Many of us first generation Iranian-Americans, who were teenagers during 1979 Iranian Revolution, read “Oliver Twist” novel as kids back home.  I still remember the face of child actor who portrayed “Oliver Twist” in the movie. Then there was the book that had the picture of this young actor on its cover. “Oliver Twist” was such a popular book during 1970s in Iran that some of us feel that we practically grew up with “Oliver Twist”. This novel was written by 'Charles Dickens'.  Dickens lived from 1812 to 1870 and was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. I was discussing with a friend of mine about how some people like to quote from 'Charles Dickens'.  He asked me whether I quote from Dickens or not.  My reply to him was that the only quote from Dickens that I use is his very famous quote:'It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times...'.  Then I became curious myself to check out the rest of this quote.  This quote is from the novel:'A Tale of Two Cities'.  Cities referenced here are Paris and London and the book is about the plight of the French peasantry in the years before the revolution. 

When I reread Dickens' famous quote, I thought that the quote applies to present time and what goes on in Iran and Diaspora. The complete version of quote is: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.'

Indeed these days we are witnessing some of the best times and also the worst times ever in history of Iran.  Iran is now center stage in the world both for bravery of its people and also for brutality of its leaders.  We all know of the days of hostage taking and how Iran was frequently discussed in US and world media.  But that was almost all negative coverage.  I was not in United States at that time but I have heard stories from family and friends about how Iranians were targetted in US because of the hostage crisis.  In more recent years, we have read negative coverage of Iran and sometimes the negative coverage made us automatically defend elements in Iran which we should not have had any business defending.  Back to Dickens' quote, we have the best of times since Iranians are showing dictators that their time will soon be up. Also, world is seeing how determined and brave are Iranians.  People of world see that Iranians are freedom loving people and don't tolerate dictators.   However, it is also the worst of times because of all the horrible fate that some of these brave Iranians have found. Many have been put in jail, and according to some reports, hundreds have been killed in past few weeks. 

It is age of wisdom since we Iranians have realized that in order to achieve our political goals, we have to be realistic.  Even if millions of Iranians don't want a theocracy, they know that they can't simply go to streets and demand fall of Islamic government.  Iranians know that they have to start with demands which unite most number of people and result in least risk to their lives.   But it is also age of foolishness since we still have those who think they are really smart when they point out to the fact that problem is with theocracy and people should not have leaders like Mousavi or Karroubi.  These people have no sense of the reality that people in Iran are faced with.  I read a wise comment from one of this site 's commentators who noted :'Can you imagine how government would deal with people's demands if they asked for a secular regime?' Not an exact quote but very close to what this commentator wrote.  Now, Iranians are asking for fair elections and freedom of political prisoners and demands that don't question legitimacy of regime but still people are being brutally killed.  If demands were any more radical, there would be many more killings. 

Next part of Dickens quote notes:” it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity”.  Yes, there is belief in eventual victory of causes of freedom and democracy in Iran. However, many people are skeptical about how people of Iran can fight against such a militarized regime and win without widespread bloodshed.  For those who believe victory is not that far, present time is a very hopeful era in history of Iran.  On the other hand, there are many who can’t forget sad images of Iranian youth who have been killed in recent weeks.  For this last group, this is just another season of darkness which reminds them more of sad summer of 1983 rather than spring of 1979 which was in many ways spring of freedom or as we used to call it “Bahar Azadi”.  I have to confess that depending on the day of the week and news from Iran, I oscillate between these two camps in being hopeful about future of Iran or fearful of its present. One thing that I am certain is in future; historians will look back at year 2009 and in regards with Iran, they will write:”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”