It’s about six months that I’m living in Amsterdam. Maybe it’s too soon to judge about the city and the people, but I love this city. Some aspects of the city are really attractive for me.
1. You live in the capital of the country and it’s not populated. Dividing the facilities all around the country could be one reason. So, you have the facilities without missing the nature. In Iran, you can not have both of these together. You have to choose between progress in work and nature.
2. This culture of using bicycles instead of cars, is something which I haven’t seen in Iran else than a small town “Bonab”. I know that one of the reasons that they were successful is the special nature of the country. It’s completely flat and there are no mountains. The temperature also is moderate. The maximum degree is around 25 degree of centigrade and the minimum is -1, or -2. Although it’s about two years that Dutch people experienced very cold days like -7 which because of the wind, felt like -12, but it’s quite rare. We may not be able to imitate this culture of biking in a city like Tehran; because it’s too crowded and in some parts the streets are too steep. We also may not be able to imitate it in southern part of Iran in some spring and summer when you encounter high temperatures like 50 or even more. But it’s completely possible to use bicycles for transportation in many small towns and cities like Semnan.
One of the reasons that prevents from this idea is the problem of riding bicycles for women. There is some non-written rule which doesn’t allow women to ride bicycles after teenagery???. It’s kind of taboo. Although I used to ride bicycle in Tehran, I never would ride bicycle in my hometown Semnan. What people would say on behind of me is not important for me, but my parents live there and for me the bounds have always been stricter in Semnan. This is the property of small cities of Iran that all people know each other and so, if you live there, you should always be careful about your treatment. In Islam, you are not permitted to talk on back of other people; you are not permitted to judge about others. Not considering Islam, I think this is what all of us would know because of the morality. I’m ashamed that we just talk about Islam, about morality, about God, and in practice our souls are like evil.
Let’s come back to the discussion. Although I rode bicycle in Tehran, it was completely unusual. People looked at me. Some of them said some sentences to me. I just put my headphone in my ears not to hear anything and tried to just look at the road and not the people. This is the taboo I’m talking about, the most important obstacle against trying to encourage people to use bicycles.
To break this taboo, we should do some cultural work. It’s not easy. Imagine the condition that you go to a park special for bike riding, you rent a bicycle, and while riding you encounter a big board of a saying from the leader of Iran “It’s haram (not permitted ) for women to ride bicycle in front of men”. Here, you see that they have invented another Islam. They think that they are God and do whatever they like. Some people like many in my hometown, think this is Islam. Te other problem is that they combine the rules with their invented Islam. There is no freedom. These days the condition is becoming even worse. Hijab is not optional, and if they think that your hijab is not complete, even if you are in your car, they will stop you. These days I do not risk to ride my bicycle, the Police is everywhere. I’m not as courage as the time I was single. I’m responsible for the life of my family.
I was going to write about the beauties of Amsterdam and it changed to the problems in Iran. Let’s come back to Amsterdam.
3. Dutch people are open-minded compared to Iranian people. This is the result of freedom and immigrants from all over the world. Many people in Iran, especially in small towns and cities, just receive the news from the government. It’s obvious that when you have some friend from some other countries in your workplace, or when you see lots of foreign people on the street, you become curious about them, so study and think more about other thoughts, religions, beliefs, ways of lives, wars, policies of different governments, etc.
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