Post by sh on Dec 31, 2011 15:42:53 GMT -5
Ahmad is a young man of 30. He lives in a small town, in a rural area. He has a wife and two kids.
Together with his younger brother, Ebrahim, they own a hectare of land, which they've turned into a peach orchard.
Ahmad, like his father, and like every other man in his town, has an opium habit.
In the region, the use of opium has been culturally sanctioned behavior for thousands of years.
The area is a high desert, where the elevation averages 2500m above sea level. In the summer, the sun and the heat is quite intense. In the winter, the nights are usually -20 degrees Celsius.
Opium use in this area reminds me of Coca chewing in the high Andes.
Historically, the people of the region either work on the fields, or herd sheep in the desert. Today, this is still what most people do.
In the high desert, it's very difficult to do this kind of labor. Hence, the age old relationship with opium.
Today, the government is waging a war against drugs, mainly through subliminal or transparent demonization of "the addict" as portrayed on TV.
As is tradition in the region, women take care of the home and children, while men work out of the house, all day.
It isn't acceptable behavior for any woman, single or married, to go out of the house by herself. So, the women really have nothing to do at home except to watch TV.
And so they are constantly flooded with images portraying addiction as "the worst thing imaginable."
This has become a source of extreme tension for Ahmad, and other men.
According to Islamic sharia, a man who wishes to marry a woman, must agree to pay the woman "Mahr." The amount is determined by the bride before the marriage. The man is obligated to pay Mahr to his wife if he wishes to divorce her. Also, he is obligated by law to pay Mahr at his wife's request, at any time.
Ahmad, for example, would have to pay his wife the equivalent of half a million dollars USD, if he were to divorce her.
So now he's trapped. His parents practically forced him to marry a girl, when he was 18, which wasn't too difficult considering the fact that there is no possibility of having sex in his part of the world, until you get married.
Men are so protective of their women, that concepts such as girlfriend or boyfriend are absolutely meaningless. A woman who engages in sexual activity with anyone except her husband is simply labelled "a whore."
So, young men are basically tricked into marriage because of a lack of options, just as young women are. For girls the only other choice besides marriage, is prostitution. Ironically, the same applies to boys as well.
Ahmad says that he feels like he just woke up one day and realized he had a wife and two children. He believes the whole thing was forced on him. Now he hates his wife because she can't understand his opium habit, and because she refuses to even discuss the matter, as it is a taboo.
But he can't divorce her or tell her to go to hell, because he would then have to pay her half a million dollars, which he doesn't have. So, by law, he would go to jail until he'd pay up.
And his wife most certainly hates him too. How could she not, when all she sees on TV is "the evil that is addiction."
So Ahmad hates his life. He feels shackled and enslaved, just because when he was 18 he wanted to have sex. Now he claims he has sex once a year, at most.
He is literally forced to work, very heavy manual labor, so he can feed his wife and kids, whom he despises for stealing his youth, his life, and yet paradoxically, also loves.
So he goes day to day, wishing his death to come and save him from his man-made hell.
Ahmad is a very talented and intelligent young man. His orchard is absolutely breathtaking. He reads Nietzsche and Descartes.
Ahmad's situation is not unique. Ahmad is a standard representation of the rural Iranian male archetype. And on some level, I believe, he represents everyone on earth.
-f
Together with his younger brother, Ebrahim, they own a hectare of land, which they've turned into a peach orchard.
Ahmad, like his father, and like every other man in his town, has an opium habit.
In the region, the use of opium has been culturally sanctioned behavior for thousands of years.
The area is a high desert, where the elevation averages 2500m above sea level. In the summer, the sun and the heat is quite intense. In the winter, the nights are usually -20 degrees Celsius.
Opium use in this area reminds me of Coca chewing in the high Andes.
Historically, the people of the region either work on the fields, or herd sheep in the desert. Today, this is still what most people do.
In the high desert, it's very difficult to do this kind of labor. Hence, the age old relationship with opium.
Today, the government is waging a war against drugs, mainly through subliminal or transparent demonization of "the addict" as portrayed on TV.
As is tradition in the region, women take care of the home and children, while men work out of the house, all day.
It isn't acceptable behavior for any woman, single or married, to go out of the house by herself. So, the women really have nothing to do at home except to watch TV.
And so they are constantly flooded with images portraying addiction as "the worst thing imaginable."
This has become a source of extreme tension for Ahmad, and other men.
According to Islamic sharia, a man who wishes to marry a woman, must agree to pay the woman "Mahr." The amount is determined by the bride before the marriage. The man is obligated to pay Mahr to his wife if he wishes to divorce her. Also, he is obligated by law to pay Mahr at his wife's request, at any time.
Ahmad, for example, would have to pay his wife the equivalent of half a million dollars USD, if he were to divorce her.
So now he's trapped. His parents practically forced him to marry a girl, when he was 18, which wasn't too difficult considering the fact that there is no possibility of having sex in his part of the world, until you get married.
Men are so protective of their women, that concepts such as girlfriend or boyfriend are absolutely meaningless. A woman who engages in sexual activity with anyone except her husband is simply labelled "a whore."
So, young men are basically tricked into marriage because of a lack of options, just as young women are. For girls the only other choice besides marriage, is prostitution. Ironically, the same applies to boys as well.
Ahmad says that he feels like he just woke up one day and realized he had a wife and two children. He believes the whole thing was forced on him. Now he hates his wife because she can't understand his opium habit, and because she refuses to even discuss the matter, as it is a taboo.
But he can't divorce her or tell her to go to hell, because he would then have to pay her half a million dollars, which he doesn't have. So, by law, he would go to jail until he'd pay up.
And his wife most certainly hates him too. How could she not, when all she sees on TV is "the evil that is addiction."
So Ahmad hates his life. He feels shackled and enslaved, just because when he was 18 he wanted to have sex. Now he claims he has sex once a year, at most.
He is literally forced to work, very heavy manual labor, so he can feed his wife and kids, whom he despises for stealing his youth, his life, and yet paradoxically, also loves.
So he goes day to day, wishing his death to come and save him from his man-made hell.
Ahmad is a very talented and intelligent young man. His orchard is absolutely breathtaking. He reads Nietzsche and Descartes.
Ahmad's situation is not unique. Ahmad is a standard representation of the rural Iranian male archetype. And on some level, I believe, he represents everyone on earth.
-f
