from a very early age. Whenever anything bad happens in the USA, all the radicals rejoice and are ready to give their lives and become 'Shahids' (martyrs) for Islam. It was a real terrorfying existence to live in.

I remember as a little girl, muslims were upto their high jinx in India as well. Although I was kept completly hidden and protected at all times. They were at war with the Hindus. There was a civil war between the Hindus and the Muslims, our 'cook' was threatened that he would be beaten to death if he did not change his religion and convert to Islam, the poor guy converted, but believe me this was not a peaceful transaction. It was either 'do or die'. Convert or 'Off with your head'. My poor old cook, who was a 'Hindu all his life' was now a 'muslim' forced unpeacefully, by the threat of a sword.

Then I remember more war was breaking out between India and Pakistan. As the years went by I heard about Islam uprisings in Lebanon, in the Phillipines, in Malaysia, and Indonesia. When I was in the Phillipines or just thereafter, I remember Mrs Imelda Marcos being nearly stabbed to death, by some crazed fundamentalist Muslim. (True owning 2000 odd pairs of shoes is pure gluttony.)
But she did not deserve to be beheaded because of it. There was muslim blood spilling, all over the world in the name of God.

Just the other day while watching CNN, I came accross a fabulous documentary, which hopefully was an eye openener for most of the western world. It was called Beneath the Veil. The Narrator and 'brave heroic woman', who made the documentary was Saira Shah. She lovingly reffered to the piece of film, as 'My Father's Afghanistan', I hope most of you have seen it too. If not try to obtain a copy of it. I had visited Afghanistan but that was before the 'Soviet Invasion' and before the Teleban took over. I never even saw one Muslim woman walking the streets. I saw a quiet and peaceful land, where people went about their everyday life. Very simple people, who took pleasure in entertaining their tourists, who swarmed the land to shop for leather goods, carpets and ancient artifacts.

When I saw the extremely shocking documentary 'Beneath the Veil', it brought back many memories and it made me very angry and also made me cry. I just can not stomach these atrocities any more.

Women of all walks of life should rise to the occassion. When I lived in Iran I created a group, called 'The Foreign Wives Club'. It was a private group gathering, for, 'foreign women married to Iranian Men'.

There were just two of us women, Ruth Minassian and myself, who were married to Christian Iranians (Armenians) the other women, around 50 members were married to muslims.

We organized monthly gatherings, mainly in my house, because I had the accomodation and the permission of my familiy, to do so. We spent our times listening to each other's tales of woe and also advising each other about how to get help. I used to hear horror stories of the girls being beaten by their inlaws, how they were always looked down upon and had to spend most of their time in the kitchen. Now these women were married to young Iranian men who came to the west to study, they were financially well off and most of the men, had careers in engineering, aeronautics, the medical and business fields. It seemed these men were totally normal when they first met and married, but all changed once the girls were taken back to meet the families of their husbands. Most women mentioned they could not believe the drastic change in their husbands characters. Most of them became fanatic radical muslim men, who would beat them, and expect them to act like devout muslims. (which is total submission to God) and husband. (before you blast me, this is my personal experience and I say 'most of the women I did not not say all of them') 90% of them regretted the move they made.

Domestic Violence was rampant, and no one was allowed to speak about it. In most cases if a woman was beaten, she just locked herself in a room in her house and would come out only when when she felt better. Marks from the beatings however, and black eyes were hidden by the amount of clothes women had to wear and the sunglasses, they had to use to hide our eyes. If they had to tell anyone they got beaten, they would be beaten again for having done that. Its a mad mad world out there. And it was pure unadulterated hell, for a woman. Well I am sure there are a lot of women who would stand up and say it was not a hell for them. But for any woman with a brain and real self respect, it was a diabolical situation to live in.

What I noticed quite often though, was that women who were decked in gold bracelets and rings etc, thought they had the best marriages and that their husbands loved them. Love was measured in how much gold you were given. And beauty was measured by the color of skin and eyes, the lighter the color of skin and eyes of the bride, the man felt he had a catch.

I honestly believe that not every muslim is a potential hijacker and terrorist, and I also feel bad for the muslims who have adopted 'our' way of life and are living in the west in peace and freedom, having to live under the scrutiny of everyone watching their every move. And my heart particularly goes out to the Muslim women, who live in the west, to those who practice their religion and those who don't.

I can honestly say, there is nothing and I repeat nothing peaceful about living in an Islamic country. (I am sure Islam is a peaceful religion, what I can't understand is which people are the ones who are following the true Islam?) We see and hear wonderful people like the King Abdullah and his beautiful wife Queen Rainia, of Jordan, and the beautiful Queen Nur (the wife of the late King Hussein of Jordan) who actually changed over to Islam, they seem normal, civilized, cultured and come dressed, just like normal people. Queen Farah and her children all of them so civilized and well behaved. Do these people beleive in a different kind of Islam?

Remember the Armenian Genocide? Turks (muslims) systematically murdered more than a million ethnic Armenians living in Anatolia between 1915 and 1917, while Europe was preoccupied with World War One.
Turkish officials have long denied that any deliberate attempt was made to exterminate the Armenian minority during those years, saying that only 300,000 were killed. The murderers were not the Taleban, but they were just ordinary normal muslim men who wanted to get rid of the Christian Minority Armenians
. My first husband of many years and the 'father of my son Mario' is Armenian, so I know all the grim stories of terror his ancestors had to go through, at the hands of these fanatics.

It was frightening, and terrifying. Just days before I fled to Holland, word went out and our home was stormed by so called muslim pasdars, (brothers/protectors of Islam) who heard that we had Vodka and video tapes in our home. Well we were held at gun point, and had to hand over what ever we had even all our money. The wrath of those men could be compared to none.
I fled Iran, which was NOT ruled by the Taleban, but by the people of 'Imam Khomeni'. If anyone says, Khomeni is not an Islamic Icon, then who is?
Khomeni was an Imam. (Like the Pope for the roman catholics)
Khomeni was someone who could place a 'Fatwah = death penalty' on a person even of a different nationality, living in a different country.
And he could call for a 'Jihad'= holy war/struggle, which would expect, peace loving muslims, from all over this world which is filled with otherwise wonderful people but it was a hell hole of bribery corruption, fear, terrorism, war, revolution, double standards, gun toting, maniac bearded men, with superficially happy wives, (as long as they had the gold around their arms and diamonds on their fingers it was fine) If I stayed I guess me and my whole family would have been killed because of our beliefs which were not similar to that of the so called peace loving Islamic people.

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