Nahavand, My Hometown

Nahavand is a small city which is located in the west of Iran. Its population is about 200000. It is a historical city which was one of the important cities of Iran in the past. One of the most famous things in Nahavand was its castle that was unfortunately destroyed about 100 years ago by the order of Nasser-al-din (Nassereddin) shah without any reason. The city was one of the main hunting-grounds of the kings. But nowadays there are not many huntees in the mountains.

It has a great nature and it is mountainous. Its mountains are mostly covered with rocks and the nature is the best source of entertainment for the people of this city. The city has many places of recreation, and two of them are the most popular. Many people go to these places of recreation on weekends. Except these places half of Nahavandi people have private gardens which are other places of recreation. One of the well-known things in Nahavand is its carpets which are called "Oshvand carpet". Many of these carpets are in the most famous museums of the world. Nahavandi dialect was one of the five chief languages of Iran, which were most common.
I like the city so much, especially the mountains which are full of my childhood memories. Whenever I look at the mountains I remember the times when I went there with my family members. Although I don't live there anymore, I remember all it details and I still love it.

(Kiaan, one of the places of recreation)

(Oshvand carpet)

Hijab

What is hijab? What is your definition of hijab? In general opinion, hijab means covering your body with a kind of cloths. In Islam this kind of cloths is especially for women. Some people believe that hijab is an essential thing for their lives. Some others think that it is an obligatory thing which we have to obey because we are Muslims.
Hijab is not only for Muslims or only for women. The cloths that we use for covering our body, whether in Muslim countries or the other ones, are a kind of hijab. Since, it is the nature of contemporary human beings to cover some parts of their body. But the thing which is becoming a problem about hijab is the covering of the hair or the covering of some parts of body in Muslim countries especially in Iran .
Hijab has some advantages and disadvantages. I don’t agree with hijab completely, but as a girl who has hijab I think one of the advantages of hijab is that you have a sense of security in the society and you obey Islam's rules. There are also some disadvantages about having hijab. For example it can limit your actions in every day life especially your mobility and don’t let you to do whatever you want. There is a kind of cover which is called Chador in Persian (it is a long cloth that covers your head till your ankle which is usually black) which is known as the complete hijab by the government. Chador is very difficult to use. You must know that after wearing it you can’t run as fast as before, you go to mount climbing with lots of problems like falling down.
Nowadays Iran 's government has a new plan for hijab. They arrest women who wear short and tight uniforms, short trousers, and little scarves. By doing this plan they are forcing people to wear what the government wants and they are reaching their goal. But most of the people don’t agree with this plan and they want to be free in their society.
I think that hijab to some extent is a necessary thing. Somehow I agree with it but not with very strict hijab that limits the mobility of women in the society.

Being a Vegetarian: Cons and Pros

In today’s world a third of man kind has plenty of food. In the nineteenth century man still had to devote 70 percent of his energy to getting food. Eating can define us as human beings, belonging to a certain era and a certain social culture and region. There are different types of food and there are different types of human beings who eat those foods. One type of human beings who eat special food is vegetarians. There are a lot of vegetarians in the world today. Studies show that 12.4 million Americans consider themselves to be vegetarian and up to 15 percent of college students request vegetarian food. Generally, vegetarians are those people who don’t eat or use meat or some other animal products. This is usually because of religion or human beliefs. There are 4 types of vegetarians.
The first type of vegetarians is Semi-Vegetarian who eat every thing except red meat. The second type is called Vegan. This group is the strictest group; they don’t eat any kind of meat of animals. They don’t eat and use anything that is related to animals. The third group is Lacto-vegetarian. This group doesn’t eat animal flesh but they eat dairy products. Lacto-Ovo-vegetarian is the last group that like the two previous ones doesn’t eat any kind of animal flesh but their difference is that they don’t eat dairy products but they eat egg.
Being a vegetarian has some advantages and some disadvantages which I think the disadvantages are more. Eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, having low level of bad cholesterol, consuming more nuts, increasing skin health (because of consuming more fruit), and having low blood pressure are some benefits of being a vegetarian. But the weak points are lack of iron, calcium, and vitamin B. They can't eat some alcoholic beverages as some of them are produced by using animal ingredients. They should avoid using biscuits that use animal fat, capsules which are made by gelatin (which is from animals). They couldn’t use woolen cloths and any type of leather. They couldn’t eat out easily and many other downsides.
Some vegetarians become a vegetarian because of their health and some other because of their religion and some because of animals’ right. The last group believes that humans are cruel because they kill animals for their good and do not pay attention to animals’ right. But I think a person can gain health and meanwhile respect the religion and animals’ right by eating both meat and vegetable. And we must not limit ourselves.
Vegetarians have different types that some of them are better than the others. There are good points and bad points about being a vegetarian, that the number of second one is more than the first one. And in general, I think by being a vegetarian you can not experience the joy of eating, which is one of the best joys of the world.

Yalda Night

Yalda is one of the most important and interesting customs of Iran which its history backs to 7000 years ago when the Iranians could invent a calendar based on the sun. Yalda is held on the thirteenth of Azar (21st of December) which is the longest night of the year and people try to not to sleep until morning. Yalda night is only some seconds longer than the other nights but when I was a child I thought that it is some hours longer. Yalda is basically a Syriac word which means birth. Zoroastrians believed that Yalda is the day of Mithra’s birth. Not only Zoroastrians but also Europeans believe in this. It is believed that the original celebration of Christians is the birthday of Mithra. (21st of December) and this day was celebrated in Rome and other parts of Europe by Mithraists. Nowadays Christians celebrate Christmas on the day of Jesus Christ’s birthday, but this is an idea spread by the churches, because the Christians don’t know the exact day Jesus Christ’s birthday.
The coincidence of this day with Jewish Hanukkah (festival of light) is not an accident because all of them believe that this day is the birthday of Mithra. After the forth century A.D., the day of Mithra’s birthday changed to 25th of December which is the Christmas. It is supposed that the cloths of Santa Claves is like the Zoroastrian clergymen’s and the star above the pine tree is a sign of an Iranian religion. Moreover the old Iranians believe that light, warmth, and the day are the signs of God and night, darkness, and cold are the signs of evil. So the longer the days are, the more they have victory so they celebrated Yalda night, because from the next day of that night, the days were longer.
In Yalda night all the family gather in the house of a grandfather and grandmother and eat special things, the most important is watermelon; you can’t find family without watermelon on Yalda night in Iran. Other things are pomegranate, dried nuts and fruits, and roasted wheat. Each one of these things is a sign. They stand for blessing, health, happiness, and etc.. People eat watermelon because they believe that eating it can protect their health against cold of winter and other diseases.
One of the old legends about Yalda night is that in that night a rich man in cloths of a wood cutter comes to the house of poor people and gives them some pieces of wood and in the morning all the woods change to gold, so the poor family becomes rich. The best part of Yalda night is consulting with Hafiz and reading his poems.
In some parts of Iran, families read Shahnameh of Ferdosi. Some families have a kind of fortune telling with walnut. They break it and tell the fortune according to what is inside the walnut. Yalda night is the best night of the year for all the people in Iran with its stories and foods.

Drowned or Not?!

Thirteen years ago, the sun was shining directly and the weather was stifling hot and oppressive. The beach was teeming with the people who were jogging, sunbathing, playing Frisbee, and chatting. In that tumult, a little girl with short blonde hair and an azure swimsuit sat up alone on the beach, faraway her parents. She was busy making sand castle and designing it with shells, that all of a sudden a huge wave came and took her into the sea. She was bobbing up and down with the wave until she went under the water. Not knowing how to swim she started flinging her limbs about to flop, and shouting to save herself, but nobody could hear her. After a few moments her mother noticed that her daughter is not around. It passed her mind that maybe she had gone to another part of the beach so she started looking for her daughter. Some meters further away she found her daughter in the sea.
The little girl was bobbing up and down with the taste of briny water in her mouth and hearing bass sound of the water. Her eyes had a slight tingling and prickling sensation caused by the water which made her close her eyes gradually. Once when she opened her eyes, she saw lots of people assembled around the beach, looking at her. When she saw them, she wished someone to come and rescue her and she thought if somebody came and saved her, she would be a very good girl from that moment on. Suddenly she felt the touch of a powerful hand around her arms. Meanwhile she noticed the watch on the hands and found out that they were her elder brother’s hands. When her brother embraced her and brought her to the beach, she realized that she had gone only a meter from the beach and if she stood on her feet she would have been able to come out of the sea.
Thirteen years has passed and still when I remember that day my hair stands on end. I can still fill the fear of losing my life with all my heart and I thank God again and again for giving me a second chance to live.

Nowrooz!

As mentioned in some of my friends' blogs, "chahar shanbe souri" is a ceremony held on the last Tuesday of each year. But in Nahavand, my home town, they hold such a ceremony on the first day of the year. Like all other cities of Iran, all family members gather at transition to the New Year. They usually read the holy Koran and when the New Year begins they kiss and hug each other and then they eat sweets. For most of us the best part of Nowrooz is the New-Year gift. Mostly every body likes Nowrooz, because they are off and they can travel, rest, and meet their relatives. So I guess I must be an exception.

Wanna know me?

My name is Leili. I'm 19 years old and a sophomore of English literature in Azzahra University. I adore reading books but I have always had problems with writing. That's why it seems so hard to me to start blogging and write for such a wide audience.

About my personality I should say that I am a naughty and cheerful girl. Usually I have a smile upon my face but when I become angry or sad, nothing can calm me down.
I have some good friends and I enjoy spending my time with them. I love eating but shouldn't eat much. I hope this method of writing will help me write better than before and I want to thank Dr. Marandi for giving us the chance to have this new and unknown experience.