Sepideh Shaverdi: Marriage between Religions

I remember that I once saw a touching movie a few years ago. The story was about a girl and a boy who fell in love; however, they had different faiths. Their parents had hearts of stone; therefore, they had no chance to get married .I had sympathy for them. Moreover, I thought that they would be the best couple in the world. Therefore, I would marry someone of a different faith because, I do believe in love. We would be very happy together. We would support our marriage by our true love and a lot of sacrifices.

Firstly, this kind of marriage is based on love. Love is a great thing, and it makes us happy. Love is the strong romantic feeling for someone, regardless of his background or religion. Love can explain every thing itself. Actually, we have to make sure that this love is our strongest love. If our love to our family, our culture, and our religion is stronger than it, we will not be able to deal with our problems.

Secondly, to make this marriage work; we have to keep an open mind to understand our spouse’s culture and respect it .I believe that all religions are the same in their main ideas. Their differences are in their details. As a result, we can share our similarities. Also, we have to respect our children’s right to choose their religion. Usually children follow their parents’ religion. In this marriage they would choose each of them. Therefore, I would let my children follow their father‘s religion. I would love him and love my children exactly the same way. It does not matter what religion they would have.

I n conclusion, if we want each other from our hearts, we can support our marriage. Also, we have to make a lot of sacrifices because of family values. Actually, I know some happy couples of different faith.
Good luck to those couples who make it work.

Sepideh Shahverdi: Same-Sex marriage

Homosexuals are the members of our society. Usually, we see them, and we read or hear some news about them. If we like them or dislike them, nothing will be changed. They live around us like other members of our society, so we should accept them. Unfortunately, some people hate them. They think that homosexuals are against God, and God hates them, too. However, God hates nobody. God hates our bad behaviors and thoughts. Actually, God loves everybody unconditionally. Also, it is their private lives. As long as they do not cause problems for others, they can do what they want. In my opinion, they can marry and live together.

The homosexual activists have tried to tell people that they are born in that way. Firstly, their creation is different from ours. Their emotions are absolutely different. For example, maybe they are physically men, but emotionally women. When we see a man who is wearing feminine clothes and puts on makeup, it means his thoughts and his emotions are like a woman. Secondly, their views are different. Their satisfaction is different, so they like to have relationship and marry a same sex partner. This marriage causes the feeling of

happiness for them.

Furthermore, in a democracy, same sex marriage should be allowed. They need freedom like others to choose a partner for marriage. If they fall in love with someone, so they can marry him or her. Also, they have the same rights as other people. Actually, they are equal to others. They should have the right to marry by law.

In conclusion, I agree with same sex marriage. Homosexuals are a part of our society. However, their feeling and thinking are absolutely different from us. We cannot deny them. A legal marriage is a basic human right, so they should be allowed to get married and have their own families.

Daniel Yang: Inter-faith Marriage

Daniel Jangwon Yang

Marriage can be defined as a harmony between two different people. They have different family backgrounds, different educational histories and sometimes different ethnicities. Marriage is a set of procedures to overcome those differences of the partners. Some couples fail to compromise these usual differences and end up with divorce. What do you think about a different faith? It’s easy to imagine the difficulties the couple of different faiths would come across in the married life. They must be much more serious than those of others. The understandings on the specific objects may be not only different but also opposite. A religion worships some animals while others treat them as excellent materials of cooking. Besides, there are so many difficulties from a different faith such as foods, traditions, ceremonies and children’s education. In spite of these obstacles, I would marry someone of a different faith, because the harmonized personalities and the common goals of my life are more important than a religion.

The harmonized personalities of my spouse help me to live happily. Firstly, the similar way of thinking related to personalities provides us platforms to understand each other easily. I don’t need to addle my mind with my spouse’s thoughts. If my spouse is within the territory of my understanding, I would be comfortable and can pursue my will without hesitation. I am able to develop my idea with the help of my spouse, being focused on the intended direction. I can create new ways over the mutually escalating discussions. Secondly, the similar way of behaving stemmed from the harmonized personalities supplies us a cornerstone to build strong confidence. We help each other without any enquiry on the details trustworthily and never regret. This kind of relationship gives us stability for the whole life. We can positively monitor and advise each other to improve each other’s performances. These activities guarantee that each of us will be the best guardian for each other.

Happy and successful married life consists of a series of efforts to achieve the common goals. Firstly, we cooperate pleasantly, focusing both efforts on the goals we are commonly longing for. Everyone feels satisfied when one works to accomplish one’s own goal rather than to help others. Cooperating with a spouse for the common goals gives us both the basic satisfaction and extra one helping a spouse. We, moreover, are confident to overcome many difficulties with a very friendly supportive soul mate. We are not lonely and fatigued to death, cooperating with sympathy. Secondly, we can enjoy the pleasure of achievements better. We can share the common value of life. We do have a tightly knitted relationship that nobody can break. Each of us saves our sweats to achieve a goal, sharing lots with each other: at the same time, each of us enjoys the achievements, doubling the pleasure of the two.

I know very well that a different faith is a big trouble in marriage because religion comprises cultures, views and conscience. I recently recognize that the importance of faith in our life is fading apparently. Especially, the youth tends to follow their own decision instead of the religious dogma. I believe that this trend wouldn’t turn around and the speed of religion dissolutions would accelerate. Consequently, religions would not impact our lives. More important considerations are the factors related to how to manage a happy and successful married life. Those are the personalities, philosophies and goals of a life of a spouse rather than a faith.

Daniel Yang: Racism

There is a movie about a cute blond girl with a perfect white complexion. In fact, she is the daughter of black woman. Even though she has been brought up with an ultimate motherly affection, she can’t accept her as a mother. She has never called her mom at the presence of others. One day, she refuses to introduce her mother to her classmates when her black mother comes to school to give her an umbrella due to the sudden raining. She is not only ashamed of her black mother but also terrified of her being treated as not a pure white. This is a sad story. We know that the deepest love on Earth is the affection between a mother and a young child. As we see, racism ruins a great love. The causes of racism are both innate and learned.

Racism is innate. Firstly, people are born with the prejudice of racism. Experiments conducted by Dr. Frances Aboud of Mcgill University provide scientific evidence. Her report proves that a two-year-old baby can discriminate the pedestrians on the street by their skin colors. Moreover, Nazism may be an example of innate racism. Nazis were confident that Germans are superior to any other race. They wanted to realize and prove their dream. Secondly, homogeneous societies are rife with racism. The people living with same race and same skin color tend to show racism. Those people feel uncomfortable to mingle with different kinds of people. They are concerned that different kinds of people may assault them, so they are defensive and exclusive. What is more, same religious groups have chronic racism, denying the other religions. Many wars between religions have been going on until now over the globe. As of today, religion is the most serious cause of racism, while other causes are relatively weakening.

Racism is learned, too. Firstly, people learn it from their families, societies and even schools. Many people express racism in many ways unconsciously. Some parents talk about their biased experiences in their work places in front of their children repeatedly. Homogeneous neighbors tell careless racial jokes, holding their children’s hands. Even at school, some teachers and senior pupils use careless words implying racial discrimination. The children, as a result, learn it very naturally, spreading prejudice. It contaminates other children very quickly. Besides, children copy the behaviors of adults easily. If children find that a teacher praises the children of specific race more, they would react with prejudice. Secondly, Mass media propagate racism publicly. Dramas and films stereotype most of drug addicts as coming from specific races. They influence us to be the stereo typed. Besides, news focuses racial issues to attract more popularity. They pretend to accuse racism but sometimes worsen it.

We name these days “the global era”. We can fly anywhere in the world in a day. We live on Earth rather than in a country. We can communicate with each other at any time. Even though the times have changed a lot, we keep racism in our minds. This causes fighting between peoples and wars between countries and regions. We need to run systematic education programs to abolish racism. We have to launch universal campaign claiming no differences between races. The leaders should declare “no more racism”. Mass Medias have to be more careful to deliver the message of “no bias”. Everybody should understand that no racism brings a peace to our world.

Sepideh Shahverdi : Economic Problems

The effect of economic problem in Iran
Iran is a big country with a big population. Its economy is dependent on oil and natural gas. However, Iranians are suffering from several economic problems, especially after the eight _year war with Iraq. There are several effects of economic problems in Iran such as unemployment and inflation.
Unemployment is the most important effect of economic problems in Iran .There are
a lot of educated young people who look for a job but they donʼt have any chance so
it has caused poverty . If people donʼt have jobs, they donʼt have any money, so they have to live under the average .It could stop their children from continuing their studies, and it causes the reduce of the rate of education .Unemployment has increased the rate of crime, and it has made important contribution to crime; also, unemployed people have potential to do crime. On one hand they donʼt have any opportunity to have positive activities and on the other hand they need money to survive.
Inflation is considered as another effect of economic problems, so it caused a continuing increase in prices of goods and services . Because of inflation the power of currency in Iran reduced and also the value of Iranianʼs money compared with foreign exchanges reduced too . In additional inflation reduced the domestic product and it caused dependency on other countries , for inflation some producer and the owner of factories became bankrupt.
Government has to provide some job opportunities and also control the prices. They have to support self employers, and persuade unemployed people to run small businesses. They can support the producers by giving them loan and tax exemption to reduce the rate of unemployment and inflation.

Laleh Taleshi: Racism

What are the causes of racism? How can it be prevented?
Racism is a big problem in today’s world. Racism is usually caused by isolation from different races and influence of others. Racism can develop at a very early age, depending on the environment of the child. If it not prevented or stopped in time, it could be fetal.

One of the main reasons for racism is often isolation. A child who grew up in a white community is a good example of this. He does not know any things about other nationality. In this child’s mind, only white people exist. Therefore, when this child sees a person of different color Is strange for him and he might be scared of that person or even attack the person.

In addition, another reason for racism is influence of others. Many parents’ behavior leads to the development of racist thoughts in their children’s mind. They tell their kids to avoid communication with kids of another nationality. The parents do not let their kids to even play with those kids. Another form of influence is the media. It is often shown in the movies that black people are criminals. I saw in the news many times the police arrested them. I think the media exaggerates about coloured people.

In conclusion, there are many ways to prevent or even stop racism. One of the ways is to treat everyone equally. Another way is to have open immigration policies so that people can learn to live with other people of different color, race and nationality.