A Small Town Life: The Story of Nvart Arakelian

While sitting in her cozy apartment in Glendale, California on a sunny day, 68 year old Nvart Arakelian describes her childhood to me as a young girl who grew up in a small town in Feridan, Iran. As she speaks, she recalls her days of struggle and hardship while being raised in a town with a completely different environment than now under the Persian rule. Her chair rocks as her memories of Feridan unfold. She compares the free life she has now with the struggling life she had before; saying, "I would never go back to the life I once had, everything here is just wonderful." Nvart talks about her recollections as a child, sharing interesting stories about her past and remembering the most difficult days. Even though she describes her life of over 55 years ago, detailed stories are still fresh in her mind.

I would never go back to the life I had before. This is because I had nothing; we were all poor because there was nothing available to us. We had no light, gas, or hot water. The students in school didn't have the opportunity to take showers and they would not take showers for so long and get so dirty that they would get lice in their hairs, mostly because there was barely any water available. We struggled for education and only a few people in that town who had an education were just those who could count with their fingers and there were only ten or fifteen people who had that kind of education.

There were Armenians and Persians in my town, but we were always separated because we were Christians and they were Muslims. They were pretty nice though and didn't bother us, but for example, if we drank from a spring, they wouldn't drink from that same spring because they would say that we were trash; Armenians are trash. They would go and drink water from somewhere else. It was in the Persian's religion, most probably, that they acted this way with us. I am not quite sure though because I wasn't that educated enough that time to have read about their religion and have understood it. But that's what they told us that time. Like if we went out and talked with them, they would say things like, "Let's go! These Armenians are dirty!" They would hit us with rocks and leave. The kids would run after them and hit them back because they had been taught by the elders that we were considered trash to the Persians.

That is why I didn't have any Persian friends; we didn't like to. Our parents would say "hello" and "good-bye" to them to get on their good side so they wouldn't bother us. Our parents told us to act good with them so they wouldn't be mean to us also because we lived in their country. Well, yeah we lived in Iran, their country. We didn't go to school with them either; the Armenians were separate in school and in class. There were no Persian teachers or principals at my school.

There weren't a lot of students in one class and there weren't even a lot of people going to school; they didn't send a lot of kids to school. We only had three classrooms at my school because not everyone could afford to go to school. They also believed that a girl should always stay at home and never get involved with boys at school. We learned only three things in school: adding and subtracting in math and the languages Persian and Armenian. School was also short because there wasn't any light. School had to finish fast so we could go home before it became dark. We were only able to go to school for a small amount of time and learn only such things. This is because there was no time for school. We would barely have time to come home, and by the time we learned a couple of things, we had to go to bed already.

We received our news by the radio and by people migrating from town to town and bringing news with them. Whatever we wanted to hear, though, we got it from listening to the radio. Most of the time, we would use radios because there was nothing else available to us.
We bought most of out things with wheat, but some with money. Most was with wheat because there wasn't a lot of money. There was a little for whoever worked, and if they had a job, they would pay with money and whoever didn't work, would have to stay and work in the summer and use the wheat as money. The people in the town would work for wheat. The women would get the wheat and the men would plant it. Then the wheat would grow and they would reap it. The women would reap the wheat and the men would lay them out in this big area and make flour from it. They would use the flour to make bread, and with that wheat people would buy tea, bread, whatever it was fruit, watermelons, from the stores, and if they had to pay the store back with the wheat, they would after the wheat had grown.

I was always happy and I loved to sing all the time. One day outside, I was gathered with all my three close girlfriends in a big area with fresh air and I wanted to sing. My friends had went and told my father that I had sung. My father argued with me so much and fought with me telling me that a girl shouldn't sing and shouldn't let anyone hear her voice and that a girl should be strong and stay at home. Because of my singing, I was punished and wasn't allowed to go to school for one week because he thought that if I went to school I would do the same thing, and he didn't want that. So for one week, I was punished and I didn't go to school, but I really wanted to go. So there, I decided to myself that whatever my future kids liked, if it was singing, going to school, or to university, I would allow them to do it because I wouldn't want that impression to stay in them because it stayed in me and has affected me. I love to perform, sing, get happy, and start dancing and singing when I go out, but that time my dad didn't let because he said it's bad for a girl to do these stuff. A girl shouldn't do these things. A girl should be quiet. I would argue and say that I'm a girl? So what? What's the difference? I'm not going a bad thing; I'm just getting happy with my friends. But he still didn't let. He said its bad and people will hear my voice and that I should be quiet. He kept all the girl kids quiet as well.

During that time we couldn't say which boy we wanted. Whoever our dads chose for us is what we had to go by. They would say the boy's dad is good and the boy's mom is good so the boy has to be good and you have to marry him. They didn't ask us if we like him or not. It was whatever they wanted. One time, there, in our town, was this girl, who got married with a boy, but that boy was blind; he couldn't see. They were three brothers and three of them could see but one couldn't. That girl didn't know which one was her husband from all the boys. At night she slept and woke up and the boy was gone. He slept and woke up at the night and went to work. Then one day, her husband died with three kids left behind. So soon the friends of that girl would tell her that her husband was blind and that is when she found out that he couldn't see. This is because that time they were so strict and they couldn't talk with one another and socialize with the boy and know who he was. She was never able to understand how her husband was. They had three kids, but never knew who her husband was. That time it was like that; we couldn't choose which boy we wanted. Whatever our dads wanted is what we got. After the king in Iran changed and his son took over, the education got a lot better. The universities started to take place, and even higher classes were established. But by that time I couldn't go to school because I was already old and I didn't have the opportunity to go to university. Also, when the king changed, the country got more ahead, the lessons in school increased, and the food accessibility got better as well.

The kids would either die or live and there weren't a lot of hospitals. They would die because of little things. They would say that kids would die because the person would flip the baby during birth. They wouldn't even know the diseases that the kids would die from because the doctor was so far and they would have to go very, very far to get one. And there weren't good doctors there. If someone's foot broke, they would start pulling and pulling the foot to get it into place and then tie it and put a board. The person would have to lie down in bed, but they never knew how long they would have to have the person lying down. They never knew those kinds of things. Good doctors were too far for the people. There were also a lot of sore throats and people would die because of that. The kid would say, "My throat! My throat!" and would die without knowing why. Then you would sometimes see that they would get a bruise somewhere and die from that. The kid would wake up in the middle of the night to get water, for example, but would die because of falling on their side and getting weak. The appendix would also burst because the person would say, "My side! My side!" and would die. If the side or stomach hurt they would heat it up and the appendix would burst.

Now, my life is just wonderful. We have everything we need and everything is just great. We have a lot of light, gas, and hot water available. It is good here in every way and I am thankful to God for everything.

Interviewed by Meenely Nazarian