Someone, whose identity is unknown and who likely had a humorous spirit, said in the early days of the revolution that when this revolution falls, we shall hang a clergyman (mullah) on each electrical pole.
Apparently, the originator of this idea, as he didn’t want his idea to incur additional costs, tools, or equipment, had said, “We will hang them by their turbans from the electrical poles.”
I suspect this sentence might have first been jokingly uttered by a cleric among his friends, in which case the original sentence was: “If this revolution falls, each of us will be hung by our turbans from the electrical poles.”
This humorous sentence, mixed with irony, quickly spread by word of mouth and became a topic of discussion in gatherings in the early days of the revolution, despite the lack of communication tools.
From childhood until now, this bitter joke has always occupied my mind. Truly, imagining this event would have painted a very distressing scene in my mind.
Imagine one day, when you leave your house to go to school or to buy household necessities, you see a cleric hanging from each electrical pole. And people pass by these scenes without paying any attention, busy with their daily chores.
For me, being the child of a cleric and considering that my father was a modest, people-loving, and pious cleric, imagining this event could have been painful and distressing.
However, even as a child, I knew such an event wasn’t feasible because whenever I looked, the structure of these electrical poles was designed to hold electrical wires and wasn’t suitable for hanging a person, especially by a turban. Besides, they said a cleric would hang from every electrical pole, but do we really have a cleric for every electrical pole in the country? Clearly, we don’t.
The alley where I grew up had the most clerics among all the alleys in our town, with seven clerics, while we had eleven electrical poles in the same alley.
Of course, I don’t dismiss the possibility that in the city of Qom, the city of knowledge and jurisprudence, there might be an alley where there are even twice as many clerics as electrical poles. But remember, Qom is an exception and the only city where, at best, the number of clerics might roughly—not exactly—equal the number of electrical poles.
What I have said wasn’t the only reason that caused me to think a lot about electrical poles and not have a good image of them. Perhaps this suspicion dates back several years before when I was walking through one of the old alleys of our town on my way to a relative’s home, deeply lost in thought—what I was thinking about, I don’t recall now. I came out of my reverie when I realized I had walked straight into an electrical pole with my nose. Apparently, a little blood came from my nose, but I was glad no one had seen me in that isolated alley to laugh at my situation. From that moment, I realized electrical poles cause obstructions in alleys.
In my opinion, the presence of these electrical poles in cities, even if they have security justification, lacks safety justification.
For repairs and replacement of electrical wires, the hardworking workers of the electricity department face the risks of height and electrocution. The bare wires passing above us and sometimes by our windows pose a potential danger to citizens and become a nuisance and problem, especially during severe storms.
Nowadays, many experts believe that underground cables should replace overhead wires and electrical poles within cities.
Of course, carrying out such projects in cities requires allocating substantial budgets, which I hope with the orders, follow-up, and perseverance of seminaries across the country and by allocating the necessary budgets, we can, in a short time, completely remove the electrical poles in cities and conduct electricity via underground cables and channels.
In this way, not only will we achieve the developmental and safety outcomes of this plan, but also looking at electrical poles from now on will not evoke any bad memories. Naturally, when a proverb has no physical counterpart, it gradually disappears and is forgotten.