« Holy days? | Main | Latest conspiracy theories »
November 17, 2003
Huggable
Ever meet someone you wanted to hug from the get-go? If not, meet Mrs. Mallou. 86 years young, she's the pixie-sized founder of the Women's Society Against Environmental Pollution. That is, she founded the group 11 years ago, at 75!
A former librarian for the University of Tehran, Dr. Mallou had ordered a book in 1972 about environmental degradation. Upon finding that there wasn't even a category under which to file the work, she decided that she needed to read it to understand where it should be filed. Upon finishing, though, she had become a convert to the environmental movement.
Mrs. Mallou believes that women should be at the center of such a movement because they are the ones producing children, they are the ones shopping for consumables, and they are ones who can educate the best. She actually puts quite a lot of pressure on women to be the lynchpins for correcting society's evils. As a child, she says she was offended by the work "weak" in association with women, and traces her fervor to her grandmother, who founded the first private girl's school in Tehran and who apparently wrote a book called 'The Problem with Men." I'll have to try and find that.
Mrs. Mallou spoke in Farsi, and so I don't yet have a full translation of what she said. But she was very much "there" and I hope what her hand gestures intimated is also reflected in her words. At one point, though, I had no problem understanding. When I asked her why there has been such a rapid population growth here (100 percent in 25 years), she started to answer in Farsi, and then looked directly at me, shook her head and said "Baw. It's politics." End of comment.
Mallou has spent her time trying to educate women about recyclables and resisting "shopping disease," as she puts it. Her contribution, one must admit, is not on working on large issues such as traffic or air pollution, but she and her group have consistently raised these subjects with parliament and with the press. Sometimes, especially in a society such as this, that's about all you can do. And my sense is she's not getting any quieter, so who knows?
Posted by MJF at November 17, 2003 05:15 PM