Introducing the book "Between the Indians"

Memoirs of trip of justice-seeking students to Bolivia

Elham Tavoosi
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2021-8-10

The book "Between the Indians" is the memoirs of the trip of justice-seeking students to Bolivia. It has been researched by Ehsan Dehqani and compiled by Sardar Abadi.

This 191-page book was first produced in 1000 copies by the Office of Cultural front of Islamic Revolution in winter 1399 (December 2020) and published by Rahyar Publications.

The book is an attempt to show the efforts of the Student Justice-Seeking Movement group dispatched to the International Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia. This collection includes memoirs of the delegation, including intellectual articles, with the help of which they show the Latin American atmosphere and their role in international relations, and discuss the commonality of Iran and Latin American countries. These memories are related to the year 1389 (2010). Many of the ties have changed over the years, and some of the pathologies presented in the sections of memoirs in chapters one through three may be related only to that period.

Thousands of NGO activists, including a delegation from the Iranian Student Justice-Seeking Movement have thought of finding a solution and making a quick decision by attending the World Summit on Environmental Protection. Aware of the deadly dangers of climate change and recognizing the global capitalist system that is the main cause of these devastating changes, they attended a summit on behalf of 7 billion inhabitants of the earth planet whose goal was to try to preserve the human habitation.

The conference " Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth" initiated by the Indian and rural president of Bolivia on 19^th of April 2010 and continued for four days.

The content of the book has been divided in five parts:

The first part, entitled "Among the Memories", refers to how this journey began; in a phone call between Mr. Amir Tafreshi (a student in Railway Transportation Engineering, University of Science and Technology, a member of the Central Council of the Hezbollah Student Assembly of the University of Science and Technology and a member of the founding board of the Student Justice-Seeking Movement, who lived in Ecuador for eight years researching and social concerns) with Mr. Mohammad Sadeq Shahbazi, Tafreshi offered to participate in this meeting and then quoted the memories of the students sent to this trip before leaving. The three people selected for the summit were: Mr. Seyed Ali Mousavi (a member of the Student Justice-Seeking Movement, a distinguished student in physics at the University of Science and Technology, who went to seminary years later to study religious studies. He also knew Spanish to some extent. The presence of a clergy at the summit was of great importance. Mrs. Fatemeh Delavari (a member of the union who studied software engineering at Bahonar University and was more or less fluent in English and Arabic. The main issue in her selection was that she presented the model of an Iranian Muslim woman.) Mohammad Saleh Meftah (a former member of the Central Council of the Student Justice-Seeking Movement and a student of Islamic Studies and Law at Imam Sadeq University. He was fluent in French and had a background in the Islamic world).

The second section, entitled "Between Looks", refers to the memoirs of Mrs. Fatemeh Delavari, Mohammad Sadegh Meftah, and Seyed Ali Mousavi from the moment they boarded the plane to the time they arrived in Bolivia and the events at the Bolivian embassy.

The route of the dispatched group was considered from Tehran to Istanbul and then to Sao Paulo because one-way ticket cost twice higher. In this part of the book, the memories and events that happened along this path are mentioned. Among other things, Mrs. Delavari met a 57-year-old woman who was reading a thick book on the plane and said to herself, "If I were her, I might have chosen a smaller book to read on the plane, and along the way, after talking to the lady, she found out that she were reading the book "Daa". Or a French girl who catches the attention of the expedition group with an Arabic Keffiyeh at a Turkish airport and in response to Mrs. Delavari's question, says that it is a "gift from Lebanon". More importantly, the people in Latin American got the name Iran with Iraq and India because of their lack of knowledge of Iran and nominal similarity including a woman who, in response to Mrs. Delavari's invitation to Iran, said, "I will come when the war is over." (P. 49)

One of the beauties of this section is the way the plane landed in La Paz, the world’s highest capital, which the author narrated from the language of the narrators. The plane took off at the exact moment of landing.

The third part of "Between the Indians" talks about the opening ceremony and the influx of journalists to the Iranian delegation, and the hijab of Mrs. Fatemeh Delavari, which raised questions.

The fourth part is entitled "Among the Questions" is a summary of a report about the first press conference of the Student Justice-Seeking Movement delegation after the visit to Bolivia. In this section, Mr. Meftah pointed to the lack of cultural productions to present to the Bolivian people and says that our hands were empty, while the Bolivian people were very eager for the revolution and Islam.

Finally, in the “Epilogue” section, a collection of notes and experts' views on why the justice-seeking students travelled to Bolivia and Latin America have been collected.

Part of the book reads:

"On the way back and at the airport, we were with the senior director of the Ethiopian Environment Agency. He had come without any accompanying delegation and servants. He had lost his boarding pass and had been confused that no one spoke English. We tried to help him as much as we could to reduce his anxiety.

We talked to him about various issues. Speaking of Israel, he left us and took a short walk around the airport. After looking around a bit, he turned and said, "You are a powerful country that you can condemn Israel so easily. Even though we know their crimes and atrocities, we cannot speak publicly."

"You are a very powerful country," he said. "Do not think that we can behave like you in the international arena."

He did not dare to speak even at the airport when no one was around us. Perhaps for all those countries with a long history of anti-imperialism, it was unbelievable that a country like Iran would not allow the United States to have an embassy in its own country. For some, it was unbelievable to survive without the US Embassy! But this being alive is the best insult to the fragile power of the United States." (P. 108)