Dear Farnaz:

Your words (first paragraph) are very special to me, they are precious! I want to reply further in the morning, hoping for a better technological and mechanical computer experience for the two of us!

anita

Dear Farnaz:

Having just read your recent post, I found myself smiling for the first time this morning. My computer screen is held together temporarily by clips and my keyboard is acting out (the letter M is difficult to type… every single time). But I am glad to be able to do what I normally do every morning.

“First the heart doctor guy whom you called heartless heart doctor, lol, very well put“- thank you for lol-ing my pun (I am challenged when it comes to coming up with puns and jokes, and with understanding others’ puns and jokes).

“I agree with you, he was so tired and overwhelmed with problems to care about anything but his own benefits… yes, it was a very unfortunate experience with a very bad person at a very bad time“- good people are fair and kind (fair and at least not abusive) with others no matter how they feel, even when sick, tired and/ or depressed; bad people are fair and kind to others only when they feel good, or particularly good. I am thinking about the nights at work when you had good discussions with him.. when he treated you like a valuable human being.. he was probably feeling good at that time, relaxed. Then in the morning, gone was his good feeling.

“I’m sure he would discard me in much worse way if he got what he wanted“- when a man uses a woman as a sexual object, he discards the object when he is done with it… much like the discarding of a paper plate after eating from it. If he has options (a stack of new paper plates), he wants the next meal on a new plate. These men consider a wife to be something like a ceramic plate to use in front of guests (society), but when guests are away, it’s left dirty in the sink .. and when out and about, away from home, they still use paper plates.

“but I’ glad I wasn’t that broken to put up with his demands“- that’s what I thought when I first read the story: I was impressed by your strength and spunk (courage and determination).

“He reminds me of my stepmother, she also had a hard life and had this mentality about people who didn’t as bad people who owe her“- jealous of/ angry at other people who (she perceives) to have a better life than hers.

“She does lots of unforgivable things to people she knows, the one who had been nice and generous to her and expect them to forgive her after she screw them over. She also only thinks about herself“- she expresses her anger at others, then feeling temporarily relieved of her anger, she is ready to resume the relationship on good terms.. until the next time when her jealousy and anger build up.

“She…  considers others, especially other women as subhuman“- lots of women consider other women as subhuman, in line with how many men think. Lots of people of a particular ethnicity or race, etc.,  consider other people of the same ethnicity or race as subhuman, in line with .. how the people of the alleged superior ethnicity or race think.

“About money and having no character, well, I don’t think having money helps this kind of people to be better, it usually makes them worse, if that’s even possible“- it is possible when they use their money to hurt more people.

“I just worry for his patients“- hopefully he worries about his professional reputation being hurt if patients in his care get worse or die unnecessarily. Hopefully, he takes seriously the principle of nonmaleficence (“The principle of nonmaleficence directs physicians to ‘do no harm’ to patients. Physicians must refrain from providing ineffective treatments or acting with malice toward patients”, pallipedia, org).

“About Amir Nasr Azadani, unfortunately, I can’t say if it is his end or not, I certainly hope not. In Iran these days, the big football players are very active in encouraging people to protest and they are successful because (the) young population look up to them“- a good man/ good people use their power (popularity and fame, in this case) to help and benefit others. I sure hope that Amir Nasr Azadani is or will be okay soon!

“I think maybe the regime is trying to scare them by putting Amir in prison, and threatening to execute him, or they may actually execute him to make an example of him, so others wouldn’t talk against the government, nothing is impossible in my country with current government“- the government has a problem, as I see it: they want to execute him so to scare young people into submission; on the other hand, executing him might make young people more angry than scared, and angrier, they may protest more.

anita

Dear Farnaz:

“You  should fix that computer asap, I can’t imagine how it’s held together by clips“- it works so far, although I have to press the M key twice each time.

“I kinda enjoy sarcastic comments” – so you enjoy my hummmmor, nice (I try to be funny, but I rarely succeed).

“Women for men like him are for ego boost… I’m sure he could  be even more brutal  and he would enjoy it more but he knew I would kick his a$$,  literally , lol…“- second smile of the day appeared as I imagined the Far (good and beautiful, high in status) Naz (charming and elegant) literally kicking the guy’s a**!

“She was pathologically jealous, even in smallest thing like buying a hair clip or painting her fingers in exact color that I did… She is a retired teacher, and she was friends with a former student… they talked nonstop by phone, I mean maybe at least 10 minutes each hour, doesn’t it look strange“- looking from the outside, seeing an older woman talking to a much younger woman as if they were two teenage girls does look strange.. but looking at it through your step-mother’s eyes, a teenager in her own mind.. nothing strange about it.

“My step mother was“- a teenager stuck in an aging body, if I may complete the sentence.

“I overheard a conversation she had with this girl about me… they were twisting every word I said… plus mocking me“- two foolish teenage girls gossiping.

I see what you meant by your father having enjoyed the two of you competing for his affections, one was significantly more emotionally mature than the other.

I agree with what you wrote in your last paragraph. I will be following the news. Maybe international pressure on the matter will help.. maybe.

anita

Dear Farnaz:

“Well , you know sometimes even Farnazes should do some a&& kicking , even though they are beautiful , elegant and high in status. lol“- I tend to notice my first smile of the day, and .. here it is!

 “She wouldn’t be happy if everybody is happy, she should be happier than others, that’s why she made every situation about herself by ruining the day or the occasion“-makes me think of the saying Misery likes Company. An edit of the saying, especially tailored for her would be: Your Misery is makes me feel better. It reminds me of my mother…

“I don`t understand how our differences make it enjoyable? Could you elaborate?“- I didn’t think or mean that your father enjoyed the differences between you and your step mother while the two of you competed for his affection (he enjoyed the competition itself). I added, as an afterthought, that the two of you competed for his affection in different ways.

“As far as I remember that was the longest protest in Iran and I hope that would end in something positive, they killed so many people in streets so far and claim the one who protest are brain washed by US government and ENEMIES OF THE REGIME… Apparently, Iran’s situation is so perfect in their minds and nobody with a functioning brain would protest“-

– last night on the News Hour, a program I watch, there was an interview with CIA director Willian Burns, and I thought of you, of course. This is part of the interview:

Judy Woodruff: “These unprecedented countrywide protests that Iran has seen after the death of a young woman in police custody, the morality police, is the regime now in serious jeopardy as a result of all this?

William Burns: “I think what struck our analysts at CIA is both the duration of those protests, now almost three months on, and their scope, because they seem to cut across Iranian society, cut across ethnicities, socioeconomic groups. It is about a growing number of Iranians who are fed up, who are fed up with economic decay, with corruption, with the social restrictions that especially affect Iranian women. They are fed up with political oppression, fed up with the denial of basic human dignity. So, in the short term, I would — I don’t think the Iranian regime perceives an immediate threat to its grip. It still has some very practiced habits of repression and brutality that it’s continuing to employ. In the long term, though, I think the reality is that this is an Iranian regime does not have good answers for what’s on the minds of a very young population, 70 percent of which today is under the age of 30”- I didn’t know that the Iranian society is so young… !

anita

Dear Farnaz:

Thank you for the note. I hope that your appointment tomorrow goes better than you expect. I am looking forward to read (after the appointment/ whenever you can and feel like posting) about how it went and how you are feeling, take care of yourself!

anita

Dear Farnaz:

You are welcome. “I’m amazed because it is very accurate. I’m not particularly interested in politics…“- I am not at all surprised that the CIA director’s words were accurate because he was talking to the public (The News Hour, which I recommend as a source of true information!) and he wouldn’t want to discredit himself.. as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

“As an Iranian, it was obvious to me that all these protests were not about killing Mahsa. It’s about all limitations the government puts on us…“- most of what you listed here (3-5: the value of money, cost of living, home ownership) is happening all over the world for regular people (people not in the position of privilege and power), but in some countries more than in other countries.

“There are a lot of sad stories about young people who did protest… Yes we have a very young population, and the majority have lost hope about the future in Iran, unless something changes“- if ALL the people rebelled against the government, including the security forces, things would change immediately. It is a shame that there is no way to make it happen…

anita

Dear Farnaz:

“Dear Anita, were you watching football match? France vs Argentina? haha , streets were empty here , just women were doing some grocery shopping“- I didn’t watch the game but was aware of the Argentinian win first thing in the morning because of the news feed on the computer. As you probably know, in the US football, aka soccer here, is not as big as it is elsewhere in the world, but where I grew up it is as popular as it is where you’re at. I still remember the emptiness in the streets on Saturdays, when all you can hear was the loud GOOOOOAAAAAAL and the cheering from TVs inside homes. When you entered a home, no one would notice you unless there is a break in the game.

“I agree, but I doubt they have such an increase in prices in a very short time“- here tomatoes were sometimes one dollar a pound, but the other day, they were close to $5 a pound.. cabbage though seems to stay at a dollar a pound in some places. Maybe it’s cabbage season. 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds. How much is a kilo of tomatoes.. and cabbage where you’re at?

“AND a lot of them have more freedom than ours“- absolutely, yes. Although if Trump (or anyone like him) gets into power again, the long-standing U.S democracy can come to an end, including the individual’s legally protected freedoms.

“There are some people who actually benefit from the regime, and there are people who can’t risk losing more… in the last 10 years, the economy in Iran went down to hell, the cost of living increased 20 times… I sincerely hope, like anyone, that someone would change, I’m not hopeful th0ugh“- I always had the tendency to be pessimistic,  but these days, it looks like my overall pessimism has a greater fit with reality, very sadly.

anita