It`s over now

Tehran.
The reality comes close. Closer than comfortable.
This is what the system is doing : on the bus to Tehran I`m wondering if I can take off my socks, if it`s allowed to show my bare feet in public, I`m wondering if I can write the names of our hosts on this blog, I can put their first names they tell me.
Mahbube and her sister Shirine with whom we are staying have been arrested 5 months ago during the protests after the elections and have spent two weeks in jail and have been hurt badly.
Mahbube tells me the story after showing me a film of Bahman Ghobadi.
A film about two young people who want to leave Iran to play a concert abroad.
Two young people who aren`t allowed to leave the country, only because they want to play a concert abroad, and thus try it illegally.
Two young people who fail to leave the country and, after a lot of despair and malchance, die.
A film based on a true story.
The president causes more drama than he thinks.
The director of the film who is a friend of Mahbube has fled Iran 4 months ago and his wife has spent 21 days in prison.
Only films about the war between Iraq and Iran are allowed to be made here and more specifically about the martyrs who have died for Iran.
In Farhad`s passport holes have been made so he can`t leave the country. Why? Because he`s pro-Mousavi.
In a bookstore you have to talk silently about certain subjects because it`s a popular place for spies.
Farhad wasn`t allowed to work for four months because he`s pro-Mousavi.
When someone knocks on the door, the women put on their headscarve before they open the door.
Alcohol is bought on the black market and served out of plastic bottles.
The red wine is undrinkable but who cares, what`s forbidden tastes good anyway.
Mahbube and Shirine tell us their story about prison.
They see my face and start to laugh. They are laughing.
Mahbube tells me Don`t think. It`s over now.
I am being comforted...
We have been welcomed by Mahbube, Shirine and their youngest sister Fahime as two new sisters.
Everything is so normal, we laughed from the first minute, talked via the books Farsi on a trip and English on a trip, we talked mostly with our hands.
Mahbube takes us to the productionhouse of the film that she worked on until last week.
We sat at the editingtable. No problem.
They gave us lunch. We`ve spent the whole day there. We`ve been invited in three different households already. It`ll be busy in Tehran.
The people surprise me. Their hospitality is so normal to them. We sleep in Shirine`s bed, the three sisters sleep on the floor in the livingroom. No discussion.
We have a moneyproblem, you can not get money in Iran with your visacard. At the border we were told that we could and we believed.
No problem. There`s a bank in the heart of your friends, tells Mehdi us, director of the movie they`re editing now.
We put on our headscarves in the Iranian way, so that the half of our hair is uncovered, put on our long coat and drive to Shirine`s house, where she`s making dinner for us.
These are the women of Tehran.
Three so beautiful women of Tehran.
A beautyspecialist, an assistant art-director and an athlete.
Three so strong women of Tehran.
I arrange my headscarve again and wonder what I would do if I was being pulled up with chains on my feet to the ceiling for five hours in total.
I wonder.
My back would ache, I would hate the president, would maybe smoke and drink a lot like Mahbube.
That`s what I think.
And also that I am very lucky.
And all the rest I don`t know and I don`t think. It`s over now.