June 06, 2007
Mohammad Reza TORABI
The Japanese Esperanto Institute is issuing a special invitation to 23 Asian Esperanto activists to take part in this year's World Esperanto Congress in Yokohama. In the April issue of the Japanese magazine La Revuo Orienta JEI has published statements by each of these people. I am reproducing them here, in English translation, one by one.
The next listed activist is Mohammad Reza TORABI of Iran. Torabi is a 39-year-old editor, copy editor, teacher of Esperanto, student of interlinguistics.
Esperanto and I
I started learning Esperanto through self-study in 1984 from a classified ad that appeared in a daily newspaper. I was curious and wanted to know the outside world. That decade in my country was very full of unhappiness because of various problems such as the post-revolutionary years and war between Iran and Iraq. These were problems that led to great barriers against contact with the outside.
I am an Esperanto speaker because in Esperanto I feel equality, neutrality and democracy. Esperanto makes an environment possible for me in which I can express myself as I wish. Through Esperanto I have gotten acquainted with various cultures and environments which I would never be able to attain without Esperanto.
World Esperanto Congress and After
I don't have any prejudgment. It can't be imagined what one will experience in a country that one has never visited; but intercultural affairs always attract me and I don't doubt that many interesting matters will happen in Japan in that respect during my trip.
Since 1993 I have unceasingly played a role in the Esperanto movement, on the national level, on the international level, during journeys. For me there is always a new horizon not previously touched and full of experience.
I hope that in visiting Japan I will further increase my knowledge of its culture and will gain enough information about the movement to help me in my activities on various terrains.