Good Ole USA, Home Sweet Home!

How sweet freedom really is! After a year in an overseas prison, I could not be happier to be home in the good ole USA! I made a decision during that horrible, painful, and dangerous year in another country! The decision I made then is still one I am carrying out now.. My decision was to never leave the USA again!

I should consider myself lucky that I did not die in that overseas prison. Even luckier that I did not receive the death sentence as that is the common remedy for most crimes over there. The fact that I was an American may have kept me alive, but it definitely was also the reason I went to prison at all. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have lived through the whole thing and not been brought home in a pine box. Or worse, I could have been buried over there in the hot, dry, sandy soil. Nothing really grows there except around the water. Water is precious there and has been fought over for centuries. Ancient wells that still produce sweet water, feed trees and plants, and produce shade and greenery that stand out like kiwi in a yellow fruit salad.

The fact that I should not have been convicted of any crime, well, I really wasn’t convicted of any crime, should have been enough to keep me out of the women’s correctional facility. I had done nothing wrong! I was convicted of guilt by association. Well, I was not really convicted! It was all a confusing mess of foreign words and laws, and my word was not as good as a the word of any man! How was I to know that if I was caught alone with a man, and then that man was murdered while I was innocently sitting in his vehicle waiting for him to get back inside, I would be considered to have been guilty by association? In my mind this concept takes the whole “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” rule a little far!

I had plenty of time to reminisce about how it was that I got myself in this situation as I sweated, quite literally, the year, in a small room crammed with numerous “felons”. Most of them were women who had displeased their male relatives in some way. The truth is that there were few women in any prison in this country. Most women were punished within the confines of their homes or by some ghastly form of death such as stoning.

I met Ahmed in a college in Kansas. He and 9 of his fellow countrymen were attending our fine educational institution to further their ability to get jobs when they returned to their own country. The first time I was alone with him, he showed me his room where he slept. I was fascinated at the differences between his bedroom space and what I would consider a typical American’s bedroom. The smell of sheep/goats was so strong on the sheepskin he used instead of a blanket that I thought I would be sick. I remember backing out of the room as quickly as I could and returning to the others. That night I ate for the first time dilled rice, a wonderful salad, a roasted meat, a wonderful dip, and pita bread. I drank strong tea.

Everything was different about these people. They drank hot, sweet tea every morning with buttered toast. They fasted for a whole month during the day, drinking neither water or eating food. They carried prayer rugs with them and prayed many times every day. The women in the group were very careful to never be alone with any man. They played a game called backgammon. They were so fast as they scored the points and moved the marble like circles around the points of the board that I could not keep up. They laughed and taught me how to play, each of them taking a little time to teach me as though I were a child.

These people were so fast and good at math, and they debated quite capably with me and my friends about the state of our country, politics, and economics. We held many informal debates over tea and backgammon. They told us that we were not really free! “We were deceived”, they said! They sang the praises of their country! Their government was tolerant of differences, Christians, Jews, Muslims alike they said. There was no racism in their country! They were a mixed group. 2 Persians who considered themselves Christians (they did not pray, fast, etc…), and Muslims who were the definite majority. The Muslims sang the praises of their religion. “All Muslims practiced tolerance, charity, and unity with the women being protected, cherished, and cared for.” , they said.

When I was invited to go to their country, I thought this was an opportunity of a lifetime! How was I to know that this opportunity would nearly cost me a lifetime, possibly a life…….mine! I had no idea that my friend spending time alone with me would become a cause of controversy among his family! I did not know that my friend was in a precarious situation with his clan. I did not know that I was in danger of punishment for the same reason! My friend kept the controversy that was swelling around us from me. He never let on that we were flying in the face of tradition, religion, and patriarchy!

When I stepped out of that vehicle and saw my friend hanging from a tree, his fingernails lightly scratching the top of the vehicle when the wind swayed his body, I nearly went into a coma! When I was arrested because I did not do anything to stop what had happened, was alone with a man, was an American, and was a woman to boot….. well, I promised myself that if I ever lived through this mess, got out of this mess, and made it home to the US, I would never leave the US again.
I am very happy with our country even in the state of affairs it is in now! We have no rules about beating a wife, women are considered equal to men, children are not the sole property of the man. Women can work and train for whatever job they can achieve! We have wine, wear cool, comfortable, shorts and tank tops, go to parties, festivals, and all kinds of get togethers. We go on dates! ……..Life is pretty good here! Ah…………..the good ole USA!!