19 June 2013
Saturday, 21 April 2012 22:00

Humoring the Iranian Education

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The finals week is approaching for some of us students and I thought to cheer us up and inspire us by humoring the education system, I Heart Iran style.

A few weeks ago, Hamid Reza Haji-Babayi, Iranian minister of education proposed his brilliant idea. He called for further gender segregating the schools (in Iran only private kindergartens and some colleges are co-ed). Only this time, the text books for all grades and levels should be gender specific. Immediately after his remarks, Persian blog sphere filled with suggestion for Mr. Minster and his ideal text books. Here are a few:

Math for Boys: 2+2=4 or even 5, who cares!

Math for Girls: 2 stems of flowers added by two more becomes a bouquet that we will gift to our dear mother.

Geography for Boys: If you hold your right hand toward the East and your left hand toward the West, the North will be in front of you, while the south is behind you.

Geography for Girls: If you can distinguish between your right and left hand, you are better off getting married and make the Mr. Minister happy since he hasexpressed his interests in lowering the marriage age for female students.

English for Boys: Present tense: I want to go to the garden with my friends.

English for Girls: Present tense: I want to go to the kitchen and cook dinner for my husband.

Philosophy for Boys: Socrates was always after the truth and is named “martyr for the truth.”

Philosophy for Girls: Socrates’ wife was always after "the martyr of the truth" and made his life miserable.

Physics for boys: The relation between the object distance (p), the image distance (q), and the focal length (f) of a thin lens is (1/p) + (1/q) = 1/f

Physics for girls: When reflecting your image in the mirror, there must be a relation between beauty, piety and taking care of your husband.

A page from the 3rd grade Persian books depicts the story of “The Devoted Farmer” who burned his clothes and blocked the coming train to warn the operator about the fallen rocks. The humorous Iranians suggested that for girls text books, his image be replaced by a woman who cannot burn her Hijab and clothes. Though she cannot save the train and its passengers, she saves her piety and dignity as a good Muslim woman who does not undress in public.

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About the Columnist: Parisa Saranj

Parisa is a journalism graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently a MFA Creative non-Fiction writing candidate at Goucher College. She began writing about her native country, Iran, at her personal blog IranStories.com to share everything she loves about Iran and Iranians, minus all the politics (if that's possible).

Tired of being asked the most basic questions about Iran, all based on stereotypes and lies, Parisa just wanted to provide a pure image of what life is like in Iran...what is it like to be an Iranian woman. Now, Parisa brings her I Heart Iran section from IranStories.com exclusively to Aslan Media.

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