
Akbar Bashteeni, laborer, with daughter, Mahnaz, 3. In the village of Bashtseen, 40 kms. west of Sabzevar, NE Iran. 
Akbar Bashteeni, laborer, with daughter, Mahnaz, 3. In the village of Bashtseen, 40 kms. west of Sabzevar, NE Iran.
“When my daughter was born I couldn’t believe her eyes were this color. Her mother’s eyes are dark. My eyes are dark. Everyone on my side of the family and hers have dark eyes. Our parents and their parents all had dark eyes. We couldn’t believe our daughter had such blue eyes and white skin too.
“People here don’t like blue eyes. They take it as a dark omen. I love my daughter but she probably will experience some bad reactions in her future.
“There have been other tourists who’ve stopped to take pictures. She gets a lot of attention.
“This will probably be my own only child. Life is too difficult today to have any more. I am so sorry that I never studied beyond the fifth grade. I hope my daughter does better. I even hope someday she’ll go to college.”

Blue eyes are not popular here partly because of the belief that those who hunted down and killed Imam Hussein had blue or green eyes.
Also plenty of blue-eyed people came through here with ill intent, such as Alexander the Great or the 18th- and 19th-century British soldiers.
Ironically, though, the Aryans, the very people whose descendants helped build the Persian empire 2500 years ago in central Iran probably had plenty of blue eyes among them.
Pottery and other artifacts found here indicate the Aryans came through and lived in this very area, starting from 5,000 years ago, on their way south, before they spread out to populate Europe and Central Asia.

Seeing Mahnaz threw me into turmoil. As we sped back to Sabzevar to end the day’s fast (25th day of Ramadan today), I watched the sun drop behind the bluish desert and my mind again drifted back to the subject of war and how others living on the other side of planet permit their governments to drop bombs on these people.
To kill, first the mind has to dehumanize the victim. Would seeing a child that looks like a Norman Rockwell character impede that process?
If the people of Iraq all had blue eyes and white skin, would fewer than 90% of American taxpayers support the Iraq slaughter in its early days?
Would Hillary Clinton have stopped preening herself for 2008 for just a darn moment and realized that there are lots of children and villages in Iraq too?
If Afghanis had blue eyes, would the Pentagon’s finest, in their hunt for a single man, suggest some strategy other than sending the blind and dumb B-52’s?
To the American soccer moms who voted in Bush and continue to believe in Dick’s lies, I say: please, just look into the eyes of Mahnaz. Can you, would you, just for a tiny moment try to see your own?