Pasabandar, Iran

Report by Irene Shivaei

Photoes by Mohammad J. Torabi, Amin Jamshidi, Arigin Matousian, Pouyeh Salar

In Iran, StarPeace core team in cooperation with Astronomers of Southeast of Iran Society and Astronomy Society of Mehbaang mounted their telescopes among local inhabitants in Pasabandar, a coastal village in the most southeast part of Iran. StarPeace team mounted their telescopes in three locations in the village. Two telescopes were mounted near harbor. A lot of men and boys came there and among them were a lot of seamen; they knew most of constellations and stars in the sky the same way that we know but with different names.

Another telescope with a portable photo exhibition of 20 photos of "From Earth to the Universe" cornerstone project was located in the yard of village mosque; worshippers after saying their prayers came and enjoy the Moon and Saturn through the eyepiece and then went on a trip to the Universe, from Earth to the most distant galaxies through FETTU exhibition while one of the members of StarPeace explain them the photos.

Women and girls in Pasabandar village did not come out of their homes frequently, so StarPeace group brought two telescopes to their homes. In two houses, StarPeace team brought two telescopes and invited women and girls in neighboring houses to came and saw the sky, Moon and Saturn through eyepiece. The reactions were so interesting, some of them scared at first and did not come to see through the eyepiece, but when they saw the Moon finally they were surprised and laughed. There were also some girls who knew a little about astronomy and space and they were so eager to know more. StarPeace team gave the children some postcards and photos of astronauts and space stations which brought them joy and happiness.

Pasabandar village has more than 800 inhabitants. StarPeace team estimated that more around 500 people observed the sky objects through telescopes on the night of May 1. Also that night some people from Tis, a village near Pasabandar travelled there in order to observe the sky by telescopes. Pasabandar inhabitants do not have pipes laid for conveyance of water and every 10-15 days a water tank has been brought to the village and gave every family a limited amount of water. This village is very close to Pakistan. Most of the men are sailors and they have business relationship with Pakistan. They speak Pashtoo but most of them know Persian and Urdu as well.

Meanwhile, StarPeace cooperators from Pakistan, Lahore called Iran. They were organized a stargazing party in Lahore SOS children village. Children were so excited and happy and they yelled “We want peace!” Hassan Ghazali and Umair Asim organized the program in Lahore. In south of Pakistan, Khalid Marwat held another program in Karachi harbor. StarPeace in Iran called him and read the StarPeace message for them. StarPeace Iran contacted Manoj Pai in Ahmedabad, India too and shared greetings and peace message with him.