#prayfortehran

Hi,  for those of you who don’t know me, which is almost everyone who will ever read this, I’m Jasmine. I’m a 17 year old teenage girl who, today, woke up to the news that her country was attacked, twice. I live in the United States, it’s been almost a year since I’ve moved here, I was born here but moved away when I was young. I’m Iranian, no I wasn’t born there or raised in the country but that is my nationality, it’s what identify with. My parents were both born and raised in Iran, so those culture and traditions are very important to our family. We visit Iran multiple times a year, we owned a house in Tehran, we have loved ones all around the country and memories in every corner. So, imagine the panic, devastation and angry that went through me when I was made aware of this attack. 

Unfortunately, attacks have become common, normal almost. Within the last month both Manchester and London were attacked, and now, Tehran. The difference is, EVERYONE knew of the other attacks, from my friends texting me if I had heard of what happened, to politicians releasing statements, celebrities tweeting and posting about it, it was everywhere, as it should be. I want to make one thing clear before I continue, I believe and support the things I previously mentioned, I myself participated in bringing awareness to those tragic events and prayed for all those harmed and effected.    

I saw ONE post about the Tehran attack, one. It was a snapchat post from an Iranian friend of mine. That is the only post I saw about the event. From all these social media outlets and the thousands of people in which I follow and see, I only saw ONE post. The first thing I did was, got out of bed and went to ask my mum if everyone, from the hundreds of people we know and love in Iran, were okay. When these attacks happened in other countries, everyone was talking about it, my feed on every single social media was filled with post and statements of the unfortunate events. For the first time, I had to search up the event, it’s not trending, people aren’t talking about it, it’s not head lining news like the rest were, it’s just not important. 

Now, Iran is not the only country that has been neglected, I have spoken about this with people before, there are certain countries that others just don’t give a damn about. Places like Turkey which has been attacked multiple times, Syria which is in an internal war and only at times do we shed light on the severity of the issue. I went online to educate myself on what’s going on in more depth, the things I found, absolutely disgusting. People didn’t care, some were happy and said that Iran deserved it, one person went as far as to say “Couldn’t care less if they were all blown up. Terrorist attacking terrorist. I’ll sit back with my popcorn and laugh all the time”, ARE YOU KIDDING ME. THIS IS SOCIETY. Our world has turned in to a pathetic, disgusting, divided nation, that only unites when it looks good. 

I’ve stood by and prayed for every country that has been attacked, our country doesn’t get that same love. My friends texted me after Manchester saying, “did you hear what happened?”. Today, only one friend had asked me if I had heard and if everyone I knew was okay, only one. People who know where I am from, who have seen my post about the attack haven’t shown support, haven’t asked if anything happened, if those I love are okay, if any human being is okay. 

I don’t blame everyone for not being aware, it is the medias duty to raise equal awareness. I’m not mad anymore, I’m disappointed in humanity, for multiple reasons, from the attackers who are regularly doing this, to people who are neglecting a country in their time of need. 

If you took nothing from everything I have said today, take this. A country is not it’s government, a country is not it’s politics, a country is not it’s mistakes. A country is it’s culture, it’s traditions, the people, the history, the sights, the generations of life and the spirit of it’s soul. 

there has been two attacks on Tehran today. hostage situation and shooting in the Parliament building and suicide building in the masoleum of the Imam. 

ISIS has taken responsibility.