The Ugly Inside

It is said that during the ninth presidential election in 2005, some Islamic Republic officials opposed Ahmadinejad’s candidacy on a peculiar ground: his appearance and physical characteristics.

I know of someone who voted for “Doctor Ahmadinejad” instead of Rafsanjani, because he did not count Ahmadinejad’s small eyes, big nose, wide mouth, and short height as good enough reasons to not vote for him.

He would say, “There are many whose big heart makes up for their small eyes; and whose wise words make up for their wide mouths; and whose humanly characteristics make up for their short height.”

And then he would relate it all to Ahmadinejad’s humble background: “Someone who comes from the deepest levels of poverty; someone who has experienced enough hunger for a lifetime; someone who will never forget the calluses on the fingers of his blacksmith father….”

Anyway, he did his thing and we did ours. Whatever came out of the ballot box was what he wanted.

And today I am talking about him: he who ignored Ahmadinejad’s unattractive outside in the hope of a beautiful inside.

Today, our Iran is the battlefield of evil forces; as if all of the devils that came into existence since the initial days of the revolution have now met at the same place in this historical juncture.

If, long ago, neighborhood thugs got in charge of securing the revolution, today, those same thugs are using the country’s vast resources to instill terror in society, for one, very clear reason: it is only in darkness and terror that devils persist, procreate, and prosper.

But our nation has had its share of defeating devils too. Our history is the history of the everlasting battle between light and darkness. And today, no matter from what ethnicity or religion, everyone, Turks, Lors, Baluchis, Persians, Kurds, everyone and everyone, come together for one purpose: instilling light in the land of darkness.

When you push aside the outer ugliness, nothing remains of the inner ugliness. “Ugly” is a creature that will stay in our homeland forever if we don’t push it away now. Let us not allow our land become a sanctuary for devils and beasts. We have nothing but our homeland.