Haji Asghar, 75, landowner and farmer, Bastam, NE Iran.
“This land has been in my family for generations. It was passed on to me from my mother.
“Thanks to God, it is very fertile. Only an occassional cold weather causes trouble. But even the green tomatoes that we have to pick to avoid the frost, we pile them and put a plastic sheet over them, and eventually they will become red too.
“The wall you see here is from before Islam. It’s that old [at least 1300 years old]. The person who told you it’s only 60 years old doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“This entire town was surrounded by this wall and many turrets for security, to keep out the trouble.
“When I was a child the Turkmen used to descend down from the highlands and steal horses and children.
“One of my relatives was stolen when he was a child. The next time we saw him, he was a grownup man with his own Turkman wife and children.
“People lived in the fear of the Turkmen until Reza Shah devised a solution. He invited the leaders of the Turkmen to give them an award. But the whole thing was a setup.
“Four or five [Turkmen] came and stood up to give speeches. Then on signal, they were shot one after the other. After that, this area was secure. The Turkman problem was solved.
“That’s how law and order was enforced back then. They even had a method called “otto”. They’d tie up one leg to one vehicle and another leg to another vehicle and the two vehicles would go to opposite directions.
“The people of Bastam were always very poor. I am illiterate, but when I was a kid as soon as someone who could read came around, we’d gather and have him read to us anything we could get our hands on.
“We found out that the Bastamis were so poor that when they marched to Karbala [in today’s Iraq], by the time they got there, they no longer had any shoes. They had worn away. Nothing to eat either.
“Hazrateh Masoumeh [sister of Imam Hussein] told Imam Hussein, ‘look at these people. Pity them for their poverty.’ Imam Hussein responded that these people should be cursed and ordered that they should not be allowed to take water from the Euphrates.
Growing tomatoes next to history: “The wall you see here is from before Islam. ... This entire town was surrounded by this wall and many turrets for security, to keep out the trouble."
“This was because the Bastamis had gone there to fight against Imam Hussein. They were Shi’i but were fooled into acting against him through publicity.
“That’s what publicity can do. It can get you to do crazy things; it can be a terrible thing."