Beyond the Gulf
May 9th, 2009
Climate unrest made the rush of heat slow down as it approached the Gulf. It is getting hot and humid, the sun would shine as explicitly as it shines, right over the blazing shores and over the shoulders of the fishermen.
The rush of merchants and tourists, oil tankers and politicians doesn’t change the delicious calm of the region. When you talk of the Gulf, you can’t stop being romantic, you would know that if you smoke your waterpipe by its shores.
To us Iranians it is “The Persian Gulf”, we say the history shows in her accounts how Persian it is. On the other side of the Gulf it is called “The Arab Gulf”, that is the dominant language on the other side, and the number of Arab countries around the Gulf suggests that even if Persian, it is too tightly surrounded by Arab countries. As a Persian student who have studies in Arab countries as well, I am not surprised by the name of “Arab Gulf” which was in the text books of the schools I attended. I was later not surprised to see both Gulf and Oman sea be called “The Arabian Seas” on maps, and as an Iranian I am not surprised to see how Iranian react to their “Ever Persian Gulf” being called the Arab Gulf.
Despite all the issues that accompany the re-emerging of this disputation on the surface as the elections in all the countries around are in process, I see how the lives of people living in the region unaffected.
The Arab Gulf countries had been good to the mass migration of Persian speaking people who did not feel secure socially or financially or culturally. Iranians have their schools and universities open and boosting in the Arab Gulf countries. This shows that these countries are culturally stable, that they do not find opening of a couple of schools a threat to their culture. However on the other side of the Gulf, where Iran spreads its skirt of terrain over the northern shores of the Gulf, it is not the same story. Persian Language is the standard language of the country and I have not heard of any other school being functional, mediating the courses in any other language but Persian, though Iran is a combination of many different ethnic groups who have their own language, and Persian is not their first language.
Before the Iran and Iraq war there was a single Arabic medium school in the Khoozestan province, that school was closed never to be re-opened after the war. The fact is many people in the southern provinces of Iran are Arab Iranians and Arabic is their first language, but they do not have a direct access to Arabic education. They will need to pass the same courses planned for the Persian speaking students of high school.
Some time back I met this lady of Arab origin who had academic education in the Persian speaking universities. She was an Iranian Arab lady native to “Gulf”. She was talking about the schools where Persian speaking teachers would teach them Arabic and tell them they did not speak Arabic right!
She thought her country was not doing her – as an Iranian ethnic Arab – justice, she thought if she had a chance to have a bilingual education as she grew up and made it to the university, so that her Arabic would be polished and upgraded, she could have served her country much better than the ones who were Persian speaking and learnt Arabic as a second language.
What I am trying to talk about is the necessity of pushing aside this game of “Golf over the Gulf” and trying to consider the cultural problems, the social problems that the beautiful people of this region have, trying to find out how the Persian speaking and the Arabic speaking people of the Gulf. The problems of ethnicities and the dominant cultures and what is being compromised in between really needs to be addressed.
As to myself, I am reviving the Arabic I learnt back in the schools, it is pleasant talking to the young children, they correct my language, and they teach me more. I would have loved that in all countries around the Gulf, including ours, we open institutions that would preserve and upgrade the language and culture Middle East at large, meanwhile I can open a kindergarten and enjoy playing with “Gubbah”, that is what a ball is called in the Arab dialect spoken where I live. 
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My friend, how Sad it is to see and Iranian call the Persian Gulf other that its only name the Persian Gulf. How unfortunate is that because you saw other names for the Persian gulf in some Arab books you have been Arabized just because you got used to it. History is fact and the world call it the Persian Gulf. If there is somebody calling this region by any other name it is because of politics. Call it by its name or don’t call yourself Iranian, because you are an Arabized-Iranian, so call you self Arab and be Arab. It is not about race, It is about culture, we all are humans with different culture. you are free to choose but don’t try to change facts of the history for others!!!!!! Remember ,Only Persian Gulf. if you went to school you must be enough educated (if well) to know that. May be you choose a very bad school.
Hi Rostam
As an Iranian I call the Gulf ” The Persian Gulf” and many other people in the world do the same. However, that doesn’t change the fact that in Arabic countries it is officially not the case. The fact that many Iranians are either ignorant of the fact or they are more inclined with their religious pilgrimages doesn’t change the reality.
How come these Iranian patriots haven’t heard of Persian Gulf being called Arab Gulf upto now? Patriotism is a sense good for the time of war, but one should be aware of leashing this very useful passion so that one is not blindfolded not able to see and address the real problems that the people might have and that is beyond the Arab or Persian cause, that is the problems with how we address our fellow country men who are not essentially Persian Speaking Iranians to begin with.
Nationalis is a sense that intervienes when countries go againt one another, but then there is also an option of thinking beyond the nationalism and reaching out for humanity, which is present at both sides of the borders.
Nationalims is a very worthy sensation when it would make a Persian speaking Iranian feel for the Arab Iranian, the Kurd Iranian, the Baluchi Iranian the Turk Iranian. Ity is very resourceful when it would make me as an Iranian Nationalist to love my country men, love the languages they speak, love their villages, love my Arab country men with their mother tongue, love them enough to give them a chance to learn it, speak it, be proud of who they are, where they are, without thinking any less of themselves as Iranians.
I am talking about the languages today, and I have pushed aside the politics, but I have a single question from you my dear country man, Rostam KHam, the Iranian Patriot, I am asking you a very simple question:
What do you know about compromising the rights of Iran in the Capsian sea? Have you ever heard of such a thing? Wheren’t you a patriot when oyu heard of that? Doesn’t that make you less of a partiot if you have no idea what I am taling about?
Then if you know of such thing, why I didn’t hear your voice as a patriot and the voice of other partiots from within Iran or out of it? Is it all ok to your sense of patriotism that the name is the same ” Caspian” but Iran’s rights over the sea are shrinking down day to day?
So if we are so numb and ok about that, how come suddenly the ” Persian Gulf” and the ” Arab Gulf” thing becomes very disturbing, while it hadn’t been a brand new issue? Does being disturbed by that make one more of a patriot compared to the numbness toward the Caspian deals?
I told you I would ask only one question, haha, I asked more
My point is talking about people of this region, who are a wonderful mixture of all these tribes, who either lean more to their Arab roots, or more toward their Persian ones, by the way, by Persian I mean all the people and all the dialects esisting and being spokien in Iran today.
What was my intention of sharing these thoughts was how much the people around this ” Gulf” are cool and adorable despite all these very frustrating and agitating baits for news broadcasting industry.
Rostam, if you are what you are for Iran you need to love the people of your country, the poor and the wealthy, the Persian and the non-Persian, and you need to acknowledge their rights, so that they would feel safe and happy in their own country, so that they would help their own country whole heartedly, so that they would feel as the Children of their own country, Persian , or Non-Persian.
I am an American of Arab roots and needed to learn Arabic, but was unable to travel. I tried to look for classes near my residence area but was not successful; luckily technology is a wonderful tool. The great thing is that there are also online programs for ARABIC Language learning as well.
I have tried some of them and they are extremely effective. It saves time, comes to you wherever you are, and you learn quite well. But there is one particular website that provides a real life experience that I really could not believe existed, I am learning and gaining great cultural experience through it, is called – arabicollege.com
Hi Jessica:) It is wonderful that you are trying to improve your mothertongue online:)
In case of native Arabs in Iran, they already speak their mother tongue, but they would love to have a valid education of the standard Arabic language, the way it it being taught in Arabic countries. A truely bilingual educational system would meet the demands of the Iranians whose second language is Persian. In that case, out Baluchis, Kurds and Turks as well can learn the standard forms of their mothertongues as well as the standard language of their own country. To me it sounds funny that authorities would feel threatened to let that happen. All the best with your learning Arabic Jessica