Persian Life During the Revolution

Haikas Garakanian, was born Iran, city of Esfahan. He is happily married and has two children. Every morning he will wake up and counties his day at his job as a manger of a company. He may be old but he still has the knowledge about what he had gone through before the revolution. He had experienced many things before come to the United States. He had experienced the past and the present of Iran. How the past and the present affects the people. Coming to the United States with not much money he went to school and lived his life in Huston, Texas with a family of four.

I lived in Iran though nineteen seventy-four, I was about nineteen years old so I lived there for about nineteen years. Then I decided to pursue my education and I came to the United States. I graduated from high school I was too young to be drafted to the military so I had one year to waste because they wouldn’t take me to military. So I started working in a hotel, which was occupied by Americans, no not occupied, but all the residents were American. So I got close to them and I learned more about the United States. At that point I had little money saved. Then I had decided to come to the United States.

Since nineteen ninety I have visited Iran for about every year, for fifteen to sixteen times. I’ve been here since nineteen seventy four, and until nineteen ninety about fifteen or fourteen years I wasn’t able to go see my family because I was afraid I was going to be drafted into the military. But then after nineteen eighty or after nineteen ninety, because of my age, I was exempted to serve the military so at that point I was free to go back home.

The difference between now and then was huge because I came to United States everything is available, free, big, opportunities are there, jobs, house, cars,  freedom of speech. When I went back there was not a lot of opportunities that u could have. Because the jobs are scares to own a house or car, it’s extremely expensive so the difference was huge. The past before ninety eighty the Iranian government was controlled by the monarchy kingdom and after that a revolution took place, and after ninety eighty it was controlled by a republic which was controlled by Islamic rules and laws. And being a christen I liked the old way when Iran was free and more close to west there culture and as a youngster I liked  the old way because there was dancing, movies, clubs, music you know  for a teenager you like to have those. Old time when I was growing up to  when I left everything was available so no body cared to come to the west  because Iran was like the west. But after I visited several times all those things where taken away from the young generation. So the answer is that I liked the old way.

In old times the teachers had a lot of power, and it was the deflate of parents not going and complaining about the abuses that were taking place, it the schools, back in nineteen fifties and sixties. The teachers had a lot of power and the can do and punish the kids the way they wanted to. They would hit with sticks to they’re face or heads and they would slap them, back in nineteen sixties the teachers were very abusive, but after a point, when the parents became educated then they took a stand against teachers so things started getting better. There was a dress code for both girls and boys, you had to have short haircut always, and you should not have long nails, always dressed up. The private schools had more severe cloths, so they could be distinguished between poor and wealthy there was a class war the private schools had a better you know the clothing or attire, where as the public schools, they did but not as much.

During my childhood the person is power was called Mohammad Reza Shaheh Pahlabi and he was the son of Reza Pahlabi who came to power, he was a military man, he came to power and then during my time, It was his son Mohammad Reza Shaheh Pahlabi and was a very good king. He liked Armenians a lot. As of the people liking him it was split. Those who were not religious they liked him. Those who liked the west, liked him but the other group, the religious group, they didn’t like him because he was not preaching the Islamic laws so they disliked him a lot.

The revolution took place in late nineteen seventy nine/ nineteen eighty. The Islamic government was stronger. Khomeini, the leader of Islam, was being supported by the west including the United States, and they gave him power in France to get ready to come back to Iran when they kicked Shah of Iran, out. So the United States and the west helped Khomeini to get recognized to come back to Iran.

Islamic law, they have a special leader and then they have their cabinet, which is being voted by the people. But the spiritual leader is when you work your way up to be the leader. The people do not vote for you, you just work your way up to be the leader. And then you have the government which is controlled by the people also the spiritual leaders have influence but the government is controlled and voted by the people. In Islamic countries although they talk about freedom and choice, and election, that’s actually not the case. Still the Islamic body controls all of that.

The laws basically were Islamic laws, which prohibited women to walk without their heads open so that all the women had to cover their heads and to cover any part of their body that it’s open including hands. They had to wear gloves. They had no right to wear makeup and, they could not use public transportation. Anywhere in the country you go, the women in the courts have to be separated from the men, in the airports, anywhere you go the women have to be separated. That was the law for the girls. The law for the boys was that you can’t have long hair, you can’t wear short sleeves, they suggested to all men to grow beards. The reason why they would grow beards was so they would look ugly and they wouldn’t attract the girls.

Shah was a request that was asked by Reagan, no not Reagan during the US administration days was President Carter and pres. Carter was a very humanitarian president. He didn’t believe that Shah should fight back so  they kindly asked him to leave the country without fighting so the king of Iran left without fighting. Without a single bullet fired and they had promised him to take him back once everything was normal again, but that was not the case when Shah  left he went to Egypt and came to the United States but at that time he had already  prepared Khomeini to take power in Iran so the people tried to fight back but they didn’t succeed.

Interviewed by Sevan Tahmassian