| God Knows I Tried. An experimental approach to orientalism and the practice of writing. (excerpts) |
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The city authorities, speculating on an inevitable confrontation between rich and poor, are unprepared for the actual course of events of ë78 and ë79. During the revolution, the troops predictably line up along a border between north and south, but the movement never really attempts to overrun the north, opting for a new urban inscription altogether, running from east to west instead. The main demonstrations would start in the working class area around what is now Imam Hossein Square, and move westwards to Azadi Square, where 20í000 modern living units were being built for the middle class. During the one or two lively, spirited years following the revolution, students in architecture and engineering help families build thousands of unauthorized houses on public land or private property in the better parts of town (forcing the owners to sell at a low price after the fait accompli). Moreover, in the hope of reconciling the disenfranchised and the illiterate with the city, the university campus, itself built in 1930 to reinscribe the urban barrier between upper and lower Tehran, is declared the official public domain for all Friday prayers. Once things settle down, Khomeini chooses a home in Jamaran, way up north, on the slope of the Alborz mountains. |
