| Iranian teens talk love, life and... metal |
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| Written by Rola Zamzameh in Tehran | |
| Friday, 14 July 2006 | |
  Tehran teenagers offer a rare glimpse of their lives, and tell of their hopes and aspirations for Iran...
Mani: Dreams of football glory Mani is a 16-year old student from Karaj, just west of Tehran. He plays football as a centre forward and trains every day after school with his coach. When I ask him about his dreams he explains he wants to play in Europe. He says Iran has some very talented players, but that they don’t play well together, thus scuppering the country’s chances of international success.
He names some of Iran’s key players: Ali Karimi, who plays for Bayern Munich, Mahdavi Kia who plays for Hamburg and Iran’s most popular player, Ali Daie who he says “can change the result of a match by himself”. “I would most like to play like Karimi,” says Mani. “He has good dribbling. He is really a clever player. Be sure that Iran will begin to get the recognition we deserve soon”. Another problem the Iranian players who move to Germany is the way their teams play, he suggests. “Their game is mechanical. But teams in Brazil, the UK and France play very gracefully and artistically.” Mani’s other passion is music. “I love rock and metal music. Ronnie James Dio is my favourite singer,” he beams. When it comes to girls, he is more reserved. “Actually, I love someone but she doesn’t know,” he confides. “But don’t worry, when I become a famous player she will know!” Azin: Calm like a bomb! Azin is a playful 19-year-old. She invites me to her home in central Tehran where she speaks frankly. She removes her headscarf as soon as she enters the house. When I ask her why, she tells me: “Here is my home. It means this is my territory, so I want to feel free.” “I want to wear whatever I want,” she explains. “Of course, we should be respectful to our society, our traditions and our families. So I never wear sexy, open shirts in public. But there is nobody in my home to ban me or look down on me for wearing what I like.
Not wearing the headscarf in public is a kind of an objection, according to Azin. “Girls know this may get them into trouble but they use their will to express their individuality”. Azin has a boyfriend, but her mother is the only member of her family who knows about it. She is not permitted to hold parties at her house, but she attends those of friends. “They have boys and alcohol there,” she confides, “but I don’t drink. I just dance and enjoy the music. Nothing else!” She is wary of how the rest of the world views her country. “Life is going on here like everywhere else. We do whatever we want. It’s not like we live in a prison,” she says. Her favourite music is rock, metal and pop. Her walls are decorated with posters of Nirvana, Linkin Park, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Enrique Iglasias and Pink. She also loves cinema, and speaks of her favourite directors rather than films or their stars. In Iran, she likes Zhila Mehrjoui, Ebrahim Hatami-Kia, and Bahman Farman-Ara, whereas Roman Polanski, Jane Campion, and Martin Scorsese are her Western movie heroes. “Cinema first appeared in France, grew up in Italy and got murdered in the US! So I prefer European movies,” she says. And her views on Iran’s nuclear program? “When the US, North Korea and Israel have the atomic bomb, why don’t we?” she asks. “But it should only ever be for defence,” she says. “I would actually like to have my own atomic bomb! “A teenager who is not rebellious is an insult to her age!” she adds. Mohammad: Access Denied! Mohammad is a 19-year-old high school graduate who has recently returned to Iran after training for US computer qualifications in the United Arab Emirates. His father is a manager and his mother is a housekeeper. He has one brother and one sister who are both older than him. He believes IT in Iran is a relatively new field and has good potential in the country because there are so many applications for it.
“On top of that, original books about IT here are hard to find, and if you can find them, they’re very expensive. Together these things are major obstacles to Iran’s development,” Mohammad believes. He is hopeful that the potential thaw in diplomatic relations with the US will mean IT students in Iran don’t have to study abroad to gain the certificates they need. He admires ex-President Bill Clinton in this respect “for deploying the IT industry around the world”, including in Iran. Mohammad’s PC play list contains an eclectic offering, ranging from classical tracks from Mozart, Bach and Brahms to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and… Rainbow. He is also a keen philosopher and rates Kafka and Nietzsche above all others. The German philosopher’s idea of a ‘Superman’ character – who has battled modern values and overcome the flaws of humanity (not the DC Comics icon!) – holds particular sway with him. On Israel, he says: “I don’t hate them but I do hate oppression. I don’t like politics. It’s dirty.” He is also against what he sees as an “over-promiscuous” young generation in Iran. “There’s so much moral corruption among our teens,” he says. “There is no respect for the family or for women. Most young people just look for sex and kicks. I’m not against personal freedom, but they break all the rules and nothing is important for them,” he says. Shiva: A modern maestro Shiva is a 17-year-old student in Karaj (near Tehran). Her father is an accountant and her mother is a retired government employee. She was a little stressed because she had just come from school exams. A keen musician, she began playing keyboard when she was 10 years old. From 12 to 17 she trained as a pianist with Farman Behboud – a very famous national musician. She is a tall girl with long black hair and long and thin fingers - ideal for playing piano. She laments Iran’s lack of professional pianists following the country’s Islamic revolution in 1979. “At that point there was no more proper teaching or learning in music,” she says.
Another effect of the Islamic revolution, says Shiva, was to cause a divide between the sexes “which has split Iran ever since”. “It has meant superiority for men in Iran, which I feel even among my own generation. For example, why shouldn’t girls be allowed to go to sport stadiums?” she asks. According to Shiva, a gradual approach by the government to balance the rights of the sexes in Iran would work best, rather than an overnight sea change, in case “men find they can’t adapt to the new situation,” she jokes. Shiva is a family girl and doesn’t like the idea of moving away from her parents, despite having relatives abroad who she could visit. She also doesn’t like to wear her head scarf and believes people should be free to choose their own clothes. “But if a male visitor came to our house and looked at me strangely, I’d dress in my scarf or put on a full covering shirt,” she says. There’s no love interest on the scene at the moment for Shiva. “But if I find him, I’ll be daring and declare my love to him,” she pledges. Shiva wants to study medicine or genetics at university, and looks forward to better relations between her country and the US in future. “Atomic energy is important for all countries,” she adds. “But our leaders only want it to build a bomb.”
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“Ronaldo, Zidan and Ronaldinho are my favourite players,” he says. “Zidan and Ronaldinho are magicians and they use their minds more than their feet.”
“It’s a rule in our home,” Azin explains. And she points to her mother through the doorway. “You see, my mom has no scarf,” she says smiling.
“But there’s a lack of progress in IT learning among young people here, because national and academic qualifications are more highly regarded in Iran that international qualifications, and the best technology diplomas are Western,” he explains.
Chopin, Beethoven, Bach and Mozart are her favourite composers. Chopin's Waltz for piano No. 10 is the hardest piece of music she has learned so far. She says she takes inspiration from Dariush Eghbali (an Iranian immigrant singer in the US) and Babak Bayat, a renowned Persian composer.
