Young Iranians regard Islam as Universal Morality

by Amir Azizmohamadi, Tehran Bureau Foreign Correspondent

"I say my prayers listening to Pink Floyd and absorbing the gaze of God, present all over the mountains that I drive through to Shemshak (a popular ski resort close to Tehran)," says Mojdeh, 25, fixing her skis and poles on the roof rack of her car. "I do it my way. Our beliefs tell us to customise our ways to fit in with new circumstances," she breathes in the early morning air, shining in her colourful skiing suit like the cheerful mark of the birth of a new faith on the snowy page of a Tehran street in today's Iran.

Young Iranians are creatively tapping into the pragmatic layers of Islam to update their lives as religious modern teenagers. They are deeply religious, yet the most noticeably dog-eared page in their religious books is the one which includes a frequently-referred-to saying by Imam Ali, Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and the fourth caliph: "The faithful change with the times."

Fasting, redefined from this point of view, is not only a religious practice. Iranian girls have included fasting in their slimming instructions and the boys a chance for a healthier life - Ramadan is when they stop partying hard and staying out late. The Islamic dress code is also only light-heartedly observed as a sign of respect for the conventions of an ancient culture. "You should renew your readings of religious rules day by day so that you can have a healthy relation with other cultures," states Mojdeh.

Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Imam Husain, Ali's son, is one of the holiest days in the Shiite and Iranian calendar-a day of public mourning. Husain's martyrdom, speaking to Iranian teenagers you realize, has a solid place in their tender hearts which no time soon will be replaced by any other icon. However, the Iranian youth have never hesitated to paint Ashura ceremonies with an aesthetic brush. They have done their best to beautify the event. They put up huge portraits of Husain. They play musical instruments to the chants of mourners. And they soften up the violence of chest-beating and delicately turn it into chorographical movements. These alterations might be small, but they are exactly what made Dionysian festivals the Greek theatre.

Andre, whose father is working in a petrochemical company in Iran, is an 18-year-old Norwegian student. He goes to the Italian school in Tehran. When asked about the impact of religious boundaries on his relationships in the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he pauses to think and says, "To tell you the truth, I can't remember anything religious between us. I've got a couple of Iranian friends. We play computer games, go to the gym, and go to cafeterias and stuff like that. On some particular days there are ceremonies and festivals, but apart from that nothing that sticks out."

Young people in Iran are displaying a strong desire to stretch the local over the dimensions of the universal, or, as far as religion is concerned, a common ground of coexistence called morality.

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