Harassment, and more Anti-US propoganda

 

 Now I know why my family is scared to let me go out
by myself.  I had an absolutely hilarious day getting
harassed and nearly raped.  I will start at the
beginning.  I decided to go to the U.S. Den of
Espionage today to check out those anti-US murals
bordering it that I heard about.  It was fucking
great!  There was this one where the statue of liberty
had these creepy hollowed out eyes and was surrounded
by barbed wire, and another one with a US flag shaped
like a gun which was pointed at Iran.  There had to be
like fifty of them; the premises are huge.  They say
things like “THE US IS TOO WEAK TO DO ANYTHING” and
“WE WILL DEFEAT AMERICA, THE GREAT DEVIL.” I managed
to get some shots of three of the murals, the best one
being this evil, orc-like hand with these long grimy
black nails wrapping around Earth and at the wrist,
there are Israel and US sweat bands.  I was so nervous
about getting arrested, as this is a federal building
and you are not allowed to take pictures of any
federal building under any circumstance, especially
not this one.  I was about to take a picture of the
statue of liberty one when I looked behind me and saw
that this man was staring at me with his phone out,
waiting for me to take the picture so that he could
call the police.  I pretended that I was putting the
lens cap on and he put his phone away.  That was
really close.  Anyway, I couldn’t stop laughing out
loud as I walked down the street gawking at them.
They were so ridiculous and angry but what was most
captivating about them was how brazen and bold they
were, coming from a place of is supposed to be
diplomatic about these things.  They just really
didn’t give a fuck. 

 On the way there I took the metro and discovered that
they have women-only cars!  Way boss, although I get
just as many stares from the girls as I do with boys.
I’m just a total misfit here, but I’ve decided to
embrace it.  I do what I would normally do on the T or
on BART which is to audaciously jam out with my clam
out to my ipod despite the fact that everyone else
looks like they are on the verge of dying in their
seats.  It’s funny, they’ve never seen a girl dance
like me before.  Rock is soooooo unpopular here, it’s
utterly baffling.  My rocking out is totally alien to
them, especially in public.  My notion of why they
might not like rock here is because rock is meant to
be listened to live to get the full effect; and only
government approved, traditional Islamic music is
allowed to be seen live here, if any at all.  Live
shows are harder to come by than a Rob Shnieder film
with meaning.  So according to my theory, no live
music means no amazing rock show experiences, which,
in turn, means no interest in rock.  Back to the
women’s subway though, all of the sudden these women
came out of the woodwork selling bras and skimpies up
and down the aisles!  And people were really into
buying them!  It was so funny.  Also, people don’t
drink from water bottles here, or bottles of any sort.
In fact, I actually saw a woman on the subway whip
out an espresso cup and pour herself a shot of water!
It was the cutest.

 Okay, and now for the harassment.  There were so many
instances I can’t even count them all.  First, on my
way to the subway, this guy came up to me and started
walking next to me.  He seemed totally interested in
talking with me like most boys have seemed to be here
but for some reason, this time I catered to his
enthusiasm.  He asked me my name, where I’m from,
where I was going, blah blah; and then when we got to
the subway two minutes later he asked me to go to a
hotel with him!  I just brushed it off as people
thinking that I’m a prostitute here and him being a
very forward man. 
Then, at the Den of Espionage I had just sat on the
curb to smoke a cig, when this dude my age came onto
the sidewalk with his motorcycle and asked me if I
wanted to get on it.  He literally began to beg me
after five minutes and didn’t cease for the next
fifteen.  I’m not even exaggerating.  I protested for
twenty whole minutes repeating “no thank you” in Farsi
the entire time and then, against all my better
judgment, I got on.  I’ve never had good judgment with
boys, and it was really hot and I wanted some wind, so
I figured if things got out of hand, I could just tuck
and roll, right?  He was so stoked and began
immediately proclaiming his love for me, and licking
my hands, oddly enough.  I thought it was funny.  As
he was explaining where we were going and what we were
seeing, I began to wonder what the hell I was thinking
getting on some random dude’s bike.  After
repetitively asking him to take me to the metro, and
then finally just to drop me off in the various places
we were passing, but to no avail, my frustrations with
him grew.  He kept saying that we were going to the
metro but he just kept on going to other places
instead while he told me how much he liked me.
Finally we passed a metro station further down and I
started yelling at him to stop there.  He took me to
this dead end street a few blocks away from it and I
got off the bike.  Then he pushed me up against a wall
and tried to kiss me.  I pushed him off of me and he
tried to fight me but I screamed really loud in his
ear and this distracted him while I kicked him away
from me and ran to the main street away from him.  I
don’t know why I wasn’t scared, it’s like I expected
it or something.  It was weird; I even thought it was
really funny when I imagined myself with my scarf and
my backpack running.  I must have looked like a young
babushka running late to school or something.  I
thought it was over and I was laughing to myself at
how ridiculous it was that I could’ve just gotten
raped when I saw him again.  He was following me!  And
asking me to get back on the bike!  I rolled my eyes
and just walked by him.  But the whole five blocks to
the metro, he was right next to me asking me to see my
glasses or something.  I wasn’t pissed or scared, I
was just dumbfounded that he was still there after
everything that happened and even now that I was again
repeatedly telling him “no” like a robot.  I finally
got to the metro entrance where he couldn’t take his
bike. I stopped for a second and looked back at him,
and then I went in.  I guess he left his bike outside
and then followed me into the station because all of
the sudden he was right next to me again.  He followed
me until he couldn’t go any further without a ticket,
still pleading with me to come back.  It was insane. 
Then, on my way back home from the metro station, six
or seven guys had congregated around me to follow me
home for the entire forty five minutes it takes to
walk back!  They were relentless.  Three were in cars
and were playing a sort of leap frog dealy to follow
me at the pace of my walking.  One guy even had his
friend take the wheel while he got out and started
walking with me to try and convince me to get in the
car.  The other three guys were on foot and were
whispering things to me while I was dealing with
saying “no” to the car people.  I didn’t even have
time to notice that they were moving in on me because
I was screaming at the cars to go away when the
walkers started to subtly grab my ass and tits.  I
punched and kicked them right there in the middle of
the sidewalk and after that if they got close to me I
would just push them away from me like they were
pinballs.  At first I was verbally refusing them all
but this fell upon deaf ears obviously.  The only
things I said the entire time to this entourage of men
was “no” “go away” and “please.” If I knew how to say
“follow,” I would have said “stop following me” as
well.  But it wouldn’t do anything, as I literally had
to keep on repeating these phrases for the whole forty
five minutes.  I tried to cross big streets to evade
them but they just drove on the wrong side and the
walkers just followed me.  Three of them actually
followed me to my door.  I couldn’t believe it.  I
just had to laugh in between my screams because the
whole thing was so ridiculous.

 Here is my problem, why didn’t any one of the other
million pedestrians try to help me out, as I am
obviously not from here and don’t speak the language?
And secondly, I could have totally gotten arrested if
a cop saw them walking with me, as men and women who
are not related can’t be in public together.  It was
so dumb.  I can’t believe that this is what it’s like
here.