"The Wine" Persepolis
Friday 25th October
“The Wine”
Now that Iraq had bombed all the border towns, Tehran quickly became their main targets and bombers started to bomb our city. Luckily, in our building, we had a basement that we decided to turn into a shelter. As the Siren rang, everybody would run down to the basement.
Mom took a cigarette out and lit it, and then dad angrily asked her to put it out. He was scared that the bombers would see a glow from the sky; I guess it was the fear of death, but then Mom shouted at him, saying that we were in the basement and there was no risk.
Once the bombing was over, everyone went back to their flats, and the phones were ringing for hours. It was their families or close friends; some had lived and others had died. The worst part of the bombings was that after the action, as you would hear that people had died, and when you thought about it, it made you realize how lucky you were.
I saw mom doing something weird with the windows and masking it with tape so I asked her what she was doing and she told me “The masking tape is to protect us against flying glass during a bombing and the black curtains are to protect us from our neighbors.”
I was confused why she said our neighbors, so I questioned her about it, and then she told me the story behind it. There was a building across the street and the habitants were completely devoted to the new regime, and if they ever called up the police to say what was happening, in our house, then we would get arrested and dad could receive the same treatment as Tinoosh’s dad. What happened was that the guardians of the revolution received an anonymous call saying that illegal activity was taking place in their house. When the guardians turned up, they found records, videocassettes, cards and a chess set. When he ended up in that station, he received seventy-five lashes and his wife got out lightly, as all she did was cry and they felt guilty for her and let her off with a heavy fine.
I would
“The Wine”
Now that Iraq had bombed all the border towns, Tehran quickly became their main targets and bombers started to bomb our city. Luckily, in our building, we had a basement that we decided to turn into a shelter. As the Siren rang, everybody would run down to the basement.
Mom took a cigarette out and lit it, and then dad angrily asked her to put it out. He was scared that the bombers would see a glow from the sky; I guess it was the fear of death, but then Mom shouted at him, saying that we were in the basement and there was no risk.
Once the bombing was over, everyone went back to their flats, and the phones were ringing for hours. It was their families or close friends; some had lived and others had died. The worst part of the bombings was that after the action, as you would hear that people had died, and when you thought about it, it made you realize how lucky you were.
I saw mom doing something weird with the windows and masking it with tape so I asked her what she was doing and she told me “The masking tape is to protect us against flying glass during a bombing and the black curtains are to protect us from our neighbors.”
I was confused why she said our neighbors, so I questioned her about it, and then she told me the story behind it. There was a building across the street and the habitants were completely devoted to the new regime, and if they ever called up the police to say what was happening, in our house, then we would get arrested and dad could receive the same treatment as Tinoosh’s dad. What happened was that the guardians of the revolution received an anonymous call saying that illegal activity was taking place in their house. When the guardians turned up, they found records, videocassettes, cards and a chess set. When he ended up in that station, he received seventy-five lashes and his wife got out lightly, as all she did was cry and they felt guilty for her and let her off with a heavy fine.
I would