Where are you from and how did you get involved in the peace work you are doing now? | Just Vision דילוג לתוכן העיקרי

Where are you from and how did you get involved in the peace work you are doing now?

Orly Noy 1

Where are you from and how did you get involved in the peace work you are doing now?

I grew up in Iran. We left Iran in the 1979 revolution.1 Because of all the commotion of the revolution, all of my memories from my early childhood are kind of mixed. But I remember having a very good life there. When the revolution started it was kind of obvious that it was going to be really, really different, and that we had to find someplace else. Not because there was any kind of anti-Semitic message from the authorities, not at all. To this day they are very anti-Israel, but they are not very anti-Semitic at all.2 We just felt that being a religious Muslim country it wasn't going to be the same. We moved to Jerusalem and I've lived here ever since. I actually studied in a religious girls' school called Pelech.3 This was one of the places that really taught me to think critically, and to criticize everything. I really liked my school. Then I went to the army, of course to the Intelligence, because I speak Farsi.4 I was there for 2 1/2 years. I was supposed to leave the army when the First Gulf War started, and they asked me to stay for longer.
  • 1"In January 1979, the (pro-western) Shah fled and Khomeini established an Islamic republic. The theocracy was profoundly conservative and anti-western. In July 1979, the oil industry was renationalized. In November 1979, militants seized the US Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American hostages." World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  CDL UC Berkeley.  19 December
  • 2One guide offers an explanation: the new Iranian regime "could not altogether disclaim the traditional responsibilities toward the dhimmis (protected non-Muslim minorities) that devolved upon a Muslim ruler, nor could it ignore the declared loyalty of the Jewish minority toward the new regime. Since then, officially, the regime has made a distinction between Jews and Zionists, which is still generally valid in public announcements, but is so blurred as to be often difficult to discern." "Anti-Semitism Worldwide 1999/2000: Iran" Stephen Roth Institute, Tel Aviv University http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw99-2000/iran.htm
  • 3"The Pelech School is a religious high school for girls in Jerusalem. The school was established as an ultra-Orthodox school by educators who wanted to expand the range of subjects studied by religious girls." http://www.nif.org/content.cfm?id=1731&currbody=1
  • 4Iran's official language (also spoken by some in Afghanistan).