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Dixon couple find common ground with people of Tehran
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| Gaia Mika finds herself in friendly company during a recent trip to the Iranian capital. |
By Chandra Johnson
“Hello. How are you? I love you.”
That may not be the greeting most Americans would expect to get while visiting the Middle East, but that’s exactly the hospitality Dixon couple Gaia Mika and Hank Brusselback experienced during their trip to Iran this spring. After spending a month there, Mika and Brusselback say the warmest people in the world live in Iran.
“I was walking in Imam Square in Tehran one day and there were school girls that seemed particularly interested to talk to us,” Mika said. “Each one of them walked up to me and said their names. One said, ‘I love you.’ They’re really wanting to make contact.”
As civilian peace delegates for the Fellowship for Reconciliation, a national group dedicated to promoting peace in countries on tenuous terms with the United States, Mika and Brusselback say that with the U.S. at war in Iraq, it was more important than ever for them to spread a message of peace in the Middle East.
“If I put myself in the place of someone who only knew about Iran based on information from the government and the media, I would have been amazed at how sophisticated, warm and interested they are in the U.S. And how non-Monolithic the country is, despite the fact that the population is 92 percent Shiite Muslim,” Brusselback said.
“They know a lot more about us than we know about them. People were very curious and excited to speak to us once they learned we were in peace delegation,” Mika said.
Mika and Brusselback spent their time mostly speaking to political and religious leaders, Irani media and raising awareness that most Americans, despite statements made at the White House, do not approve of going to war with Iran.
“To just say that their leader says these things — that doesn’t tell us what the people think,” Brusselback said. “And that’s why we wanted to go. By comparison, we found that we were all victims of our governments. Just like here, the people you see in the mainstream media are a tiny amount of the other 70 million people who roll their eyes and say, ‘That’s just the president.’”
The U.S. has been on lessthan- friendly terms with Iran since the hostage situation of 1979, when the U.S. embassy in Tehran was overrun with supporters of then-Irani leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who were angered at the U.S. for aiding former Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi when he came to the U.S. to be treated for cancer.
President Jimmy Carter took a stance of restraint that led to the hostages being release after 444 days. Pahlavi was exiled by opposition of his own people in the 1950s, but was reinstated for a time with the help of the United States, where he remained until the late 1970s. Since then, the Bush administration has also taken a hard line on Iran, from naming Iran as one of the countries in the famous “Axis of Evil” speech to accusing Iran of being a world danger for planning to launch a nuclear weapons program.
What most Americans still don’t understand, Mika and Brusselback say, is that for a developing country like Iran, democracy can be a relative state. And the sum of a lot of current American fears could have been our own making.
“From a lot of people’s perspectives in Iran, the Muslim revolution would never have happened if we hadn’t put the Shah in,” Mika said. “It was helpful to know that the government there may not reflect the people, and I think they were glad to know that, too. They have no capacity to attack us. Iran spends less money on defense than Sweden.”
And the disgust with government in Iran mirrors American discontent, Brusselback said.
“I met a man in a bazaar and I gave him a card of a painting I did of Harry Truman grieving over Hiroshima,” Brusselback said. “He leaned in and whispered to me, ‘That’s what [Ayatollah] Houmeini should be doing.’ We exchanged emails and when I saw him again, he told me that he went and found his family to tell that that he had an American friend.”
For Mika, a big focus of the trip was Iran’s treatment of its women. As Iranian custom dictates, Mika wore a scarf over her hair to cooperate with Muslim law.
“Don’t get me wrong, Iran has many discriminatory laws against women, but I was surprised by the situation for women in Iran. I found some women didn’t mind it because they were then judged by the content of their character rather than their appearance,” Mika said. “Iranian women are fully engaged, whether they’re wearing a full chadar (head scarf) or not. Sixty percent of university students are women.”
But in many ways, Mika said the scarf reminded her of the challenges of being a woman in Iran.
“It was really irritating to me. It’s limiting, especially in the context of the men, who wear whatever they want,” Mika said. “But as I found out more about women and talking to them, I felt more ashamed of my reaction to it because it’s like, this is not the most important thing going on here.”
Now, Mika says she can take her firsthand experience, head scarf and all, and use it to educate others. She says she is still amazed by the similarities between American spirit and Iranian patriotism.
“I was in the museum of a famed Iranian artist and two women approached me. They said that there was something about being Persian that was deep within them, something that no bomb would ever change,” Mika said. “They were saying that you could take away our country, but that wouldn’t change what was in us. That was very strong. I felt that what they were saying was, ‘You can’t make us into yourselves.’ I’ll never forget that.”
Gaia Mika and Hank Brusselback will be giving an educational presentation about their experiences in Iran at the Bareiss Gallery near the Old Blinking Light on July 1 at 7 p.m.
That may not be the greeting most Americans would expect to get while visiting the Middle East, but that’s exactly the hospitality Dixon couple Gaia Mika and Hank Brusselback experienced during their trip to Iran this spring. After spending a month there, Mika and Brusselback say the warmest people in the world live in Iran.
“I was walking in Imam Square in Tehran one day and there were school girls that seemed particularly interested to talk to us,” Mika said. “Each one of them walked up to me and said their names. One said, ‘I love you.’ They’re really wanting to make contact.”
As civilian peace delegates for the Fellowship for Reconciliation, a national group dedicated to promoting peace in countries on tenuous terms with the United States, Mika and Brusselback say that with the U.S. at war in Iraq, it was more important than ever for them to spread a message of peace in the Middle East.
“If I put myself in the place of someone who only knew about Iran based on information from the government and the media, I would have been amazed at how sophisticated, warm and interested they are in the U.S. And how non-Monolithic the country is, despite the fact that the population is 92 percent Shiite Muslim,” Brusselback said.
“They know a lot more about us than we know about them. People were very curious and excited to speak to us once they learned we were in peace delegation,” Mika said.
Mika and Brusselback spent their time mostly speaking to political and religious leaders, Irani media and raising awareness that most Americans, despite statements made at the White House, do not approve of going to war with Iran.
“To just say that their leader says these things — that doesn’t tell us what the people think,” Brusselback said. “And that’s why we wanted to go. By comparison, we found that we were all victims of our governments. Just like here, the people you see in the mainstream media are a tiny amount of the other 70 million people who roll their eyes and say, ‘That’s just the president.’”
History repeating
The U.S. has been on lessthan- friendly terms with Iran since the hostage situation of 1979, when the U.S. embassy in Tehran was overrun with supporters of then-Irani leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who were angered at the U.S. for aiding former Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi when he came to the U.S. to be treated for cancer.
President Jimmy Carter took a stance of restraint that led to the hostages being release after 444 days. Pahlavi was exiled by opposition of his own people in the 1950s, but was reinstated for a time with the help of the United States, where he remained until the late 1970s. Since then, the Bush administration has also taken a hard line on Iran, from naming Iran as one of the countries in the famous “Axis of Evil” speech to accusing Iran of being a world danger for planning to launch a nuclear weapons program.
What most Americans still don’t understand, Mika and Brusselback say, is that for a developing country like Iran, democracy can be a relative state. And the sum of a lot of current American fears could have been our own making.
“From a lot of people’s perspectives in Iran, the Muslim revolution would never have happened if we hadn’t put the Shah in,” Mika said. “It was helpful to know that the government there may not reflect the people, and I think they were glad to know that, too. They have no capacity to attack us. Iran spends less money on defense than Sweden.”
And the disgust with government in Iran mirrors American discontent, Brusselback said.
“I met a man in a bazaar and I gave him a card of a painting I did of Harry Truman grieving over Hiroshima,” Brusselback said. “He leaned in and whispered to me, ‘That’s what [Ayatollah] Houmeini should be doing.’ We exchanged emails and when I saw him again, he told me that he went and found his family to tell that that he had an American friend.”
Under the scarf
For Mika, a big focus of the trip was Iran’s treatment of its women. As Iranian custom dictates, Mika wore a scarf over her hair to cooperate with Muslim law.
“Don’t get me wrong, Iran has many discriminatory laws against women, but I was surprised by the situation for women in Iran. I found some women didn’t mind it because they were then judged by the content of their character rather than their appearance,” Mika said. “Iranian women are fully engaged, whether they’re wearing a full chadar (head scarf) or not. Sixty percent of university students are women.”
But in many ways, Mika said the scarf reminded her of the challenges of being a woman in Iran.
“It was really irritating to me. It’s limiting, especially in the context of the men, who wear whatever they want,” Mika said. “But as I found out more about women and talking to them, I felt more ashamed of my reaction to it because it’s like, this is not the most important thing going on here.”
Now, Mika says she can take her firsthand experience, head scarf and all, and use it to educate others. She says she is still amazed by the similarities between American spirit and Iranian patriotism.
“I was in the museum of a famed Iranian artist and two women approached me. They said that there was something about being Persian that was deep within them, something that no bomb would ever change,” Mika said. “They were saying that you could take away our country, but that wouldn’t change what was in us. That was very strong. I felt that what they were saying was, ‘You can’t make us into yourselves.’ I’ll never forget that.”
Gaia Mika and Hank Brusselback will be giving an educational presentation about their experiences in Iran at the Bareiss Gallery near the Old Blinking Light on July 1 at 7 p.m.
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Maximillian Fuentes wrote on Jun 26, 2008 11:25 AM: