Clip from Dar Emtedaade Shab, 1978 (Along the night) ... things that led to the Islamic Republic of Iran ... pity! She, Faegheh Atashin, known as Googoosh, was/is a great star. I didn't know pre-revolutionary Iranian film had this much flesh! Here's her official web site with lots of cool pictures.
And this is for Iran, now, ... She still sounds GREAT after 30 years!
22 comments:
Dear Naj,
Having just listened to "Googoosh" singing (second, lower, video:
I am very happy
a) to have listened to her song and to have seen her;
b)that Iran has its true "MELINA MERCOURI" !
In the (wrongly)so-called "West"
people like me need this kind of incredibly grand person, being surrounded by psycho-destructive stupid mediocrity and primates.
I suspect
people in Iran need this kind of incredibly grand person, being surrounded by life-endangering repressive mediocrity and primates.
Thank you for that post
Take care
German
Googoosh actually stayed in IRan after revolution; she left the country only a few years ago ... she was the "QUEEN" of Iranian pop; and in my opinion, she is still unrivaled!
I was CRAZY about her when I was little; but after 30 years; her songs (like in the first video) are still fresh.
Having now listened to and watched both songs and videos, there is only one thought coming to my mind:
People everywhere should be left in peace !
It's only and exclusively only this stupidity, this envy of others being more able and this greed for feeling to be the only important ones
on the part of these mediocre dwarfish b......s [everywhere!],
whose principal and sole aim is obviously to (try to) force other people to be as dwarfish, low, mediocre and stupid as they are.
These cretins [everywhere] are of the opinion that everyone who does not try to attack them physically believes them, is convinced of them and agrees wholeheartedly with them.
I think this fairy-tale of "The Emperor without Clothes" explains this impasse marvellously.
How that fairy tale finishes is just an incredible analysis of reality !
[chapeau to your ancestors 1000 years ago who seem to have invented this terrific story !!!]:
"But he has nothing on at all," cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, "Now I must bear up to the end." And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried the train which did not exist."
Naj, that video is pretty much Pre-AIDS, sexual revolution, American wannabe stuff.
A few days ago, I was google searching a statistic needed for a comment to one of your posts, when I was absolutely flabbergasted to find a link to an uploaded ebook of my Tehran high school yearbook (from the same general period as the Googoosh video). Check it out; you will not believe there once was a time when such a school existed in Tehran:
http://www.looc.net/chs/
The school had students of many nationalities, but was mostly American and Iranian. (I'm actually listed as being from the USA.) It was an interesting school, with a long history; I was sad to learn it closed in 1979:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_High_School_Tehran,_Iran
There's a music video on YouTube that actually gets me very nostalgic about that time period. If you're inclined to give it a look see, please look beyond the pro-monarchy imagery. The 70's pics from the Tehran bowling alley really get to me. That bowling alley was in many ways the social center for north Tehran.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlNipGD1ylk&feature=related
I don't consider myself a post 79 exile, Naj, but even I get a little choked up at such remembrances of a world from my youth that no longer exists.
-Pirouz
Thanks for sharing the memory, Pirouz.
yeah "american-wanna-be" is what got us in trouble. Watching that video, I cannot even imagine HOW it affected the PErsian psych.
I mean, the hell with Islam and all; persians, even the most unislamic ones, are really sexually uptight. And physical love, expressed, in that super-duper stoic society?! That is not to say that Iranians are not sensual in private; but in public they externalize their passion in the form of poetic abstractions.
Pirouz; I don't have any "world" in Iran to miss. I grew up during the WORST period in IRI; which I hated, and will be happy if it disappears for good.
I grew up when we were forced to pray in school; hating to kneel next to stinky socks.
I grew up when wearing white shoes was an offense, reducing our "conduit" marks.
I grew up when I was forced to stop going to school with my best friend who was Bahai, because i risked failing the "approval" of the government for going to university.
I grew up when we had to hide our cassettes in the car, if we drove by a 4WD-yellow-IRGC-patrol because music was forbidden
I grew up when i was prevented from flying if my scarf wasn't big enough to cover all my long hair; when "inspection" booths were set to wipe girls faces off makeup; even those who were not wearing any and had the god given red lips and purple eyelines.
I am NOT nostalgic for any of it.
I am only nostalgic for what Iran CAN be/become; and for all those opportunities lost ... but, the beauty of human nature is this; that when you HAVE survived pretty crappy circumstances, your faith in better possibilities just goes up.
Liebe Naj,
ICH BIN VERANTWORTLICH FÜR DAS HAUS; IN DEM ICH WOHNE, AUCH WENN ICH ES NICHT GEBAUT HABE.
In diesem Sinne möchte ich der Diskussion um das Verhalten der Iraner vor, während und nach dem 1979 in Iran einige Gedanken hinzufügen. Damals und seither bereicherten wir uns, auch auf Kosten Anderer Menschen. Ich erinnere mich, wo das tragisches Geschehens an unsern Land gedacht wird, als Tausende von Iranern in den sichern Tod geschickt wurden. Als ich damals alle diese Ruhmes-Taten abschritt, wurde ich immer unruhiger. War denn nirgends jener Unglücklichen gedacht, die in Lebensgefahr Schutz suchten und die wir zurückschickten, in die Käfig und Tod. Ich suchte vergebens nach irgendeinem Hinweis auf unser Versagen gegenüber dieser Menschen. Mir würde elend zumute ich schämte mich, schämte mich für mein Land. Warum war da nicht eine dunkle Ecke, wo man hätte hingehen und weinen können, trauern um jene Geopferten, die wir hätten retten können. Mich hätte dies erleichtert.
So aber ging ich mit einem mulmigen Gefühl hinaus von dem jenem Ort überheblichen Selbstlobes.
Heute, wo wir wiederum eine Landesfreiheit planen, wird und muss die Aufarbeitung der letzten 30 Jare einen gewichtigen Platz einnehmen. Ich wünsche mir dringend, die Abweisung und deren Schicksal eindringlich thematisiert werden.
Oft und laut höre ich den Einwand " Dafür kann doch ICH nichts!"
In der Tat, als diese Dinge geschahen, wussten nur wenige davon. Oder man war noch zu jung, um es zu verstehen, oder überhaupt noch nicht geboren. Hier stellt sich die Frage nach persönlicher Unschuld versus mitzutragende Kollektivschuld, resp. kollektiver Haftung.
Kollektiver Schuld und Verantwortung kann nicht deklariert, noch weniger deren Anerkennung befohlen werden. Sie kann jedoch persönlich gespürt und angenommen werden. Es gibt sie jedenfalls, sowie es die kollektive Wertschätzung gibt.
Und schon wurde man geachtet und nicht selten bevorzugt. Man konnte sich in der kollektiven Wertschätzung.
Nicht war natürlicher als die schöne und vorbildliche GOOGOSH stolz zu sein. Oder hat man je gehört, dass jemand die Ehre zurückgewiesen hätte mit dem Einwand "Dafür kann doch ICH nichts! Es waren meine Väter und Vorfahren.
Die massiven Anschuldigungen betreffend Iraner haben uns gezwungen, nachforschen und offenzulegen. Dass während Wochen die ganze Welt, nicht ohne Häme, mit Fingern auf uns zeigte. Wie wenn ein lange verborgener Eiterherd endlich aufgestochen worden wäre. Welche Chance zum Saubermachen, zum Gesunden! Wir könnten daraus endlich wider eine Identität als Iranern gewinnen, die uns durch das Verdrängen und das Nicht-Wissen (-Wollen) in fataler Weise abhandeln gekommen ist. Denn was man nicht auf den Tisch legt und anschaut, belastet einen insgehiem und unbewusst. Sobald wir aber Schmerz, Scham und Trauer über kollektiv begangenes Unrecht zulassen, werden wir auch als Iranern wieder glaubwürdig und unser selbst in Bescheidenheit und würde bewusst.
Ebenso wichtig wie das Anerkennen der Vergangenheit scheint mir, dass wir ab heute auch unsere Gegenwart duchleuchten und neu überdenken. Wir können nun die Last des Schweigens und Verdrängens ablegen, dazu auch die Illusion, etwas Besonders zu sein.
Die Wahrheit aber wird uns frei machen, frei auch für neue Visionen.
Mit dieser kraftvollen Hoffnung grüsst Sie
Hamwatan
Dear Naj,
after a long day's work reading your long list of the most various religions of our planet - I couldn't help laughing heartily
[because I just thought that
the Romans and the Greeks are lucky not to have experienced your fit of rage and they really should be glad not to have been around,
as your list of religions and godesses/gods would probably have the size and thickness of a telephone directory of Rome or Paris or London or Berlin - you really would have unhinged the Roman Empire with all its Caesares, Augusti, Consules, Praetores, and Greek and Roman history would have to be written anew]
though I have (to admit) to agree with
your two historically well-justified conclusions:
"Religion should belong to people's private hearts" + "The less they expose it, the better and more polite a society we'll have!"
Good night
German
PS:
This Iranian singer you introduced with your post is just great, reminding me of a mixture of Melina Mercouri and Dalida, that also great singer of Italian, Egyptian and French extraction. Thanks!
Postscriptum re "religion":
definitely correct is your list regarding the different -ism-ideologies
like atheism, communism; added of course might have been here nazism and fascism, which you didn't mention certainly because they are (at the present) historically and practically outdated. Nazism with its religiouslike cult of the Führer as the instrument of "divine providence" (thus he himself, his propaganda minister Goebbels, the radio-reports/comments etc.), the adoration and cult of the concept of mass(es) and "Volk" within which the individual was expected to dissolve itself and lose its individual identity, responsibility and will: if that wasn't a religion, I don't know which belief/creed is to be considered one.
Having the ideological-political -isms included in your list was/is more than correct and necessary!
German,
one Q, what does that German comment here mean; is it yours?
Other note: Fascism, i keep believing, is a "psychological" state that is brought about by economic interactions. Fascism is the outcome of all other isms; including capitalism.
BIG differene between Googoosh & Melina Mercouri; 1)Googoosh is not a politician, nor any thinker or activist; just a flirty singer; 2)Mercouri comes from an ancient land where naked gods and goddesses are lying about in every corner of the culture and history; while the "God" of the land where Googoosh comes from is ONE faceless male; whose king is a well attired bearded flat abstraction on a stone wall! (recently, this bearded king-representative-of-male-god is abstracted into the figure of soup-rim leader)
The politics of Flesh in Iran and Greece are incomparable; and I think if Iranian "modernists" paid attention to these matters they would have been more original in creativity rather than being copy-cats as Googoosh was in the film i posted a clip from!
But, all pretty women share attractiveness; so yes she does kinda look like Mercouri.
Thanks ! - your last remark: LOL.
re comment in German:
obviously one of your German fans !
being at school at the moment;
as soon as I've got time on my hand, when at home, I will paraphrase or translate that comment;
seems to be a German of Iranian origin, because she/he talks about the guilt/the responsibility of his compatriots, the Iranians, for the Khomeini-revolution and the subsequent, resulting phenomena, now coming to light distinctly.
Dear Naj,
may I offer you the translated text?
The style of that German text is somehow floating, flowery, hovering, perhaps indeterminable and it is somehow philosophical; it is not concrete, fixed and simple.
I all the same tried to translate it as true to its words and sense – as far as I was able to attach an exact, fixed meaning to it/them – as possible.
German
Here now the translation:
»Dear Naj,
I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HOUSE I INHABIT, EVEN IF I HAVE NOT BUILT IT.
In this sense I would like to add some thoughts to the discussion on the behaviour/attitude of the Iranians before, during and after 1979.
Then and since then we have grown rich on / we have made (a lot of) money out of other people.
I remember, now that we commemorate the tragic events in our country, that thousands of Iranians were sent to certain death. When at that time in the past I paced off all these deeds of glory, I became more and more restless and troubled. Was there no place to remember those unhappy and unfortunate beings who were looking for protection and shelter when there life was in danger, and whom we sent back, into the cages and into death? I was looking in vain for any possible hint or reference to our (moral) failure and error as to these human beings. Just thinking about it made me feel ill and miserable, I felt ashamed, ashamed for my country. Why wasn’t there any dark corner where one might have been allowed to go and might have been allowed to weep, to mourn for those sacrificed human beings whom we might possibly have saved. I for one would have felt relieved (in such a case).
But thus – things having been as they had been - I left that place of overbearing self-praise with an uncomfortable and uneasy feeling.
Today, that we are again planning a freedom for our country, a reappraisal of the last 30 years ought to / must take up an important place and rank. I would and do desire urgently, that this turning away of the above-mentioned and their fate would/could be made subject of an intensive and serious debate.
Often and loudly I have to listen to the objection “But that is not MY fault/responsibility!”
Indeed, when these things happened, only a few knew about it. Or we were too young to understand it, or we had not been born yet.
Here the question for individual innocence versus collective guilt (which is to be shared) comes up
Collective guilt and responsibility cannot be declared, even less can its recognition be commanded. But it can be felt and accepted on a personal individual level. Anyhow, it does exist, in the same ways as collective esteem exists. Collective esteem, which led to being respected and not rarely to being favoured and preferred, respectively. One recognized oneself in this collective esteem.
Nothing was more natural than to be proud, as e.g. the beautiful and exemplary GOOGOOSH.
Or is there anyone who has refuted being honoured with the objections "That’s not to be attributed to MY personal achievement ! It had all been the achievement of my fathers and ancestors !"
The massive accusations displayed/shown towards the Iranians have forced us, to find out about and to reveal. That for weeks the whole world was pointing fingers at us, not without malice. It was as if a long-hidden suppurative focus had been pierced. What a chance to clean (up)/wash (up), to recover and regain one’s health!
We ultimately could find again an identity as Iranians, an identity we have fatally lost due to the suppression of our memory and due to this process of not knowing or rather of not wanting to know. For what is not laid on the table, is not broached and is looked at, is not examined, that is/becomes – secretly and subconsciously - a heavy burden on one’s mind. But as soon as we admit pain, shame and sorrow, we as Iranians will become credible again and will become aware of our selves in all modesty and dignity.
As important as to recognize our past it seems to me as important to probe into our present and to think it over anew / to reconsider it anew.
We can now lay down the burden of silence and suppression of memory, and in addition the illusion of being something special.
Truth will liberate us, liberate us (also) for new visions.
With this powerful hope you are saluted / greeted by
Hamwatan «
German; THANK YOU! You really shouldn't have spent all your time. I am really grateful.
Hamwatan;
I suggest, unless you want to solely communicate with my friend German, to comment in English/French or Persian. The only German word I know is ich :)
thanks
I love her, Naj. Thanks for this post.
Liebe Naj, Lieber German,
Ganz herzliche Grüsse
Tank you for your interest and suggestions after I worte you mentioning some emotions; sometimes I subconsciously let my emotions go.
Ich bin Orientalistin und lebe in eu.
Zum Meister ging ich einst-das war die Jugendzeit. Dann hab ich mich der eigenen Meisterschaft gefreut. Und willst du wissen, was davon das Ende ist? Den Staubbeborenen hat wie Staub der Wind zerstreut.
Der Tropfen klagte, weil er fern vom Meer.
Da lachte das Meer! -Bist ferne nimmermehr:
Denn alle sind wir Gott. Ein winzig Pünktlein
Trennt dich nur-und bringt dich wieder her, (Omar Khayyam)
Das Gedicht vom Wassertropfen.-
My best,
Ooohhh
Dear Naj,
Why the h..l are you attracting these German fans ???
[BTW: I don’t understand everything that people write you in German language ! ]
Translation:
»Dear Naj, dear German,
my kindest regards to you.
Thank you for your interest and suggestions after I wrote you (while ? ) mentioning some emotions.
I sometimes subconsciously let my emotions go.
I am a female orientalist and I am living in the European Union.
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door
as in I went.
[Translation: Fitzgerald]
The drop of water sorrowed to be sundered from the ocean.
Ocean smiling said, " We are all in all,
God is within and around us,
and we are divided but by an imperceptible point.
[Translation: McCarthy]
(Omar Khayyam. "The poem on the drop of water")
All the best «
Why the h..l are you attracting these German fans ???
:) German, maybe it is correlated with having a German pseudo-boss (pseudo because he paid my salary; and I defied his orders), who, I AM SURE, would have made a GREAT nazi, had he been living at that time.
He was small-minded; and stubborn. Authority-chain-locked. A scientist who called all of his computer games some war machine (like Koenigstiger). On top of it all, he was an army reservist! His science was psychology; his "thesis"
"People who have low self esteem are more prone to getting stressed"; his mission was thus to stress people with high and low self esteem by putting them through "social evaluative shame", .e.g. making elderly stand in front of a young and "mean" looking white-coated panel and give a fake job-interview; or recruit unsuspecting young subjects and put them in group situations where they were excluded and snubbed by others.
Thinking of his research, STILL, makes me vomit. My other German friends, used to tell me it was the likes of this guy who fitted the most infamous stereotype people have of the Germans.
Dear Naj,
It's very, very sad, that you've come across and suffered so much from this disgraceful type of a compatriot of mine!
In contrast to that, I must admit that I have had the exceptional luck to have come across only Iranians who were very nice fellows, thus - without any exception - bringing honour to their country Iran !
[An additional guess/idea came to my mind this morning, when driving to school, why your blog is attracting Germans:
it is perhaps - to quote your expression - this "romantic" side engraved into the soul of (many) Germans.
And your blog might probably appeal somehow - involuntarily of course - to this property of "Germanness".
For example:
The colour of the layout is black ("mysterious"), the writing is in lucent green, red, blue etc. Like a fairy-forest, where in the far you might see some mysterious light indistinctly.
The texts, pictures, videos have often to do with art in general - art (visually, acoustically; poetry, music, drama, fictional literature) is pluri-dimensional, i.e. again "mysterious".
The way you react often shows deep emotions.
The last, but not the least, you are a woman and represent somehow emancipation, daring to be just the way one is.
So - involuntarily - you might appear to have a soul which Germans often familiar with, which resonates in them having a similar wave-lenth, feeling, viewing, judging and expressing things in a (to them) familiar, similar way.
My guess is based on the way, your German fans are formulating their texts, as I have indicated when translating them: a high,poetic, perhaps even philosophical, polysemous, ambiguous style with lyrical qualities]
Apologies for my "loquaciousness" (the bonus for this expression goes to our dear friend "American man"
All the best
German
Post Scriptum:
Germans - The description of the psycho-mental status and behaviour of your (former?) German employer / superior is somehow horrifying.
Perhaps this kind of experience, made somewhat somehow by myself - possibly a frequent constant feature of some of the people of German character, causes me to read your and Pedestrian's texts, entries, blogs etc.
When following your and Pedestrian's blog and the respective contributors and readers,I do not have the feeling at all to be forced to despise anyone profoundly and in a bottomless way.
On the contrary methinks to come across people at eye level, peopel that I can or rather have to respect for their achievement(s), arguments, activities and attitudes. Helps one to bear the (human) reality which I have to put up with.
There must something more enjoyable and gratifying than living in a cage until time is mature for the beyond, surrounded by human chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang utans as far as the potential of character, heart and intellect is concerned.
RE: "Other note: Fascism, i keep believing, is a "psychological" state that is brought about by economic interactions. Fascism is the outcome of all other isms; including capitalism." (Naj)
Dear Naj, I have NOT forgotten my promise to do a blog-article on fascism in Italy! So I've been reading around, collecting thoughts memories and links...then a big workload temporarily got in the way (I'm a freelance translator) but project still "on track"..;-). In Italy, "including capitalism" was of course very much part of the mix - especially in form of bolshevik-revolution fears - and so even-more-of-course was nationalism especially in acute resentment-of-wrongs-suffered form... and so alas were all our proud Roman-world reminiscences both republican and imperial - together to my even deeper sorrow with the Italian reunification struggles in the Risorgimento and before + national pain-n'-shame of generations of massive poverty-driven emigration ... so booohoo boohooo OK? But I'm going to have to try to unravel these tangled historical roots+relative internal-attitudes ambiguities some day... sooner the better!
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