English subtitles for clip: File:Masouda speaking Judeo-Esfahani.webm

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I was born in the (Jewish) neighborhood/
ghetto/quarter of Esfahan in the fisher-men’s street

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Until I was ten years old, I was in the
(Jewish) neighborhood/ghetto/quarter of 

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Esfahan then we came out and went to “The
Street”, where we got our house

 
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When we were in “The Street”, our house was 


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in a street, in the street was a few other houses


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We would all play with  
all the other kids (in the neighborhood)

 
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We are five siblings. Three girls and two boys

 
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I am the third daughter. 
After me, there are two sons

 
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In childhood, I remember always doing (playing) chess, 
playing cards, “yeh ghol, do ghol”, 


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with a few small rocks we would get from our garden and 
do (play) “yeh ghol do ghol”. We were entertained for a few hours

 
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I remember we were neighbors with my cousins (dad’s brothers’) daughters. We would play together. 


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We were many kids in two houses adjacent/next to each other

  
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We were always together and we would play

 
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Our schools were also the same. 
We would all go to the Alliance (Etehâd) school

 
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We would go together. We would come back together

 
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We would go together. Our sisters and brothers, 
our uncles’ (dad’s brothers’) 


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daughters and our uncles’ (dad’s brothers’) 
sons and stuff together

 
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We lived in one house. One of my uncles
(dad’s brother) had a house next to ours

 
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And then we would always go to school together, 
would come back together

 
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We would play together, it was very good. 
We were happy together

 
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The (Jewish) neighborhood or Esfahan?

 
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I came from Esfahan to America 22 years ago

 
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First we went to Vienna. We were in Vienna for seven months, 
then we came to America

 
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It was 23 years ago. I don’t specifically remember the year

 
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We came to America in two thousand nineteen

 
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One thousand nine hundred and ninety eight
(1998)

 
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I met my husband for the first time in the
Mâmâ Sârâ pilgrimage site in the Cheleh Khune

 
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I went to turn on candles

 
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I saw him. My husband gave me a candle

 
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He said light this too

 
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I didn’t even see how he looked, I wasn’t aware who he was

 
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I just took the candle and lit it

 
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And as I was going through the rest of the Serah bet  sher site, 
I saw, oh, he is following me

 
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I still did not pay it any attention, I did not realize that he was following me, I said maybe it was something normal

 
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After I was done with my pilgrimage and 
I came to the garden to the yard where our car was parked

 
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As I was entering my brother’s car to go home
 

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I saw that he was standing and looking at me

 
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When I wanted to hop in the car, to go home,
I saw that he was standing and looking at me

 
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A very strange way. he was looking at me

 
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And then I realized that no longer are these looks (he is giving me) 
and the fact that he is following me is not normal
 
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I still did not pay it any attention (and) I went home. After 2-3 days, our phone rang
 
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It was his mom. His mom said that we want to come to ask for your hand in marriage
 
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He came to ask for my hand in marriage and I was fond of him and we got married
 
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I have four kids. One daughter, three sons.
My daughter is married
 
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Her husband is a jeweler. She has two children. One daughter, one son
 

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Two of my son's have wives. One of them has three kids, one of them has two

 
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I also have one son who is a bachelor that does not have a wife. He (lives) with me


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24 years old


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No, I am a house wife

 
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I got my diploma and after I received my diploma, I worked in an American company 

 
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The name of the company was Nobâsi


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It was very important American company 

 
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I was a secretary 
 
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I would type

 
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Until the seventh grade, I was in the Etehâd school 

 
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After seventh (grade), I went to the Muslim/non-jewish schools

 
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And it was very good, I found new friends

 
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It was closer to our house 

 
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The highschool “Bis o Panjeh Shahrivar”

 
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Because I was behind in English, my dad got me a tutor 

 
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(The teacher) Came to my house. He worked with me and eventually caught myself up

 
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And the teacher always thought that because I was two years behind in English, he would never ask me anything 

 
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Then one day he asked me a question, and I answered it

 
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And he said, “clap for her” 

 
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My husband honestly had many jobs

 
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For one (job), he would work as a technician of the heart in Esfahan’s Al-Zahrâ hospital 

 
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He also had a shop in the mall that he will sell medical supplies 

 
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It was good. His work had a high income and was good


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Bachelor’s degree 

 
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In America, we divorced 

 
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In Ettehâd/Alliance school, we were mostly together with the Jews

 
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We were in the same school and Zhânet was few years younger than me

 
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She was one year younger

 
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I remember one day when I was in Elementary school; I don't remember what grade

 
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The teachers back then would take things very seriously 

 
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One day we were in class and the teacher said

 
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“Put your homework on the edge of the table. I want to come see it”

 
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I opened my backpack and saw I don't bring my notebook 

 
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I was really upset and disheartened to see what was going to happen now

 
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The teacher Came and said

 
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“Where is your homework?”

 
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I said

 
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“I wrote it but forgot to bring it”

 
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Then the teacher called his assistant and said

 
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“Assistant come and take to the office to Musio Nâsi”

 
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Musio Nâsi was the Dean

 
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So he can discipline/hit her

 
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Yes. They would hit soft

 
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It was a long and thick ruler. They would hit it on the palm of the hand but may he rest in peace/God have mercy on him --

 
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No, they would not hit in the face or anything. Just on the palm of the hand 

 
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And I got upset but I didn’t have another option since -- 

 
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I got upset but I didn’t have another option other than to go 

 
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I went to the office with the Assistant. The
Assistant told Musio Nâsi 

 
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“She didn’t bring her homework. I brought her here” 

 
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Musio Nâsi said 

 
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“Why didn’t you write your homework?” 

 
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I lied and said 

 
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“My grandpa passed away” 

 
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Musio Nâsi became sad and said 

 
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“Now, really? Your grandpa went to heaven?”

  
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And I said, “Yes”

 
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Musio Nâsi became sad. He went into his office. 
There were a few women sitting there 

 
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They were teachers and stuff. He told the secretaries that 

 
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“Her grandpa went to heaven” 

 
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And they became upset too and Musio Nâsi did not hit me and I came -- 
 

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Now, I did not know that Musio Nâsi knows my grandpa


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Especially since my grandpa’s house was near the Ettehâd school 

 
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But, well, I did not have any other choice other than to escape getting hit 
 

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We were schoolmates. We were in the same school 

 
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 ...

 
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When we moved from the Mahaleh to
Khiâbun, our house was in a street 
 

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All of our neighbors were Muslim 
 

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And each one of them had a few children 
 

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That were the same age as me and my sisters and brothers

 
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Each day we would play together 

 
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We would play ball, volleyball, football, (monkey in the middle), basketball. It was very good
 

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One day we were playing volleyball when the ball fall into the neighbor's house

 
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As much as we knocked on the door, no one would open it for us

 
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I was sure that no one was home 

 
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I saw that everyone was disheartened and the game had reached its climax and we only had this ball to play with 

 
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I said that 

 
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“I can go up the wall and bring the ball back”

 
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The kids said 

 
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“Are you sure that you can” 

 
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I said “Yes. You guys bickle (your hands together) and I will go up”

 
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Two boys made their hands like this. I put my foot on the palm of their hands and went up the wall

 
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I threw myself in from the neighbor's wall

 
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I found the ball in the neighbor's garden 

 
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I found the ball in the neighbor's garden 


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I picked the ball and threw it into the street 
 

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I was going up the wall to come out of the house

 
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I saw that the neighbor's daughter opened the door. She came 


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And I was like 

 
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She opened her house’s door and came into the house

 
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She got scared and so did I. She said

 
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“What are you doing?”

 
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I said “My ball fell and I came t get it” 

 
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I had become so confused and embarrassed 


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That I wanted again to go up the wall to get out of the house 

 
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The neighbor's daughter, who's name was Zohreh,

 
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Opened the door. She said

 
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“Come exit from here” 

 
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I thought that now that I came in from the wall, I wanted to go over the wall too (to exit)

 
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I really liked it


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I always remember when I was a child, 
I really liked going up the walls


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No, we would always spend time together 

 
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Either they were at our house or we went to their house 


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Our mothers and fathers were very good with each other 
  

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They all had a lot of respect for each other.
 

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We would always play together and we're together 
 

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It was very good


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No, it was good. It was great 
 

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The revolution did not affect the relationship between non-Jews and Jews
 

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They were all good 
 

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They were very kind, they were good
 

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Summary of what she is saying: People after Enghelâb (the Revolution) 
had the same mindset as they did during the Shah. 


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This is why it wasn’t an issue between the Jews and the Muslims.
When we were really young, there was a lot more discrimination
between Jews and Muslims, 


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but during the Shah when things got better, society advanced,
and people's lives improved, 


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people’s mindsets improved too. It wasn’t like the old times.
After the revolution, people stayed in that mindset.