Pouya's Top 10
Things you don't know about Iran

April 3, 2007
iranian.com

Iran is being demonized much like the way Iraq was being demonized in the run up to the 2003 invasion. Movies, news briefs, right-wing TV programs, articles, books, etc. are effectively degrading the image of more than 70 million people in a psychological war justifying any future conflict with Iran.  This tension is even surfacing in unlikely places like Facbook and MySpace, two popular online social networking websites where groups titled “Anyone who supports bombing Iran back to the stone age” and “Out of Iraq and into I RAN” exist with dozens of members.

The Iranian people, however, are rallying to avert a war and are showing a different side to Iran.  From lobbying Congress to making youtube.com videos showing a simple regular life in Iran that parallels San Francisco, London, or “Paris in October” to petitions challenging the racist film “300,” and bloggers coordinating on the internet against any war, Iranians the world over are stepping up. They have even orchestrated their own counterattack on Facebook with such groups like “No War in Iran” and “Campaign Against a War with Iran” which have nearly 2,000 members combined.

Thus, I found it fitting to compile my own personal list of the “10 Things You Don’t Know About Iran” to clear up some facts that may have been distorted in the mainstream media’s propaganda war on Iran.

1. Iran does not need to have democracy imposed by foreign powers. Indeed, Iran was practicing democracy in the early 1950s under Prime Minister Mossadegh when the U.S. and the British toppled his government and re-installed the absolute monarchy.  In other words, while the U.S. was advocating for democracy in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, it worked against it in Iran.

2. Iran is not Arab nor is it Persian. Iran is everything as it is heterogeneous society enjoying the diversity of the majority Persian people along side 12-15 million Azaris, Arabs, Balouchis, Kurds, Lurs, Qashqais, Armenians, Turkmen, and many more.

3. The Iranian people are not black, white, or any other one color. The Iranian people have all shades of color to them.

4. Although Iran’s dominant religion is Islam, it also enjoys religious diversity. In fact, the world’s oldest Jewish populace outside of Israel resides in Iran.  The Armenian Christian community is also one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Iranians from other faiths like Zoroastrianism, Baha’ism, Sunni Islam (the other major sect within Islam) and other faiths abound.

5. Just like people of Southern California are different from the people of Northern California, Northern Californians are different from Texans, and Texans are different from New Yorkers, the people of Iran’s cities are also very different from one another. There is a huge contrast in religiosity between the people of South Tehran and North Tehran. Esfahan is a cultural capital while Qom and Mashhad are Iran’s religious centers. Some parts of Iran are more rural while others more urban. In other words, just like other countries, there is no unanimity in Iran.

6. Much of Iran’s population is hostile to U.S. foreign policy, but they are not hostile to the American people.  The two do not go hand-in-hand as many Americans also oppose U.S. foreign policy.

7. While many Iranians all over the world oppose any invasion of Iran, many of them do so not because they believe in the Islamic system presiding over Iran, but because they believe any such invasion would be disastrous for the Iranian people.

8. Although a majority of Iran speaks Persian, other languages like Kurdish, Arabic, different Turkic dialects and others are also widely spoken in Iran.

9. Iranian themselves never knew Iran as “Persia.”  “Persia” is the Greek name given to that land by Alexander.  The people of the land always knew their country by its native name, Iran.  So when Reza Shah asked the world to recognize the country as “Iran” in 1935, he wasn’t changing the name of the country from “Persia” to “Iran” but asking the world to recognize Iran by it’s native name: “Iran.” 

10. Iran has the fifth largest known oil reserves and the second largest natural gas reserves in the world.  But it also exports world-renowned rugs, caviar, pistachios, and some of the brightest students and scholars.

Iran like other countries is dynamic, beautiful, and complex.  Nobody can reduce Iran to a singular concept without offending anyone who acknowledges such complexities. Thus, I hope Iranians continue to remain aware, concerned, and vocal and defend Iran’s dynamism everywhere, even on Facebook.com. Comments

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