Will 2008 Bring a Welcome New Perspective on Iran?

By Nina Hamedani

Tehran as seen from a lookout near Mt. Damavand, where smog meets cityscape. The view is nicknamed “Tehran Khashange,” or “Beautiful Tehran.” At center is the country’s tallest tower, Milad Tower (Staff Photo Nina Hamedani).

SINCE AT LEAST the middle of the 20th century, the Middle East, including non-Arab Iran, has played a central part in the American imagination. A turning point in American perceptions of Iran was that country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution (engalab) and the ensuing 444-day hostage crisis. Instead of being seen as an exotic foreign land, Iran was henceforth portrayed as hostile and threatening by U.S. politicians and the media. Daily Americans saw threatening images repeated ad nauseam of frantic mobs shouting, “Marg bar Amrika!” (“Death to America!”), turbaned mullahs, and darkly veiled women.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Washington has trained its sights on Iran with renewed intensity. In his State of the Union Address of Jan. 29, 2002, President George W. Bush labeled it part of an ominous “axis of evil”—a label which, bolstered by previous prejudices, unfortunately has stuck. Iran’s alleged involvement in Iraq, along with its outspoken stance on Israel, theocratic government, and nuclear energy program—all vehemently opposed by the Bush administration—have become the targets of heated American rhetoric. Nor have efforts abated to translate that rhetoric into action.

Because Iran is one of the region’s most cloistered societies, Americans rarely hear Iranian voices. As a result, the public preconceptions go unchallenged, to the detriment of all.

Moreover, much as it might like to downplay it, the U.S. has played an important, and often negative, role in Iran’s history—a role Iranians have not forgotten. In the opinion of those I spoke with during my most recent trip to Iran in the spring of 2007, the Middle East has remained an area of conflict in no small part as a result of foreign involvement. The example they cited most frequently was the 1953 overthrow, with CIA help, of the country’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, who had promised to nationalize oil and drive foreign influences out of Iran. Many Iranians were dissatisfied with Washington’s hand-picked successor, Shah Reza Pahlavi, whose government was seen as being more concerned with international relations than with the well-being of the Iranian people, and were not willing to accept forced “modernization” under the Pahlavi regime.

While to most Americans, the 1979 Revolution and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini came “out of the blue,” Iranians understood it as part of an historical continuum. Had they been left to their own devices, the people of Iran could instead have carved out a uniquely Iranian identity with a representative government and religion.

Today Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is thoroughly demonized in the U.S. media, which portrays him as uncivilized, unintelligent, warmongering, and an anti-Semitic fundamentalist. In the absence of any other “up close and personal” portrayals, these stereotypes have been extended to include Iranian men in general. Iranian women are presented as oppressed, uneducated, and downtrodden second-class citizens. In fact, they are highly educated, many having earned graduate degrees, drive alone, and are active in the professional fields of education, medicine, and business. During my visit a woman told me that she wanted Westerners to know that wearing her headscarf, or rusari, did not impede her life in any way.

Thanks to the availability of (albeit illegal) satellite TV, many Iranians have access to all the major U.S. media networks, which are watched primarily by the innumberable young Iranians studying English. Those I spoke with complained about the portrayal of Iran as a primitive or Third World country (jahoneh sevom), and characterized U.S. media reports as “propaganda” which fails to present any positive programs on Iran’s religion, culture, and history. Because U.S. media are so obsessed with Islamic fundamentalism and its alleged link to terrorism, I was told, Americans are ignorant of the “real Islam” as a peaceful way to experience the comforts of wealth, health, and relaxation, even if one is sick or poor.

Iranians are imbued with a long-term view of history (tarik), and are proud of their cultural heritage, which includes a strong artistic tradition, from Omar Khayyam’s paintings to the poems of Ferdowsi, Sa’adi, and Hafez (to name a few). It is not uncommon to hear discussions of the “golden age” of Iran—in the time of the ancient kings Qurush (Cyrus) and Darius, dating as far back as the 5th Century BC—or to the country’s countless architectural marvels, such as Persepolis in Shiraz or Naghshejahan and Seeyo-sepal in Esfahan. Little of this is covered in the U.S. media.

Of Iran’s current population of approximately 70 million people, more than 70 percent are under the age of 30. And it’s young Iranians who are most personally affected by the negative stereotypes of their country and culture. While they are serious about learning English and hope for the chance to travel abroad for higher education and work, many told me about feeling great confusion and uncertainty about their future (ayandeh). They not only fear that Westerners they meet will view them negatively because of the prevalant media distortions, but they are feeling internalized pressure not to validate these stereotypes with their behavior. Another source of anxiety for many young Iranian men is mandatory military service. They are understandably fearful that the U.S. will decide to attack Iran, as threatened by the U.S. administration—and by both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates—and trumpeted by the media.

Now, in 2008, it’s clear that Americans’ dissatisfaction with their government and foreign policy is growing. Many Americans are realizing that the administration and media have played an active hand in distorting the nature and source of the threats facing their country—a recent example being the declassification of the 2003 National Intelligence Report (NIE), with its finding that Iran is not engaged in an active nuclear weapons program.

Perhaps the dust will now begin to clear, allowing Iran to emerge from its negative spotlight.

Nina Hamedani recently completed her Master’s at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she focused on Iran. She currently is an intern at the Washington Report.