Iranian students pictured in the Seventies

Iranian basket ball athlets in the mid 60s. The regime of Shah Reza Pahlevi promoted a modern, western living style of woman.

But this period of personal freedom came to a immediate end: On march 7th Ayatollah Chomeini announced, that all woman have to cover their head in public. This old wannabe despote argued that woman should not be encouraged to go out and show up naked on the streets. This new law caused an uproar among the Iranian woman, mainly those of the urban society. On the following day, March 8th or the International day of Woman, tens of thousands from all political factions were out on the streets. Carried out by mothers, daughter and their grandmas, religious and non-religious people, this was the first stand up against the islamic regime.

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Rebellion against the new islamic variant of indoctrination: The Iranian woman were the first who went out and demonstrated for freedom and civil rights after the new Chomeini regime tried to silence all political opponents in 1979. Foto: Bettmann/Getty Image

40 years later, all the dreams have gone in vain. The pursue for freedom is kept hidden under the omnipresent Tschador.

Spending most of their lifes under the chador. The daily problems of financial and material decline left no space for dreams of freedom and self determination.

And the woman of the younger generation can rarely imagine what their grand-mothers were demonstrating for on the roads and squares of Tehran some 40 years ago. For the students who grew up only under the mullahs-regime, freedom of expression and the pursue of self-determination bears the flavour of heresy.

The young generation of woman dream of a little bid of “normal life”, i.e. less economic problems, but more financial security. Political or intellectual freedom has to come secondary.

But despite this geographically very prominent role of Bulgaria didn’t it fit much of the bad connotations of a Balkan countries: Neither was it involved in any nationalistic segregational movements, nor had it any issues with religious heterogeneity.  It used to absorb people from other countries who were expelled as a result of civil war (like Russian aristocrats after the revolution) or genocide (like the turkish Armenians). During the time of fascism, the Bulgarian people successfully resisted the request of the german occupants to deport the sephardic jewish population. In gratitude of this, Israeli survivors of the Holocaust recently honoured this courage by erecting a monument in the form of a jewish shoufa in the city of Varna.

The city of Varna has more reasons to look with great pride on its history. The eldest European civilizations left evidence of their early agricultural communities here (in Ezerovo and Debna), where rich burial sites were excavated that contained the earliest man-made golden artefacts.

It is a tragedy, and here maybe indeed reminiscent of Balkanesque  indifference, that these two sites of prehistoric settlements (dating back to ca. 5000 AD) is hidden now and partly demolished under a socialist-era chemical plant.

For archaeologic sites that link Bulgaria to the Roman history (when it was the province of Thrakia), in particular when they are found in the capital Sofia, the authorities are a bit more careful. The excavation works are done under public observation behind transparent walls.

But to makes aware that we are really in the middle of the Balkan region we can find here (on the railway between Varna and Sofia) the only trainstation worlwide that is simply called Balkan.

We wanted her to get pregnant for quite a long time already, because we thought she would enjoy having babies and we wanted to pass her fine genes and exceptionally good health and character to the next generation. But it appeared to be much more difficult than one would think: always when Ivo met a suitable male dog during our walks, they were playing with each other, but as soon as the male expressed a more adult interest in Ivo, she made clear by biting and snarling that she is not easy to conquer. We had the feeling that by to much adopting her to our family she lost any doggy instinct towards other dogs, in particular of the other sex. Could it be that she is a modern personality, and opted to be asexual, or some trans- or contra- or hypo-sexual ?  In fact she frequently attracted quite some attention of other dog owners, when she jumped on their males and exhibited fake movements of sexual intercourse. Maybe she justed wanted to teach them how to do it properly (“but don’t even think of trying this on your teacher, boy !!!!”)

We had almost lost any hope in her reproductive potential, when suddenly 2 weeks ago friends visited us in our garden, to present their newly acquired dog (a male Schnauzer, brought here from Russia). It was not that the 2 fell in love with each other right, Ivo has some other dog-friends in the neighborhood whom she is much more fond of. The young cavalier, however, had the time and place on his side. He caressed Ivo hour after hour, and at the end she could not longer reject his advances. More or less in the center of the party, the two love-drunken dogs did it ” like they do on the Discovery Channel”.

It was quite obvious that what made her so reluctant to mate in the years before was the unsuitable surrounding,  We assumed that, because she is original a street dog, she wont care to much where and when to have sex. Isn’t it a sort of stereotype that even the most fancy breeds with long pedigree tracks and aristocratic names use every chance outside to look for a partner to copulate? How often I have seen dog owners in the park when they helplessly try to pull their dogs away from a situation which already pretty far advanced.

Obviously, for Ivo this was never an option. We did not knew that deep inside she is a lady. She would never do it somewhere out. She considers our house and garden as her cozy empire, and can imagine having sex only here – I guess she is a bid old fashioned. Maybe I should teach her the secret pleasures of making love in the forest, in the corn-field, at night on the beach or on the backseat of a BMW Mini Cooper (at least on the last place, she might also feel at home).