Piggy in the Middle
As an Iranian student in Britain, I have been in numerous situations where I was asked about the way I think about world politics, religion, war in Iraq, women's right, Saddam, the UK or US, or the west as a whole. In most cases, my ideas and thoughts were at least surprising for my audience - if not 100% the opposite of what they expected to hear.
I suppose during student life you have more time to spend talking and socialising with others, both in the university clubs and outside in pubs etc., the environment is more international and the chances to end up in these kinds of discussions are higher. I don't mind telling people about my country and its history and language. Sometimes I meet people who know quite a lot, which is very pleasing.
But usually I find myself explaining obvious things for them: "Oh Yes Saddam was indeed a murderer", "No, I hated the Taleban", "I don't think women should wear long black veils" and so on and so forth. In other words, sometimes what I do is trying to counter-act the impression that people get from the media about us, our life style and our ideals. It drove me mad and angry a few times about the western media for the wrong image they portray about us: "Don't believe the media, they lie all the time" was my answer to my confused audience.
But was that really the correct answer? Are all popular media such as BBC, Reuters, AFP, The Guardian, The Times, CNN etc constantly lying? Is it a well organised conspiracy against our part of the world? Do all western journalists have a strict guideline telling them how to write about Iran affairs for instance? I don't think so.
On one hand we have the Iranian official media, which are owned by the ultra conservative and reflect their dogmatic ideas and broadcast their version of the news, i.e. they constantly lie to the world. All you see there are deeply religious ugly bearded men, and women covered in black chador from eye to toe who blindly love their rulers and often gather outside the British embassy to wish death for Britain (Marg bar Ingilis) and register for suicide attacks. You also read about university lecturers sentenced to death for expressing their opinion about religion. Wouldn't this remind anyone of the dark ages in Europe?
On the other hand you have the western media who naturally reflect all the official news coming from the Iranian sources, such as quotes and speeches, announcements such as the Aghajari case, or the news that are related directly to their respective countries, usually just a translation of what the official Iranian media broadcast. Occasionally have their own analytical articles trying to find out what's going on in a country with so many contradictions.
Apart from the official government-controlled Iranian media and the worldwide western media, there is no other source of [credible] information out there; at least not one in English (available to the international audience) neither about our politics and news nor about our culture and art and etc. The world is fed from both sides by news that are either delusive or biased. We (the people) have no control over the image that is being painted about us in the world. I feel we're like the pig in the game of "Piggy in the Middle", or as we say in Iran, the bear in the game of "Bear in the Middle" (khers vasat), constantly jumping up and down, trying hard to catch the ball and not be looked upon as a pig or bear anymore.
1dont cover your idea to all persian people .most of the people who are sponsered by Iran government to study here ,show the negative point about Iran .basicaly most of them dont want to do this thing ,but they are obliged to do .otherwise Iran government will not sponser them .
1-if you take a narrower approach you will find that most of the "aghazade" are studing here with the money of their father which have been earnt from "Beytolmal".do you think they have this kind of obsession!!!
3-this is the basic rule:the natinal media of each country should broadcast the culture of the country so dont be angry !
4-if you were a forign guy what would you think when you see the "akhoond" who talk about nuclear issue !!!!!
(at June 17, 2004 10:48 AM)
I completely share your feelings.
(at June 17, 2004 12:05 PM)
I think what you should be mad at is youre own fellow country mates,poor people don't know how to drive a car between lines! they just can't stop themselves throwing their rubbish out in the streets,people who(no matter how educated)are madly obsessed with some imported stupid arabic culture interoduced as religion!. no! seriously, tell me what makes you really that proud of this piece of land, once called persia? before accusing other nations of not knowing you enough, think again: iran is exactly what is shown in these media
don't get me wrong, I'm (unfortunately)as much iranian as you are but I'm not gonna be hard on myself just because a bunch of fooled by islam(if you like) are receiving what they deserve!
honey! at least you try to bring up children in a way,they wouldn't be ashamed of themselves for being labled as "iranian".
(at June 17, 2004 01:27 PM)
Roba, You didn't get what I meant. My point was that me and my fellow countrymen do not have our own voice in this world, and the image created about us is very far from reality. This wrong image is firstly created by our own government and agressively broadcasted to the world - thanks to the unlimited wealth brought to them by oil, and also reflected in other mainstream media channels.
I agree with you, we put litter in streets and we drive like crazy, but these are not what we're famous for. Come on, 75% of the population is under the age of 35, how many of "us" support the Hezbollah in Lebanon? how many of us are seeking nukes? how many times have you or your friends burnt any flag? how many of us hate the west? How many of us are islamic fundamentalists? I would easily claim the number is less than 10% (it's much less than that). Yet throughout the world we are known to be terrorists, war mongers, fundamentalists and so on. Even Egyptians tell me that they expected Iranians to look like Ben Ladan! How annoying is that? Bloody Ben Laden is a Yemeni-Saudi Arab for God's sake. But you know what, just tune into an Iranian channel and count the number of mullas with beard and turban. Do you see a lot of those young energitic handsome Iranians who count for 75% of the population? No. This is what bothers me. I wish we were simply known as peaceful people who are mad when they drive, who litter their streets, eat a lot of watermelon, and love rice with kebab!
This shows how separated people are from the government, which is not a surprise of course. The consequences though are very annoying.
(at June 17, 2004 04:45 PM)
Mind you, the cities I have been in Iran were quite clean, especially when you compare to cities in neighboring countries such as turkey, iraq, pakistan and those in central asia. If I ignore the terrible air pollution in the capital tehran, the city is overally much cleaner than other cities in its class such as cairo, baghdad and islamabad.
(at June 17, 2004 05:07 PM)
yet again,I showed you the moon and you ladies and gent's started talking about my finger!.Have you ever invited a westerner(even far esterner) friend to iran,taking them to the streets of your home land to show her how peaceful ,civilised,polite,... iranians are?well I have.guess what!...guys you can create an "imaginary Iran" in which every thing sounds alright to help your self confident but you can never change the reality of the culture we have been given gradually to live, for last 25 years,now the question I'm asking is what are you(well educated graduate sweet hearts)gonna do about it? you just can't stop your society being fooled by some stupid stories(islamic beliefs-if you like)
(at June 18, 2004 11:56 AM)
Yes Roba I have, several times. When I was a student I took a group of my friends in June with me to Iran. After graduation I went to another group of my friends to Iran. All of them loved it, we enjoyed our time a lot, both in the city and in the countryside. Iran is not an ideal place, I myself don't give a damn about any religion, but it's far from what you tried to say. I guess you've never been to Iran my friend.
(at June 18, 2004 12:38 PM)
i think it is not the matter of self confidence but having an identity which makes us love iran, i don't understand what do u want to say roba? what is so good about hating ur homeland? Just have a look at other communities around the world and see how proud they r about their own land...
(at June 18, 2004 03:34 PM)
the matter West-Ender has discussed is not about just Iran,he is saying this about us,the Eastern people,with great past and history.The flase media is moving us towards extinction,the younger generation which relies on the media,will never get to know us properly.Yeah there are some people who have interest in world history and have a good grasp of what is going on, but can you change the world with positive way of thinking of one person?of course not, but as we spreading the right words,in any way possible,we will get there some day.
p.s:West-Ender good topic mate.
(at June 18, 2004 03:56 PM)
Dear friends ,I was serfing internet and i found your weblog it is really cool,I am senior student of tehran university and i am going to pass IELTS exam ,can u tell me some points a bout it ?
(at June 18, 2004 06:07 PM)
Ben, what exactly do you want to know about IELTS? The most important thing I can tell you is to go through previous IELTS samples a few times, it is important to know how the exam feels like. Comparing to TOEFL it's a relaxed exam.
(at June 18, 2004 06:10 PM)
Dear Roba, I am a Graduate Sweet Heart as you call it. There is absolutey no problem if you dont like your country and its culture. But it would be very appreciated if you could write an article (and NOT with honeys and sweet hearts words) about your thoughts and feelings as West Ender did and ask the webmaster to put it on the weblog. I am impatiently looking forward to reading your article.
(at June 18, 2004 06:32 PM)
Unity!honey! I love your passion you have for my articles-to come.I really appreciate it,but what I just can't understand is why everybody thinks I'm writing against my country? telling the truth means that I do care even more than you guys about my country and I really want it to be az adorable as what you guys insist it is,but what you are doing is just sending out some false signals and causing poor foraigners to get even more disappointed when facing the facts.Ask youer mums(who are heros)they would advise you to tidy up the house first then invite your guest to see what you have been talking about the whole week!.I'm not being annoying but I really,from the bottom of my heart,want to see the best things happen to my country, my culture,my language, identity... .
Dear ben,
I love to hear from you, tell me what are you gonna do and I'give you some advice as much as I could mail me : rrrobaaa@yahoo.com best wishes.
don't get me wrong guys I really love you guys and especially this weblog and I am totally respectfull to what you guys are doing.Keep going.
(at June 19, 2004 02:37 PM)
roba please write more about the facts which you has mentioned in your comment .go through more details.
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