PHOTO BY BEHROOZ RAHBAR/COURTESY LINDA KUSSE-WOLFE
Seeing the sights — David Wolfe and his wife, former DeLand resident Linda Kusse-Wolfe, visit Masoomeh Shrine in Qom, Iran, during their 18-month stay as part of a Mennonite Central Committee Christian-Muslim exchange program. David Wolfe wears conservative Western dress appropriate for a visit to a holy place, where men are expected to cover their arms and legs. Linda Kusse-Wolfe, like all females older than 9 years in Iran, wears a scarf and a manteau, a long, loose outer covering. To enter a shrine, all females older than 9 are required to wear a full chador (complete covering) as a sign of reverence and respect. Many conservative women always wear the full chador in Iran.
PHOTO BY WALLY SHELLENBERGER/COURTESY LINDA KUSSE-WOLFE
Friends around the globe — Quaker ministers David Wolfe and Linda Kusse-Wolfe meet with Pastor Hendrik of St. John's Church in Tehran, Iran.
PHOTO BY DAVID WOLFE
In the desert — Wearing a full chador, Linda Kusse-Wolfe stands in the Kavir Desert in Qom Province, Iran. Kusse-Wolfe and her husband, David Wolfe, both Quaker ministers, worked for the Mennonite Central Committee as participants in a Christian-Muslim exchange. From January 2007 to June 2008, they were students at the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, Iran, and were active participants in the Armenian Evangelical Church in Tehran.
Quaker minister home from 18-month visit to country
posted Sep 10, 2008 - 7:15:25pm
Quaker minister Linda Kusse-Wolfe led a visual field trip to Iran at Stetson University Aug. 25, giving her audience an awareness of the country and its people that went far beyond news-media coverage of the Middle East.
Kusse-Wolfe, daughter of the late Jim and Virginia Kusse, is a graduate of Stetson and a former DeLand resident. She illustrated her talk with personal photographs taken during her 18-month stay in the Holy City of Qom, Iran.
A mixture of Stetson students and residents from DeLand and Daytona Beach saw and heard about people like themselves, living and enjoying their lives and families while enduring tough political and economic times.
Iran's government is a theocracy. All governmental policy is tested against the Quran before implementation. The government is led by a fundamentalist "true believer" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in 2005, and is up for election again in January.
Kusse-Wolfe found as much discontent and disagreement among Iranians over their government's policies as we might find in our country over those of our own government. Many were looking forward to change in January, she said.
She also found among the Iranian people much love, respect, hospitality, compassion and support, not only for herself and her husband, but for the American people. The Iranians understood neither they nor the American people are accurately portrayed by their respective news media.
It was the American government they feared, Kusse-Wolfe said. She found, also, the Iranians knew little about what their government was doing with respect to nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. They were simply hoping they could survive until January, she said.
Kusse-Wolfe agrees with the widely accepted concern that Iran should not develop nuclear weapons. She was clear, however, that bombing Iran, whether done by the U.S. or by Israel, was not the solution.
She noted Iran's nuclear program, whatever its purpose, whether for energy, as claimed, or for nuclear weapons, as feared, is buried deep underground. Bombing would be ineffective against such targets. Instead, bombing would unite the Iranian people against their aggressor, just as we in this country would unite against any country that might attempt to bomb us, she said. Not only would innocent people be killed, but any hope for a diplomatic settlement would be lost.
Kusse-Wolfe said a diplomatic solution is the only viable alternative; that dialogue is the only hope for allaying the fear that might motivate any weapons program, and for increasing the understanding and cooperation that might lead to peace.
With both the United States and Iran facing transition in the coming months, Kusse-Wolfe said we are in perilous times, when all parties should exercise the utmost caution and restraint to avoid a sudden and violent conflagration.
Kusse-Wolfe's talk was co-sponsored by Stetson University and the DeLand Quaker Meeting. Representatives of the Meeting talked with the audience about Resolution 362, under consideration by the U.S. House of Representatives, which essentially calls for a blockade of Iran — recognized under international law as an act of war. Opposition to the resolution was being led by the Quaker lobbying group in Washington, D.C., known as the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Those attending were urged to write their representatives in opposition to the resolution, and given information on a statewide peace demonstration planned Aug. 30 in Melbourne, sponsored by 29 groups seeking to prevent a war with Iran.
Also, Kusse-Wolfe suggested those interested in understanding more about the religious fundamentalism at work in Iran, or any religious fundamentalism — whether Christian, Muslim, or Jewish — might want to read Karen Armstrong's book The Battle for God.
A lively question-and-answer period followed Kusse-Wolfe's presentation. Those interested in continuing the discussion were invited to join her Web log at quakersinqom.blogspot.com.
— Vaughen, of DeLand, is an attorney and a member of the DeLand Quaker Meeting.
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