NT STAYIN
“David is ur english friend who wanted 2marry an iranian still available? Are u watching channel 3? Mother fucker bastards [other words edited out] is sayin any girl dressin against our ‘islamic stndrds’ deserves 2b raped. I am nt stayin here 1more day. Whatever d price…”. I wrote something back to this, philosophical it was – I kinda believed it too – it seemed to help calm things, at least until two days later when we were discussing this again over coffee.
It felt wrong that two men sat plucking from history the development of nations to justify those broadcasted words. We aired our supposed views, one girl was steaming and the other not even listening, “I’m not staying another minute!”, shrilled one as the other tapped messages on their mobile. I joined my male friend in forgiving the bad mouthed child, “they are adjusting, in a difficult position, it takes time”, and I kinda believed it too.
“Iran is fresh to the industrial world, fresh to these concepts that have matured over a slow period among ‘western’ nations”, I respond, “the Shah’s time was a blip, a faceade of the west, I’m not sure it suited the Iranian people and culture, not en-mass, such unequal development can crack the society and did”. “Foisting these ways upon a nation without the background, the infrastructure or the understanding might cause more problems than solve”, I suggested, ignoring counter arguments arriving with my every word. I went with it, consistently seeing this perspective out, “without these things we might be leaping into subservience (again?), facing west, behaving western yet never being western – by that I mean being in control of our destiny”. Our development must be aboriginal, my counterpart pointed out, for we are not insignificant and this is our problem.
“Western seduction is easily succumbed to, frequently so and why not?”, I pointed out, referring to chronic brain drain of which our female friend wanted to contribute, “thus development is distressingly slowed”. My counterpart reminded us that relative to the region things are not all that bad, I agreed, I champion Iran, would choose it over many other neighboring places – the other oligarchs – subservient or not – don’t appear half as indigenous. But I threw it out there, “Iran is stalling”, I suggested, “waiting for the inevitable new world order, where it will comfortably face east and allow itself (and be allowed!) a suitable renaissance”, and I kinda believe it too.
Join the Conversation
test comment (sorry!)
David, Obviously you do not entirely believe your own line of argument… How do the actions of Iran’s regime represent the attitudes of its people?
When has Iran ever faced either east or west? It seems to me that it has always faced in both directions. I do not understand what people mean when they make these statements.
‘Esther’, It’s a perspective among many, a corner to occupy to see how things look. To answer you, the regime manufacture their own following, like many nations so one can’t easily say how the attitude correlate. An example would be the near unanimous agreement that stricter hejaj is needed – strange comment to publish in itself but supposed agreement/representation. I’m sure that in many cases the people are further right (read strict) than the government, concerning capital punishment or views on Israel, but I cannot support this. It is difficult to represent Iran when living in Tehran, I’ve traveled a fair bit around the country and the Islamic Jurisprudence is not unwelcome outside of the open minded capital.
Forgive me for taking a relative point of view on this but I’m sure the Iranians are equally as represented as the Americans by their government.
Regarding facing East or West, by this I mean economically. The West might represent anything NATO, with a view to maintaining economic dominance through institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and WTO, backed by dominance in the UN and outfits like the G8.
Clearly Iran is not facing West in this sense as can be seen by sanctions and repeated (internationally illegal) threats. Iran will associate with the above mentioned institutions but is rather (uniquely) direct about its desired involvement. Not excepting IMF hand-outs is sensible but Iran is strong enough to avoid these traps – unlike certain European nations that felt the wrath when they held such a view.
As for facing East, one can observe the subtle glance in this direction by recent trades with China (energy) and Russia (technology) – both nations with permanent seats in the UN and part of the G8. These emerging powers with India will want to break the unjust global economic situation and help their rapidly growing nations. Iran is a hugely important player in this, more so for location maybe than resource. But the game is still being played and my feeling is that Iran is hedging it’s bets – or might even be the decisive piece on the board. Each player is not wanting to be seen to be making a play but the necessity is increasing for people to make moves.
It is inevitable that America will decline in power and dominance, rather soon I feel, but when they hold all the guns and tools for control, it’s difficult for nations to be open on intentions. Yet also, both China and Russia have a lot to loose by forging a Eastern ruling block – for now at least. My guess is that as situations develop the ease at which these nation can state a view will be brought about by economic sensibility.
How this fits to the local picture is that I feel Iran has become a some strange post-modern representation of itself in this evolving game. I feel that the government is beyond a lot of the early rhetoric yet keeps this for many local and international reasons. Some of this is to appease the British links and some of it is an easy means for saber rattling – I’m sure there are many further examples of how this works for now.
But we should not (rightly) confuse economic problems with human rights problems – again, to be relative, it’s not so rosy in the nations that spout these reasons for angst against the regime. People in glass houses…
Citizens are in the regard of the governments, be it Iran or America, but not as individuals I feel. There are mutual benefits to be gained in individual’s welfare, but it would rate behind a great many other factors I would add. Some activities might coincide with the attitudes of the nation others won’t – this goes for all nations. Some nations have great ways to merge the two, others don’t.
We cannot possibly know the extent to which these are or why sometimes it fits and sometimes it doesn’t. The structure of nations means individuals cannot know and will likely never know.
I feel Iran will emerge and adapt, it will fit a new developing order and thus represent it supposed views is some comfortable transition. I feel this will appear less extreme and less associated to religious doctrines and as I say in my post – we will be allowed to progress. I’m certain the government know they have to evolve but they must do so in a way that doesn’t bring the nation to its knees before unjust dominance – the American empire.
Thank you for your comment.
ddmmyyyy
nice photo, there’s a simialar but worse saudi one, that prooves your point about many neighbouring countries being worse. I wear hijab, no face cover, so i’m actually worse than the hell bound dolled-up-in-niqab lady in this propaganda piece.
There are no laws regulating hijab in Libya, and almost no one of my parents generation wore it. It started making a comeback in the 80s though and now most women are veiled, but according to personal choice producing a variety of hijabs (or lack there of) as in this cartoon.
About the people being “further right (read strict) than the government”, that was interesting as the opposite point is usual in “>western media, probably because of a focus on the urban middleclass as you say. However I’m sort of wary of this argument as many western backed despots (eg the blue-eyed boy of jordon) are referred to in such terms to scare people into beliving things will only get worse with reforms. Of course Iraq has made that a much easier sell…
eek! that’s a lot of ‘worse’s!! I suppose it goes with the topic
Well, I think so it’s about more than of half oe Iranian population are waiting almost about 25 years! but nothing good has come out of it but misery! how on the earth this creepy Islmaic dictatorship will give up on power and let things change in a good way for people?