Tehran - 2006. Part two

The correspondent of "Gazeta" - about the daily life of the simple and enlightened Iranians of Russians, Iranians love some kind of irrational love. In Isfahan, the ancient capital, where many people are sparing the hot time of the day in the shadow of trees by the river, Iranian, having heard Russian speech and examining you, blurred with happiness and is very politely aware of whether he was mistaken. Having found out that he was not mistaken, he shocked about this to his companions, and then invites him to his home.

Indispensable questions to the Russian guests are the following: when it was better - in the USSR or now, will Russia deceive with the nuclear power plant or will still finish it, whether you like Putin - after all, he is young, energetic ... Official officials, traders in the market, journalists, and students ask about this.

There are two pictures about Russia. On Iranian TV, films are shown about Soviet times, how BAM was built, how they shot cinema, how festivals were held, what antiquities we have, about our holidays and about the peoples of the country. Since many wealthy people have satellite television at home, they see another picture showed by Western television companies: beggars, terrorist attacks, accelerations of pensioners rallies.

Pictures do not add up to one. Hence the questions. Iranians have the opportunity to judge firsthand about Russian women: there are a lot of Russian wives here.

With great distrust, the Iranians perceive the story that in Soviet times most churches and mosques were closed. It seems to them that this can be attributed to propaganda against the USSR. Even less faith in reports that people in Soviet times could not have property, their trade, their land. Explain what a residence permit was, it cost me a lot of work. On internal airlines they do not ask for passports, although the search is careful.

The Iranians have bizarre performances about Islam in Russia. “Is it true that half of your people are Muslims? Why do they come to us so rarely? Why are there no Muslims in the government? " Information about 20 million Muslims is quite happy with them.

From the news they know that foreigners are killing in Russia. “Why are you attacked by Armenians? We live a lot of Armenians and Turks, but they do not attack each other. Is it true that you have underground organizations that organize attacks? For what? Why don't they fight with them? "

I have no answers to most of these questions.

The unrest of the Azerbaijanis in the north of Iran, which happened in May, is considered to be provoked from the outside: "There was a caricature in the newspaper, then student unrest began, although people did not see this picture in the eyes." The Iranians listened with distrust of how they commented on these unrest in our press: that the Azerbaijanis want to separate that this is an oppressed minority. “Strange, do your people do not know that our spiritual leader of Khamenei is Azerbaijani? This is the first person of the state! In Tehran, every third is the Turks. Yes, ask him, he wants to separate? "

Neighboring Iraq

The fact that Russia is not fighting in Iraq, in the eyes of the Iranians is a huge plus to President Putin. They remember well that the Soviet ones helped Saddam Hussein together with the Americans to fight against Iran. Russia and the USSR are two different countries for them, with different signs.

The capture and murder of our diplomats in Iraq here is not some kind of abstract plot, but what causes huge sympathy.

Indeed, Iran is not a kind of abstract distant landfill for Iran, but as for Moscow, the Smolensk region. The fact that in Iraq the majority of terrorist attacks are directed against Shiites is daily for them. The fact that the murdered Zarkavi somehow strangely blew up mainly only those who prayed in Shiite mosques is an immutable truth, supported by the lists of the dead. The fact that it is difficult to hit a person with a rocket without even scorching his beard is a fact that many commentators of the killings of the terrorist paid attention to. Iranian journalists work a lot in Iraq. Many of them are killed there. None of them, like no Western correspondent, managed to meet this amazing Avenger Shiites. And there are no people without a biography, like Zarkavi, in the east. In a word, many things that for us are a chewing gum, Iranians see and evaluate not at all like in Russia.

Kum

Do not understand Iran without visiting his religious capital. Kum is the capital of the province. Kum is 120 thousand theologians, many academies, centers, madrassas, a giant mosque of Fatima, to which a pilgrimage is performed.

A eight -row highway of European quality, laid on a naked mountainous desert, leads here from Tehran. A paid highway, by the way (however, the travel along it is cheaper. By the way: gasoline in Iran costs 10 cents per liter. Only in Tehran is 3 million cars).

Kum under the Shah rule was the main center of the opposition. Mullahs and Ayatollahs, who were grabbed by the secret police, were dying in the dungeons. For this, the people paid them loyalty and devotion.

The clergy of the Shiites have always been in opposition. This is the secret of its popularity and authority.

Over the past revolution, many have been tired of the revolution that the clergy became part of the authorities. The intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie is tired of the performances and sermons of the clergy on TV.

The success of Akhmadinezhad is largely explained by the fact that, unlike his opponent in the elections - Rafsajani - he is a secular, simple person. And not a mullah, speaking in a thunderous voice, and not Ayatollah, speaking barely audible.

In Moscow, familiar Muslims assured me that I would not be able to get into kum. And if I’ll get it, then certainly they will not allow any madrasah. The English -speaking guide bought in Tehran called for not even trying to get into the Fatima mosque - forbidden for non -Muslims.

The first person with whom we talked in Kuma, Mr. Gafuri, was responsible for the connection of Iranian theological centers with Islamic educational institutions in the world.

At a fairly high position, he walks, has a very modest house. "I wanted me to have two children, but there are already four of them!" he exclaims, looking around his family with a happy gaze.

The girl’s part of the family ran away to preen. In the Iranian sense, this means putting on black veils and sit down next to the mother. How big.

Meanwhile, the owner of the house sets the table. The more Islam, the more rights in women. This establishment, fixed by the revolution, went out of here. In Kuma, it is observed strictly.

The house in which Imam Khomeini lived in Kuma was preserved before the revolution and exile. It is not much different from other houses - both in size and in design. The least this building is like a museum. In the covered courtyard - a fountain with red fish. Near the fountain, couples are sitting and drinking Sherbet. Rare photographs of the time of the revolution are hung along the walls. All residential premises are the offices of Shariah judges to whom the people come for legal consultations. Immediately the Law Library. In the farthest room - a small showcase with Khomeini books.

In Kuma, all women walk in the flies. And most of the male population are mullahs. Therefore, the feeling that you were on another planet, persistent. In the day of the street, absolutely everything is closed - the heat is such that it is impossible to be in the sun at all.

Maiden Universities Doctor of Philosophy

The famous women's university in Kuma bears the name of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad Fatima. A car awaits the fence of the old building of the madrasah in an unthinkable heat - despite the weekend, Ms. Mianji, a doctor of philosophy, one of the best teachers of Kuma, a specialist in the Quranic science, having a high status in political circles, a woman.

To my guide, she reports that she takes me. They, men, still will not let the madrasah go inside, but there will be no problems with the translation, since the whole world and all languages are presented in the madrasah.

In the back seat is her youngest daughter. She is ten years old, so she already wears a tiny veil - with the same grace as her mother.

In total, Dr. Mianji has three children, the eldest son had already married. It is difficult to believe in it - a fragile scientific lady wrapped in a veil looks too young too young. Her husband is also a doctor of philosophy.

We are going to a new, with a needle, a huge training complex. At the gate, two guards are asking for a pass, although Mianji know very well.

“The peace of women in Iran is especially guarded. A woman can enter where she wants. And a man cannot enter the territory of women, she says. - A woman can sit in any train car, a man - only to a wagon for men, it should be in Islam, but not all Islamic countries follow the rules. Our women are under the protection of the law, and not under its oppression, many foreigners simply do not understand this. Women in Iran hold on to Islamic orders, these orders give them a lot of rights, more than a woman in the West - until you understand this, you will not understand Iran. ”

Further, men never pass these gates except Saturday morning. During these hours, electricians, computer scientists and other masters are invited here, while girls are in class.

Girls in black walk at the entrance. And on the territory of the complex, the same students run, jump, play and play sports - girls in ordinary clothes and without any scarves. Most in jeans and T -shirts, packages and Afghan women are in national dresses with fluttering scarves, American skirts (which in America you rarely see, there are more and more jeans and trousers).

I am surrounded. We exchange handshakes, we kiss three. The girls vied with the excessive and tell, the whole conversation is transferred to Persian and English.

200 unmarried girls and 600 family are studying in the madrasah. Unmarried people live here in the training complex, in spacious bright rooms, in which it is surprisingly cool, although the heat is awesome on the street. Carpets with pillows are spread out in the living rooms: in each, a twenty -five people can easily be located. Everything is very elegant and least like a hostel. For married people, a family, separate hostel is built.

Study, accommodation and food - everything is free.

We get acquainted. The American Amina - the White Anglo -Saxon, accepted Islam in the States, worked as a younger school teacher in Los Angeles. “How did you accept? By the will of Allah! she smiles. - I read the Qur'an and realized that the truth is it. By the will of Allah I will return to America. ” He is going to work as a teacher.

She cannot understand what it is about when I ask if she will have difficulties at home: “With Islam? No. With a hijab? No. Of course, I will be able to teach at a school in a hijab - they don’t pursue for this, inlake! Relatives are still afraid of my choice and the fact that I am studying in Iran. But this is their head clogged with propaganda. ”

I ask if it is easy to get an American to Iran. She responds so calmly, as if nothing special was required of her: “I was waiting for a visa for two years in America. Then two more months in Syria. I arrived here two months ago. If, by the will of Allah, I ended up here, then by the will of Allah everything else will also work out. ”

There are eight Americans in the madrasah. They look extremely harmonious here, preserving the spirit of American active and unfading optimism in Islam. None of them are afraid to call their names, although everyone intends to return home - to a country that is considered the main enemy of Iran.

On the contrary, all girls from Russia ask not to photograph them and change their names: "There may be problems, and relatives are afraid for us." “We are all from different countries, we are discussing it - there is no such attitude to Muslims like ours,” one of them says.

I ask what they will do at the end of the madrasah. They answer: "Inlala, we will live at home, get married."

So the American Amina has no doubt that she will find her husband in America.

“Sorry, we are now starting a U -shu lesson” - the girls' flock runs away to the shady platform, where the teacher is already waiting for them. Physical education three times a week, you can play volleyball, basketball. They teach to drive a car, everyone is mastering the computer, and at the same time many languages that this team speaks.

While the World Cup is on, in the evenings everyone watches matches and root for their teams. But most of all - for the team of Iran.

British and Afghan women, Arab and Kazakh women, Tajiki, Dagestan, girls from Moscow, Tula - 35 countries are now represented in total.

Even non -Muslims come - in order to learn the language, here they learn, accept Islam, but do not necessarily become Shiites. “Imam Khomeini forbade talking about Shiites and Sunnis, we are Muslims,” the immigrants from Russia explained to me.

While we drank icy Sherbet, I asked me to reveal a secret to me how I manage to wear an unsettled veil so that it sits on them like a glove. I was fooling me for a long time with stories that the matter was just in habit, and then they still discovered the secret.

But I will not reveal it - I promised.

For six months, they teach Persian upon arrival, then a five -year course begins, including Arabic, philosophy, logic, Islamic and Koranic sciences, Sharia and many other objects. You can stay for another two years and get a degree.

"It turns out that you are in the country where women rule everyone?" I ask. Mrs. Miyanji corrects: "No, women rule the family, and Allah is the country."

From time to time, a loud announcement on the radio is heard - this duty officer calls to the phone those who are calling their relatives from home.

In parting, Mrs. Mianji calls me to visit - stay, live, talk.

“It is no coincidence that you arrived in the Fatima Madrases on the days when her death was mourned, you can’t even imagine how the girls were waiting for you, because we usually do not accept journalists,” she says.

But you have to go to Tehran. Again, triple kisses, handshakes, addresses. And then strict figures in black flies escort me.

Who knows the more verses

I'm going in a taxi. My translator in the front seat is busyly talking with a taxi driver. I listen and understand that they are talking with poems.

“Well, yes,” the guy answers me carelessly. “We play, who knows the poems of Saadi and Hafiz more.” When he begins to lose, he reads his own. You are in the country of poets, get used to it - here every second writes poetry. ”

Shockedly whores to colleagues who are strictly abundant in response that two guys in a 70-million country do not make the weather that Pakharu and a worker is not up to poetry. And in general, all people on Earth are the same. Everyone wants money, benefits and so that the nose in tobacco ...

But it’s enough to look around, standing anywhere in Tehran to stop trusting this worldly all and all equalizing wisdom. I stubbornly ask everyone about poetry. Hayam, Saadi, his poems, verses of modern poets. Farhad and Shirin, Leila and Majnun ...

What would we so know Pushkin with Yesenin!

Cucumbers and samovars

An ordinary picture of Friday: a carpet is spread out on the grass in the shade, a family or just a lonely Iranian sits, and a samovar is nearby. Exactly the Tula, polished to shine, with a tap and a custard teapot from above.

Iranians drink black tea with sugar in the bite - like in Russian villages. True, not from immense mugs, but from small transparent cups.

Samovars, they say, brought to Iran the Cossacks who served in the personal protection of the shahs. Many Russians - Old Believers, including Razinists, fled here from the Russian king. Their children were taken to military service. The Russians retained, Georgians received Islam, the Armenians traded and remained in their church.

I go into the eatery to eat. In general, to eat here is some problem. Say, it’s hard to eat and drink tea in the same place. Tea - in tea. Food - in a cafe.

There are restaurants with Dostarskhani - mainly for tourists. For Iranians and for those who prefer to eat sitting, tables with chairs. You are served a mountain of rice, under which a huge kebab is buried - long cutlets from lamb, beef or chicken. Please bring a kebab without rice. The waiter does not believe his ears, asks. And he brings Kebab separately, separately - all the same mountain of rice. As you can eat without rice, they don’t understand here.

In the less pathos cafe, you will be served half a meter length of the lavash with barbecue or the same kebabs. A mountain of green mint and cabbage with carrots will be brought to this.

Sucky cucumbers are served to any dish! A hamburger in fast food is a cutlet, potatoes and salted cucumbers, a running lunch on the run. Although "Fast" is one name. You have to wait for about twenty minutes.

The Iranians are pushing pistachios, like we are seeds. Kiss three times like us. And they squeeze each other's hands. Only men - men, women - women. Or all relatives - to each other (and relatives here are a very broad concept).

I walked around the bazaar in Tehran. The bazaar is a huge quarter of the city with its mosques, restaurants, a special life and a routine of trade. Next to the old entrance to the bazaar is the latest and clean metro.

The first oncoming man spoke to me in English: “From Moscow? And my uncle works at the embassy there! ” Gives a business card - really, I know his uncle. "Want to see real carpets?" I inform him that I’m not going to buy carpets and generally hasten to photograph the procession that goes along the bazaar on the day of the death of Fatima. "Yes, they will go, but later." He leads me to his warehouse and simply shows the carpets there, tells how they differ in quality and dressing - without replenishment to encourage me to buy them.

Surprisingly, in the bazaar you as a buyer are interested in sellers - this is not at all the usual image of the eastern bazaar with certainly intrusive shopkeepers.

There are a lot of posters with Imam Khomeini. In the bazaar where all the walls are occupied by goods, small portraits are attached to the ceiling. The simpler people, the sincere love for Khomeini.

Интеллигенции, особенно творческой, все это надоело. И протест выражается главным образом через театр и вольности в одежде.

«Кино - национальное достояние, иранские режиссеры - как герои труда, если в фильме что-то кому-то не нравится, можно вырезать сцену. В театре невозможно контролировать все. Поэтому самая оппозиционная сфера - это театр» - так мне объяснили представители творческих профессий.

И заметили напоследок: «Сейчас, по случаю чемпионата мира по футболу, театры не работают - зрителей нет. А вообще наши залы обычно полны».

Окончание репортажа - в завтрашнем номере

27.06.2006 / Надежда Кеворкова Материал опубликован в "Газете" №110 от 28.06.2006г.