I found a world where the neighborhood car washer who lived in the street, was someone everybody knew and gave gifts to on Eid'e Gorban (a Shiite tithing holiday). I never saw a beggar in that Iran. No matter how poor a person was, he would be selling something even if it was only pencils or gerdou (brine pickled walnuts.) I found a world where family elders would still help settle the marital disputes of their children and nephews and nieces. I found a world where everyone was in charge and no one was a subordinate which made organizing anything, even something as simple as the tenants of a six unit apartment building trying to collect the money to buy another tank of heating fuel, almost impossible and yet it was a world where humanity was the measuring stick. I learned the meaning of: "What is possible everywhere else in the world is impossible in Iran, but what is impossible everywhere else in the world is possible in Iran." 

I could give many examples but two will suffice. My very first day on a new job with a large American corporation and my boss’s younger brother, who was about 18 at the time, had gotten arrested the night before for drunk and disorderly conduct at the Pars American Club ultimately getting into a fist fight with the local policeman and throwing him into the swimming pool until reinforcements arrived. I was asked by my boss to go down to the police station and see what it would take to get his brother released. This was my first day on the job and never having dealt with the police in Iran, I was a bit nervous about the outcome and besides I did not particularly admire his brother’s behavior to begin with. On my way by taxi, I began to fabricate a story for "Tony" which would appeal to the Iranian sensibility. I explained to the chief of the police station that, "Tony" had gotten a little carried away last night with the partying because he had just become engaged to be married to an Iranian girl whose parents had consented. In fact "Tony" actually did end up marrying an Iranian girl but several years later. The police chief upon hearing this explanation seemed to be satisfied and sympathetic. So I took the next venture which was to ask him what I could do to obtain his release from jail. The police chief called in the policeman who had been hit and thrown in the pool by "Tony" and told me to ask him what I could do. The policeman listened politely to my explanation of "Tony’s" behavior and then in a very modest and friendly way, he showed me his torn uniform and said that since he had to pay for his own uniform that if I could just pay for the repair of his uniform which was probably less than $10 that he would be satisfied provided of course that "Tony" didn’t get into anymore fights. And so I left with "Tony" next to me in my taxi that very afternoon which was not the outcome I had expected.- Brian H. Appleton aka Rasool Aryadust