The Blogs: I am Georgian and I have seen Tehran and Tel Aviv

I am Georgian and I have been to both, Tehran and Tel Aviv

“In Georgia I wear it as a scarf, but in Iran this is my chador, my obligation” – An Iranian girl told me, as I queued to cross the border between Iran and Turkey.

I was born and raised in Georgia, in a country with a strong connection with the Jewish world and which prides itself for always being a safe haven for the Jewish people. Georgia’s connection with the Persian world is equally strong, but extremely tragic. Our history textbooks are filled with Persian rulers invading our land, burning down the regions and deporting hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians to the Persian Empire as slaves.

I am a descendant of a Georgian warrior, Zaqaria Kakhelishvili, who fought against the Qajar Iran in 1795. He then settled down in Tbilisi and is buried on one of the mountains surrounding the capital city, along with my other ancestors. As kids, we were able to hold the sword left by Zaqaria and carefully kept by my maternal grandfather, Otari.

My first contact with Iran was like photosynthesis, however a dramatic and female one. All the women dressed in colorful clothes suddenly paused to get their dark clothes and chadors out. I soon stepped into a world of an excessive amount of motorcycles and dark clothes. Everything I had ever heard about the ancient Persepolis and the Persian folklore, was now hidden away at the museums. I saw a country leaning away from their authentic culture into a radical religiousness.

A year later I visited Israel for the first time. My first culture shock was when I got the local currency, shekel, which turned out to be in both Hebrew and Arabic.

I moved to Israel in 2021 to complete my PhD studies in Jewish Studies. As a student I met religious and secular Jews, Muslims, Druze, Christians, Palestinans, Bedouins, Armenians, Arabs and Assyrians. Even after the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, I was amazed to hear the call to prayer, recited from the minarets by a muezzin of Tel Aviv or other towns. Moreover, I have not met a single Israeli with a hatred toward Iranian people, but the other way around. I once spoke to a Persian Jewish man in Tel Aviv who spoke to me about his native Isfahan. “One eye for Isfahan, one eye for Jerusalem”, he cited an old Persian Jewish poetic expression, wiping a tear away.

I woke up to the sirens informing me that the Israel-Iran War had begun. Prior to that, I had been following the news about Iran’s excessive efforts to enrich and accumulate large amounts of uranium which would be enough for 9 nuclear bombs. And all of these are happening near my home country of Georgia. Having seen Iran with my own eyes, I do know that it doesn’t and won’t own a nuclear weapon for a peaceful purpose.

I am neither Persian, nor Jewish, Iranian or Israeli, but as a dweller of the Middle East I firmly believe that the peaceful future can only be built on science, education, renewable energy, multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue and multicultural communication. I see Israel as a guarantee of Western values in the region and I feel hopeful when I see it being surrounded by Arab countries who want to have civilized relations with it.

While in other areas of the Middle East, such as Iran, being queer is a one-way ticket to torture and death, Israel has built the most accepting society in the region. And no, this is not Pink Washing but rather a reality! I see emancipated and powerful women of Israel and I watch women being beaten to death in Iran for simply showing their hair and refusing to wear a chador.

I wholeheartedly believe that the Iranian people deserve to be connected with the world and not be hidden away behind the curtain of radicalism and jihad. And I wish the brave Iranian people, especially the women, to thrive and proudly embrace “Woman, Life, Freedom”!