He still remembered his father's art studio. He had wandered around the studio ever since he was five. His father sent him to elementary school when he was five or so, and he started learning the alphabet and to recite the Holy Quran.

As the First World War spread to Iran, it was difficult for people, especially in Azarbaijan, to earn their living. People suffered from hunger, unemployment and adverse conditions. Therefore Abolfat's father, discontent with his life, decided to move to Tehran. Abolfat started studying in Adib School. Because his native language was Turkish, he couldn't understand the lessons, yet he studied very hard and became the top student.

The war was followed by months of severe famine. People lost their interest in art, and his father's business began to decline. No orders were placed for portraits or rug designs, even by well-known manufacturers. Soon his father went bankrupt, so he decided to go back to Tabriz. Sayyid Abolfat started studying at Roshdieh School in Tabriz, and he passed his fourth grade that year.

That summer he went to help his father at the art studio. His father believed Abolfat was so talented that he could become a painter, so upon his father's request, he seriously took up painting. He was in sixth grade when his father went deaf. From then on, he took on a good deal of his father's responsibilities at the studio.

His father opened a new studio with one of the rug designers. They took orders from important manufacturers and Abolfat helped them with the work. Soon they made a name in the rug industry.

Once the owner of a rug factory dropped by to give orders, Abolfat was coloring a design. He asked Abolfat's father to allow Abolfat to work for him. Then Abolfat worked as a designer in the factory in the morning and with his father in the afternoon. His designs were so famous that people brought him more orders. Abolfat worked there for two yeas and created beautiful designs. At the same time he studied miniature at an art school.

Abolfat was sixteen when his mother died. It came to him as a great shock. A few months later his father married a kind woman who had a thirteen-year-old daughter to whom Abolfat later proposed. A little later a loom was set up in the studio and Abolfat learned how to weave rugs under a prominent artisan in the city. He was fond of rug weaving and felt he was content with it as if he had been born with rugs. He worked for hours and didn't get tired, and when finished he rejoiced at it.

His first child's birth coincided with his graduation from art school. He then decided to continue his studies in Tehran. Despite his father's disagreement, he saved some money and moved to Tehran. Abolfat started working in a tile factory as a designer. He was genuinely interested in studying at the College of Fine Arts. Mr. Khaknegar, his boss, encouraged him and helped him enter college. He went to college in the morning and designed tiles in the afternoon. At college, under Mr. Taherzadeh, he began to study miniature design.

Abolfat and twelve other tile designers entered a competition to design the portals of the parliament building. His design was accepted. His constant apprenticeship and experience in different branches of art helped him make progress in the tile industry too.

In his rug designs Abolfat was inspired by the poems of Mowlavi and Hafez. He would read a poem and then interpret it. Based on his interpretation, he would make a design.

Abolfat worked very hard, yet he could hardly make ends meet. Therefore, he decided to work in the evenings and send half of his income to his family in Tabriz. What remained was not enough to live a comfortable life in Tehran. He then worked for a movie theater writing advertisement boards. He also rented a place where he taught calligraphy and painted portraits. At the time, he decided to start a great miniature work, Yousufu-Zulaykha. He also painted Aref Ghazvini and sent it to his tomb. After finishing art school he went back to Tabriz.

Abolfat was 25 when the Second World War broke out. In spite of his youth, he had a lot of experience and knowledge of the arts. After a few months of working with his father, he started to work for himself. Weaving and designing rugs was his main occupation at that time. He also trained some young students. He designed a rug and set up the loom in his studio. He was half finished with the work when he ran short of money. His father introduced him to a wealthy friend who lent him five thousand tomans on the condition that he should be the first person to see Abolft's finished work. After finishing the work, he named it Soltan Mahmood's Attack on Fooman.

The wealthy merchant wanted to buy the rug but Abolfat refused to sell it. The merchant maliciously demanded his money, so Abolft pawned his rug to repay his debts. Later when he wanted to settle his debts, the merchant refused to give it back. Abolfat even offered a large sum but it was no use. After his mother's death, that was the worst experience in his life.

Later on, Abolfat decided to wave another beautiful rug. Finally he adopted a French design, `Valce de Lave', and used it for his rug. When he started weaving it, he realized that he didn't know much about colors. So with the help of a close friend who worked in a German paint factory he increased his knowledge of paints and colors. Using this knowledge he began to work on the Angels' Dance.

It was wartime and Azarbaijan was bombarded by the Russians. Business was down and Abolfat had to put his rug away because nobody was interested in rugs and designs. One day a Russian officer came to see his rug 'The Angels' Dance'. He liked it a lot, so later Abolfat was invited to participate in the Iran-and-Russia Cultural Ties Society. He agreed to go, but got sick and couldn't. Upon returning to Iran, the Russian officer brought Abolfat seventy paintings with autographs presented to him by a great Russian artist.

A few weeks later, Abolfat went to Tehran to sell `The Angels' Dance'. His biography together with the picture of the rug was published in a magazine and he soon became famous. The rug was taken to the American embassy where many ministers and representatives and even Ghavam-o-Saltaneh attended the auction. Although the highest price was offered by Ghavam, he refused to pay the money and later gave the rug back. Abolfat was really upset and wanted to burn the rug but a friend of his prevented him from doing that. His friend lent him the money he needed, about three thousand tomans, and kept the rug.

Abolfat returned to Tabriz and started to work again but he was always worried about his rug in Tehran. After some time, he decided to get his rug back, so he went to Tehran. Finally he found his friend's new house. His friend said his landlord had kept the rug for the deferred rent. Abolfat soon realized that the rug had been sold to a merchant for a hundred thousand tomans, and the merchant had taken it with him to France and sold it to the Louvre Museum. There was no reason to stay in Tehran anymore, so Abolfat returned to Tabriz.

In the early 1320s(A.H), Abolfat went to Tehran again. His works were renowned and popular, so he decided to stay in Tehran and bring about innovations. He rented a shop in Lalezar, a crowded street downtown. For some time, he worked for others to save enough money to work for his own ideals. He designed logos and wove them into rugs, and he was also engaged in advertising projects. Abolfat made so much money in a short time that he bought a new shop in a better neighborhood. Then he got the chance to test his innovations and design rugs the way he wanted.

At first, he observed the rules of modern design and made use of what was called 'false design'. He decided to weave rugs with 'false design'. With the help of an apprentice, he started weaving his new work named Shahnameh. At the same time, he started weaving another rug with a design named Autumn. He was fascinated by Shahriar's poems and made the design based on a line from shahriar: If you sense the breeze in autumn You may sacrifice your life to a friend When the rug was finished, he invited Shahriar to his studio. Shahriar was amazed by the proportions and beauty of the work.

'You have created a masterpiece that invites even autumn to grow', Shahriar exclaimed. Then weeping, he said, 'there are two cherishable things in my life, one is my book of poems and the other is my poems in your rug. You have immortalized me.' Abolfat became really happy.

Abolfat began to weave `Shahnamh' again. In coloring this rug, he used eight hundred different colors and after nine years of hard wok, he finally finished it.

Abolfat Rasam Arabzadeh, the great Iranian rug weaver and designer who was unique for his endurance and hard work in life and whose masterpieces are fine museum pieces, died on Bahman 20th, 1375(A.H).

A Look at Some Iranian Films Regarding Afghanistan

Like a Waiting Eye

By: Ahmad Talbinezhad

It was in 1971 when an Afghan song was aired on the Iranian radio and television only to gain massive popularity with the Iranians. It was a very lively song, which had a not too profound lyric composed by four Afghan students studying at Tehran University; it was the lover's description of his beloved. Those days, politics was the talk of the day. "On Fridays, it was blood that poured down and not rain" and we wrongfully thought how lucky the Afghans were for not having so many troubles on their mind; except for the supple waist of their beloved. In a way, the song conjured up the image of a land whose people were all love-smitten and had nothing to do with backbreaking labor. And now after the passage of nearly 30 days the song is aired from our radios, but this time it is associated with the misery of the Afghan people and not what was years ago presumed to be a lovelorn state of mind.

My heart have I entrusted to the wings of time Heartless, ruthless and ungrateful as it might be, Their love is hollow and empty, no more than a ruse Their paths only to end in pangs of parting O my heart, hast thou learnt thy lessons Hast thou learnt to distinguish between the good and evil? Hast thou come to know how the people and their brand of love are?

Now why is it that this song no longer evokes pastoral images of a people whose only concern is how to express their love? It is very much obvious that no one would have ever associated the song with a people reeling under bombs on an almost daily basis.

But the main problem besetting the Afghans is of a cultural nature. They neither have oil resources at their disposal, nor do they enjoy the benefits of fertile soil. The world however especially during the past fifty years, has tried to take advantage of the weak position of the Afghan people so that big powers could find a foothold in that land with the aim of competing with their rivals.

The image of the Afghan man-as portrayed in the Iranian cinema-has been associated with pain and suffering though true, the plight of the Afghans has a times been blown out of proportions on the screen. It was in 1988 that a movie was produced and screened in Iran called I've Missed My Son directed by Ali-Reza Zare Mirakabad. No well-known actor appears in its cast; in fact a group of young Afghans endorsed by the Institute of Afghan Affairs and Kerman's Governor General's Office, have produced it.

The story runs along lines similar to those in our own war films. There is a hero who has abandoned his home to sacrifice himself for the combat against evil. The movie lacks any outstanding feature, and as it was based on a loose structure it did not met the overall approval of the public. The first film to present the horrifying aspects of the homelessness of the Afghan refugees was*** The Peddler**** directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

There are episodes, which show how the Afghans sleep beneath trucks to endanger their life and limb and get some money from the drivers in stead. The severity of the image tones down in the other episodes of ****The Peddler**** and only in the third installment do we see how the security officers storm a coffeehouse in southern Tehran to round up the afghans.

We see how Makhmalbaf's view has been modified in the course of the filmmaking process. In the symbolic film of *****The Peddler****, the Afghans have no place, for the theme and content of the film drifts away from the prevailing realities. Makhmalbaf has however, made up for that sudden omission in The Cyclist. But we should bear in mind that the protagonist is an Afghan and that the film is set in Afghanistan. The Afghan cyclist, Nasim designs an unprecedented form of race with the aim of collecting money for the treatment of his ailing wife. Nasim decides to cycle around a square on his bike for several days and nights.

What is worth noting at this point is that Nasim's seemingly meaningless cycling around the square appears to be a reference of the Mojahedin's struggles against the occupiers. The fact is that although the Mojahedin did manage to quell the communists and the Red Army, they failed to stop the start of another round of infighting in Afghanistan.

Artists are at times compared to clairvoyants for they are perspicacious enough to make a correct guess at what turn the ongoing developments will take in the future. This holds true with The Cyclist. Nasim who has realized the futile nature of his circular pursuits eventually decides to go straight, but where he goes no one knows for sure. What is important though, is that he realizes that men of power are seeking to use him as a tool in their own favor.

The Cyclist presents a very telling image of the plight of the Afghan people. Kandahar however, has been more successful in this respect. It is some two or three years that Iranian filmmakers have become more interested in dealing with Afghan issues. The fact that most films in this regard have gained considerable success the world over, has fueled the directors' interest even further in continuing with the trend. Some of these films have won international acclaim.

Hassan Yektapanah's Djomeh sponsored by renowned Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami deals with the forlorn state of many Afghan refugees. As Makhmalbaf says, instead of encouraging the Afghans to boost their mental capabilities we have led them to work for us as laborers. The young Afghan in this film falls in love, an act rooted in his desperate need for a partner in life. He remains steadfast in his love despite the many problems, which come his way. According to some critics he is no hero, but an anti-hero.

Djomeh unlike Abolfazl Jalili's ****Delbaran ***** has attracted the attention of the critics as it tries to present us with an unadorned portrayal of emotions. Jalili's ****Delbaran**** is full of overstatements and lacks genuine feelings. It is about a group of Afghan living in a border village in the style of primitive end. The wedding scene is an insult to the Iranian nation who has been living alongside the Afghans for so many years. Why all these mind-boggling overstatements?

Unfortunately the Iranian filmmaker has transformed Iran into a belligerent land, which has no tolerance for foreigners. The Afghan plight is nowhere portrayed so skillfully, as it has been in Makhmalbaf's Kandahar.

Makhmalbaf has already proved his great sympathy with the Afghan nation, but it seems that this time he's hit the bull's eye as the screening of his film on Afghanistan has coincided with the unfolding events in that country. Foreign film-distributors are competing over his movie. What is so interesting about Kandahar is that-unlike many other films on Afghanistan-it turns inward. It is the portrayal from within of a crisis-weary people. Whether makhmalbaf-like many others-has tried to ingratiate himself with the foreigners or not, no one knows for sure. But at any rate, he has rendered a very convincing image of the Afghan nation's afflictions.

And it is exactly that element of plausibility, which is lacking in Majid Majidi's film ****The Rain****. That a beautiful Afghan girl would disguise herself as a male laborer; that a young Iranian man would fall head over heels in love with her at the sight of a lock of her hair; that he would search every nook and cranny in Tehran in hot pursuit of his lost love, and that a small Afghan community could live in Tehran and abide by their own customs and traditions undetected, defies our imagination.

****Rain**** evokes no sense of sympathy for the Afghans, although it might be Majid's best film in terms of the art of directing. We leave the cinema unaffected, as is the case with most of the films made on this topic. All we get to know is that the Afghan nation has suffered a great deal. But it does not get into the deeper layers of this suffering nation. Their inner layer remains elusive.

In addition to these feature films made on Afghanistan there are some short films made on this issue. Interestingly some of these short films have been more successful in rendering an acceptable image of the existing realities in Afghanistan. One example is Mehrdad Oskooie's short film ****Towards A Faraway Place****, which deals with the education of Afghan refugee children at a school whose system, is not officially recognized by Ministry of Education.

Another short film: ****A Poem Which is Life**** made by a young Iranian, Babak Shirinsefat is about a young Afghan pot working at a molding workshop. A Poem Which is Life Chronicles the unfolding poems of the young Afghan poet who transforms the basement of a house into a classroom. The poems are fashioned in a way that they shed light on the dark aspects of the Afghan nation's sufferings.

Another beautifully-fashioned film is ***Ghu Ghu Plane-Tree Leaf**** directed by Vahid Moosaian which is about a young Afghan immigrant who despite his physical disabilities, teaches a group of Afghan children how to read and write. On the whole, short films made on the Afghan issue portray a more realistic image on the Afghan nation's plight, as the directors of these films are more in pursuit of artistic and social achievements, and not economic gains.

Since the September 11th attacks on the United States, we have been witness to an uneven war raging on against Afghanistan. The only positive outcome of the US-led war against Afghanistan might be the fact that at least now most people of the world have come to realize how much suffering, affliction and pain the Afghan nation has had to put up with throughout the past two decades or so. These days I am reminded of part of a poem that reads:

My land, tired from all oppression My dear land, thy seeking eyes brim with expectation. My land...