The
Farsi 1 channel co-owned by Rupert Murdoch, which shows U.S., Colombian, and Korean shows and soap operas dubbed into Persian, is very popular among Iranians.
In a
blog post titled "From Here and There,” blogger Zeitoon (Olive) writes about a young Iranian who fell in love with the heroine of a tele-novela:
A few weeks ago, I went to buy some chicken. I saw that the boy who sells the chicken was sitting and looking sad. I called to him a few times, but he didn’t respond. He hadn’t even hear me. I called him with a loud voice and said: "I’m in a hurry. The police are going to come and give me a ticket" (which they did). Again, he didn’t hear me.
His friends, who were cutting the chickens of other clients, started laughing. The boy finally came to himself and asked: "What? What do you need?" His friends laughed and said that their satellite dish was out of order and that the boy was sick because he couldn't watch Farsi 1.
I said: "That’s all?" He said: "I always thought that I'd rather die if I wasn't able to see her every day." I asked who he was talking about. He couldn’t remember her name. Finally, I asked if he meant Isabelle. His eyes brightened and he uttered such a sigh from his heart that even the flies and mosquitoes stood still in a sign of respect.
He begged me to put him in touch with an expert on satellite dishes. I gave him the number of our local Hossein Satellite, and he finally agreed to kill three chickens for me. From then on, he had special respect for me.
That is, until today, when I went again to the store. I saw that he was wearing black and officially mourning. I asked him what had happened. I thought his father had died, as his eyes were so red. He said: "You didn’t watch it last night? My dear Isabelle died. I don’t know for whose love to live from now on."