In our Iranian community we have no discussion about bullying. Translation of this word in our language does not show the seriousness of this topic. Bullying is mostly misunderstood as “jokes” or as “just being funny” type of action. In our culture it is easy to laugh at or ignore many hard topics such as bullying. Victims of bullying could be anyone who is considered to be less than others. Our exaggerated respect for social status does allow bullying becoming a top to down way of ordering orders. Our jokes definitely reflect our way of thinking, acting, and feeling. Just to remind us of how bullying look like in our culture, take a moment to think of how we call one another based on the person’s personal attributes. We choose words and they have a meaning. This is a conscious way of bullying, even if we think it is a funny way of calling another person a name.
There are people who will argue with this write and say I am taking things too seriously. However we have to think of how we are victimizing others on a daily basis just by some minimal actions that are called: bullying. It is time to learn what is right and what is wrong.
May 21, 2009
www.middlepeace.com
