Interviews and in Media
The Hawking of Iran
Extracted from the journal Hamshahri, dated 17, August, 2004, edition no. 3469

Not more than several weeks has passed since the announcement of the latest great scientific discovery in the world. It was right some weeks ago that Steven Hawking, the great physicist and scientist of the world emerged in front of the eyes of the audience with the same wheel-chair and small speaking computer and while all the eyes were noticing him, declared with dormant and still look that the black holes are not the end of everything. Though he had advanced his theory concerning the end of world in the black holes some years ago, after 30 years ever since, this time he evoked all scientists to declare the contrary to his previous theory. He, himself, managed once more to set forth a new theory which could prove to be a beginning point in the realm of science. Though he had pot doubt on several occasions the relativity theory of Einstein and had refunded it through different views, this time he went back over his previous views. Maybe, what seems odd with this scientist is his extraordinary emphasis and focusing on the science and the world of physics. Hawking was faced with the CP disease frame the very beginning days of his birth. A disease that had denied him any movement due to injury of the spinal column. He is not even able to talk and speaks with the help of speaking computer and states new scientific discoveries. His will is very adorable; a person who is unable to move opens the realms of skies and the earth before us and unveils the mysteries of the universe.

Maybe the day Bahareh Honarparvar came to know this extraordinary genius of the century and heard his name for the first time, she was witnessing such a great transformation that changed course of her life. Bahareh Honarparvar who is a young girl is also inflicted with this disease i.e. CP., but this affliction never caused her to seek recluse and refrain from moving. Perhaps, Steven Hawking was the greatest model for her. She, on her turn, too, applied to research in the filed of science and took up the course Physics-Chemistry as her taste would so demand and continued studies up to the degree of Master’s. Now, she is 29 and is busy doing scientific research. Perhaps this amount of her ability is astonishing. A young girl who is even incapable of walking is busy doing basic and great research. She smiles and says: when I got acquainted with Hawking, I decided to make to lot of effort. The ambiguous contour of smile is never effaced from his figure. She is Bahareh Honarparvar, a girl whose will may be seen in fewer if any person at all. Hawking is not as capable as Bahareh from physical point of view. This is the point of difference in them. However, their point of similarity is the preoccupation of them. Both are engaged with the field of Quantum. With such will we witnessed in Bahareh, it is not any far to see her in very vaster realms. Bahareh is good news for more scientific glittering of our country in the scientific realms of the world. Many non-traveled roads do await her.

It was the year 1989. We had gone London for medical examinations: I and my daughter. I did not know yet how long I had to stay there. In order to take a precise physiotherapy schedule for Bahareh I had made an appointment with Bobat center in London. We arrived at Heathrow airport on Mordad the first (July, 23). At the airport they separated Bahareh from me to bring her special service for the disabled. But they had taken her by mistake to Canadian passenger’s gate. I had said: my daughter cannot move by herself on wheelchair and long, crowded corridors of Heathrow seemed to me as a panic tunnel˝. When I was delivering my passport, the British official asked us about our purpose of travel to England. I said I had come for treatment of my daughter and I knew that Bobat was the most reputed physiotherapy center in the world and I knew Bahareh΄s case was not a simple one and I heard my husband’s advice and words`` tell them to be very careful about Bahareh΄s knee bend. Tell them she had a surgical operation on tendon before. Remember to have their plan recorded on tape˝.

Our acquaintance with Bahreh Honarparvar began with memoirs and words of her father. Pictures from past days gone by which was full of ups and downs and effort. Efforts to influence and change a big physical insufficiency: ``due to delayed supply of oxygen to my brain at the time of birth I suffered the disability, which caused me to accompany wheelchair for years to come.˝

But still, there are people who turn their grief into greatness and turn weakness into ability and power. Seclusion does not cure the pain. Many of those who were in contact with me during my life and in various atmospheres like the house, place and school or university, say that they have no strange feeling with my behavior, speech or company. I have experienced in my childhood childish plays and I have willingly or unwillingly played the role of planner or supervisor among children. And now we are sitting before one who speaks with power of the world of chemistry. She is holder of Master’s Degree in physical Chemistry, a major from chemistry which is known as quantum. When she speaks about this wonderful world, everything takes on a particular hue and color. All we can do is listening with enthusiasm and she speaks in fluency of the universe. When she shows a complex chemical composition on monitor we cannot see the slow, laboring movement of her hand. She speaks enthusiastically about the details of it`` this composition is very beautiful and nice the binary bond of benzene and oxygen, my dear darling...

Maybe we are not so familiar with each other that she has to say`` people think I have gone mad when I say this is my dear combination, but I am mad, mad of science˝. She utters the words as she stares at the monitor screen and bonds on it joined binds. She wishes to remove the best picture of this combination on monitor screen and show that to us so she has to move the wheelchair. In such times one can understand what serious, exhausting issues is at hand to cope with. Her father says˝ please have Bahareh sit on that chair wheelchair in your own style. I was told this sentence at Bobat center and Bahareh was taken under care in this way. I lifted Bahareh slowly and took her by both hands and took her toward the chair. The chair was higher than the wheelchair wheelchair. One of the physiotherapists said that Bahareh seeks help from her neck and head, is it so with all affairs? And Bahareh answered: yes. Even when brushing my teeth. Then she held her hand in front of her mouth and took a gesture of brushing teeth moving her head instead of her hand. Then the director of the place asked: ˝ what do you expect from our center?˝ I had understood his point and I answered: surely I do not expect her to be a footballer... just expect her to be able to do her daily chores. Further, I ask you to make a personal plan for her˝. Thus it turned out that the physiotherapy exercises had to begin and at the end of the session, a video tape is recorded so Bahareh could follow up physiotherapy schedule as set by the type. The schedule is arranged for two years and it is enough. This story relates to Bahareh΄s 13 years of age, when she could fluently speak English while smiling and tackled with the physiotherapists of the Bobat center. Now she is beside us and years have passed since then, but just for a short moment.

We take a step further beck: to see the picture of the past is not void of privilege.

A girl with great expectations

A 4-years old girl with a small physique sitting on the wheelchair enters the classroom. Neither her body nor heights match the other classmates nor her innocent countenance. She has enrolled in school as a free student, but she knows reading and writing. In first days this does not grasp attentions much, but very soon she managed to prove her mastery to all. One day her teacher announced that this small, young girl was so talented that the first grade was little for her. Days and months came and went by. Bahareh enraptured others with her intrinsic gift everyday and progressed continuously. Today, she is graduate of M.Sc degree in the filed: Quantum Physics. A young girl who has great thought in brain. She ponders over a lot of roads travel.

Clear days in the offing

``Science is like nature. In fact men imitate the molecules˝. And then a smile is set on her figure.˝ everything is in contact with the universe. We must link everything with the creation and I myself find the chemical rules in the social characteristics of people and teach it in a simple method to all.˝ these are Bahareh΄s words that remind you of thoughts of great thinkers. You would find calm in her words. She does not see physical rules just like a series of complicated figures and numbers. Rather, she sees it a systematized rule of relations among components similar items of which can be seen in our society. What counts is the young girl’s very high power to analyze and digest many problems. True she is with problem physically, true that she is not like all of us, but it is also true that she is not like all of us. In fact she is a great scientific genius and talent. Maybe her strong will has made a powerful, great person out of her. A great person and this is her power. Bahareh will surely open up new doors to the world of science in coming days. There is nothing to be able to withstand her will and strong belief in God. She is also a painter. I enter her room where there are some small, pretty pictures; she says she had painted them. Bahareh believes that painting along with physics has made a person to of her who while being serious always laughs. Even if we witness her figure without smile, an ambiguous trace of smile is visible on her face. She is Bahareh Honarparvar, a highly powerful human being.

Struggle with chemical rules

Professor Steven William hawking the British physicist and scientist and winner of Nobel Prize is a handicapped who is always sitting on the wheelchair dealing with physics discovers with his special computer. He does not even speak. These are explanations given by Bahareh Honarparvar. She speaks about the wonderful book˝ history of time by this scientist and the feeling she has had after reading it. She compares herself only with Hawking. Bahareh takes a more serious look at the field physical chemistry after studying words by Hawking. The reason for choosing this field of study is the researches she can do with the help of computer that demands the least physical movement free of troublesome lab works. She does major part of her research in universities and teaches parallel with it. She is grappling with problems every day but says: perseverance beside emotional happiness will be fruitful. Smiling always at the problems and coming into first with it is helpful rather than becoming overcome by despair and submitting to sorrow. In my opinion, fighting chemical, physical rules is something like fighting social problems then one must struggle in both ways. Maybe this is the very peculiarity that has made teaching so attractive to me. I like to foster my student independent, this is so perhaps my morale is like that.˝ Bahareh Honarparvar speaks about her first days΄ experiences the field of teaching: ˝ I had B.Sc degree in chemistry but I had no teaching experience, yet, smiling was in my blood; then I found that in some cases one must be serious. The reality is that I had not any extra time anymore and my sole aim to take student was not just because of my loneliness or something like that. For this reason I would choose my students. I had establish a connection with them and I had to smile and cry while having a talent was a criterion for me for such choice.˝

This chemistry teacher now is teaching her students with her own creative ploys and tacts. She likens formation of a chemical bond to a marriage and its disintegration to divorce. She says science and scientific phenomena have all the signs of the nature around us. Maybe we can say that we imitate the surrounding nature in fact. She speaks so emotionally about the pictures and element around us and in our daily life and connects them to the world of chemistry that the least interested people are encouraged to hear and learn. She says: this teaching method is not a complicated one. If you like a pretty film which you have understood it, you like to narrate it in detail for those you known to share its pleasure with them. I look teaching chemistry from this perspective.

From the window of the room of a chemist

In this workroom that is the place of our first dialog, two windows, one library and some chairs, one table make a still, simple residence. The periodical table of elements is hanging on the wall and a whiteboard and some felt pens are means for teaching. The small white dog on the table shows the 6:10 and perhaps instead of barking it has a reveille ring. Everything in this room is at the service of Honarparvar :˝ This room was already full of dolls, now things are in my hand and this computer.˝

She welcomes music and saves inside the car likes that sort of music which causes accidents. She seldom sits to watch TV and there is no sign of TV inside the room, but a Divan of Hafez is there and bibliomancy which no double is meant for difficult credits. Here in some part of Tehran a girl a smile on the face is awaiting the days to show her astonishing talent to all. Surely we can compare her to Hawking, as such amount of effort and endeavor will a great scientific figure out of her. Bahareh Honarparvar is a sort of those people about whom will feel proud.