Letters From Iran
Mar 30th, 2007 by Donagh
A third letter has been written by Faye Turney, the female lead sailor belonging to the 15 strong British crew currently residing at the pleasure of Mr Ahmadinejad in Iran, the Guardian reports. British tabloids have barked in horror at her being ‘forced’ to wear a headscarf while appearing on Arabic TV telling an international audience that they were indeed trespassing in Iranian waters.
She tried bravely to hide her nervous agitation but her constanting pulling on a cigarette kind of gave it away.
The latest letter, which is addressed to the British people, says that they are receiving better treatment than Iraqis received in Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison, referring to the abuse scandal of 2004.
So we can be assured that, when off camera, the crew members are not being forced to remove their clothes and form a human pyramid while photos are taken with a hijaab wearing woman pointing at them and smoking an Indonesian cheroot.
Here’s an excerpt from the letter:
“The Iranian people treated me well and have proved themselves to be caring, compassionate, hospitable, and friendly. For this I am thankful.
I believe that for our countries to move forward, we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq, and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives.
I have written a letter to the people of Iran apologizing for our actions.
Whereas we hear and see on the news the way prisoners were treated in Abu Ghrayb and other Iraqi jails by the British and American personnel, I have received total respect and faced no harm.
It is now our time to ask our government to make a change to its oppressive behavior towards other people.â€
It’s a grave situation, so grave that Jon Stewart deals with it in typical Daily Show fashion, by addressing the Iranians directly over at camera three.
This Daily Show bit also provides an interesting insight into how the British are still perceived in the US.
“We all known Britain seems gayâ€, says Jon at one point, “Beckham seems their most masculine man.†And he can’t pronounce Norwich. He calls it Knorr-Witch. This is weird, because the Daily Show team contains a British man, John Oliver who compounds the cliché by appearing sipping tea and offers Jon ‘crumpet’.
Hugh Green, over at Most Sincerely Folks, also tells us how this is not surprising.
That’s some pretty spooky shit. The Daily Show mentioned Norwich City in relation to Iran -and so did I!!
A slight aside. As far as I recall is it not mandatory in Iran for women to wear a head covering?
Hugh, I did a Google search using the terms “Norwich City FC” “Iran”, and satire “Norwich City Football Club” “Iran” but nothing that would explain the coincidence emerged. Clearly Google is fecking useless.
What I did find though was the following. First from the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation and the Raya Varzesh Bazoft – The Official Executor of Football Network website:
“Following Mess Kerman appealed the vote of disciplinary committee (matches without spectators and cash penalty), the high council of appeal suspended the verdict of matches without the presence of spectators for two years, but the cash penalty is not subject to suspension and it is to be duly paid. Therefore, the winner of Homa – Tractor Sazi match in Esfahan today will compete Mess Kerman in Kerman in front of spectators.
And then this, from Mind Hacks
“I’ve just found an anomalous appearance of Norwich City Football Club in a commonly used prescribing manual for psychiatrists.
From the entry on p45 for the SSRI anti-depressant citalopram (trade name ‘Cipramil’) in The Psychotropic Drug Directory 2001/02 by Stephen Bazire (ISBN 1856421988):
In patients who had responded to citalopram 40mg/d for four months, halving the dose to 20mg/d for a maintenance phase (2-yrs) resulted in a 50% relapse rate, re-inforcing the view that full-dose maintenance therapy is required (n=50, Franchini et al, J Clin Psych 1999, 60, 861-65). It has a very low incidence of interactions.
The green and yellow 20mg pack in the UK has led to increased use among football supporters in the author’s home city of Norwich.”
WorldbyStorm. I think you’re right but considering that female TV reporters regularly don the scarf when reporting from Tehran it was almost to be expected as a courtesy. I was reacting to the tabloids reaction which was looking for incidents of abuse because the point that they may have been arrested illegally (that is, presuming they hadn’t strayed in Iranian waters) was too subtle for them to rail against.