Inappropriate Opinion [Never] Expressed

by Meenoo (Iran)

Owing it to Georgetown University, I was accepted to attend Iran’s most prestigious Law School in February of 2005. I was accepted as an International Student to attend classes along with the ranks 1 to 100 of the (only) Nationwide Collegiate Entrance exam taken by over one million Iranian students every year. The building of National University’s Faculty of Law was new. (The name being changed from Melli [National] to that of a martyr, Shahid Beheshti, after the Revolution) Red and grey marble adorned the most desired University hallways of Iran. A rotunda in the middle where the highest caliber minds of Iran were to discuss, debate and examine The Law, Le Droit, “Hoghooga” …

Having heard that all student protests against the Islamic Republic rose from the heart of these universities’ the closest to a (somewhat) free public forum in the country, much excitement was anticipated. I grudgingly wore the mandatory hejab (Islamic covering for women, consisting of long, loose pants, long-sleeved, loose manteau/cloak, and one-piece scarf to cover the hair, neck, and chest.) I chose to play it safe by wearing dark colors and no make-up. Driving up the Danjeshjoo (Scholar) Boulevard, I felt National University’s aura of respect and discipline. Professor Shamlou knocked on the door, without the slightest delay the class grew silent and we all rose to our feet in respect. It was an honor to have Prof Shamlou teach our freshman class of Introduction to Civil Law. Our pens were ready to make note the second he started lecturing. He stepped down from the podium, in a very thoughtful pose,
The Holocaust, which you constantly hear about, is nothing but Zionist propaganda. It is what the Zionists, hand in hand with The West, feed us in efforts to brain-wash us. It is rubbish and lacks proper evidence. The Holocaust, was truly a well-intended plan of Hitler’s. During the 1940′s, the Plague and many epidemics similar, were on the rise. Hitler wanted to control the spread of these diseases. He would gather the ill merely to save the rest of the population. What was called “Concentration Camps” by Zionists, were really Rehabilitation Quarantines for the sick. Of course many of the ill would not willingly go to the Quarantine camps simply because they did not want to leave their family and Hitler forced them to leave for the betterment of the nation. And those so-called “Gas Chambers” were truly Oxygen Chambers for those with Lung Disease. The sick who died were buried in mass graves deep in the ground because Hitler did not want to bacteria-ridden corpses to be detrimental to those alive. I want you to know this because you are the top scholar’s of this Nation. Do not be fooled by the propaganda the West and the Zionists want you to believe. And now that you are all informed, we shall start today’s topic on Civil Law.

A war of whether or not to protest Prof. Shamlou was shaking me. My mouth was open with an expression of shock on my face. He looked at me and he knew very well what I was thinking. In between his unnecessary introduction, he was monitoring my facial expression and I could not hide it from his piercing glance. In my mind, Anne Frank, Solzhenitsyn, Life is Beautiful, Sophie’s Choice . . . paid me a visit in a frantic slideshow. I was screaming inside. What he said was completely unnecessary. It was not even related to our studies. He just felt like expressing his pro-Islamic Fascism opinion probably to get approval from the Morality (Komiteh) Club and a pay raise the next semester. The other seventy-something students, did not know any better. Being raised in Iranian suburbs and villages, they never had access to the Internet, Satellite TV or non-Islamic Republic sources of information. I walked out of the class still furious. My classmates didn’t understand why I was upset. They kept thinking I was Jewish. I told them I might not be Jewish but I’m their fellow human beings.

I could not let Prof. Shamlou slip. I needed to show at least the smallest struggle even though I knew I was power-less. It was the gesture, the symbolic thrash about that mattered to me, however fruitless. Knowing well my protest would be silenced, I still owed it to my Moral Conscience to do something.

The semester was near the end and I spent the three weeks in our apartment, buried in books. I would look up from the difficult texts only to eat, sleep and sigh. With all my studying, the Civil Law exam came easy. Out of 20, I knew I would at least get a 17. (remember: grade inflation!)

My revenge for Prof. Shamlou was an analogy, an allegory. Subtly, for one of his exam questions I added an example. I described the crimes Saddam Hussein had committed against the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war, the Biological Warfare and the people who still suffer from it, even though it is an incident of the past. Memories Saddam’s Biological Warfare always pains Iranians. Many people lost loved ones. It is one of the most recent tragedies in Iranian History.

In a simple allegory, I imagined a denial of the crimes of the Iran-Iraq war. I bid my reader to envision the refutation of those who suffocated in that gassed atmosphere of the Iraq border. Those who are still born with deformed features because of a massacre many years prior. . .

In July, I went to check the Freshman Grade Bulletin Board in the marble hallways of the Faculty of Law at Shahid Beheshti University. I looked down the list of last names and grades. My friend who had studied with me received a 17 so I was sure my grade would be similar. I found my name at the bottom of the list, out of alphabetic order. It was a place in the section where failed students’ grades (those of 10 and lower) were recorded. Next to my name, I saw an 11. Besides that dreaded number was an inscription, “Out of respect for The International Student.”

Weeks later, after my shock beside the cold columns of the Faculty of Law, at a university renamed after a fanatic martyr Beheshti, I approached Prof. Shamlou to protest my grade. He pulled out my exam and without a pause, casually mentioned, I did not grade your exam. You might have answered my questions but you had expressed inappropriate opinions in class. You are an International Student and that is why I was lenient.