Friday
Feb252011
Weirdest Iran video ever
By 
Issandr El Amrani | Iran
Issandr El Amrani | Iran I'm not sure what's the point here — that there's a nice upper class lifestyle available in Iran and not everybody is a mullah?
Reader Comments (8)
it seems like a video for tourism. so sad with what's happening and been happening all the time in Iran :(
Issandr,
A couple years ago there was a pdf slideshow that had many of the pictures in the video you posted. As your comment (not everybody is a mullah?) sarcastically points out, a capitalistic/materialist life thrives for the elites of Iran as is true within many nation-states. More importantly, however, is the benefit of such images in combating misconceptions about Iran and the Middle East in general.
As an Iranian born and living in the U.S. (am I American? that's another story...) I value these images in order to provide a well rounded view of Iran. As you and many others may be aware of, Iran is in the mainstream news for certain topics and these certain topics only! (nuclear, Israel, terrorism, etc...)
Not to mention that most Americans don't know the difference between an Arab and Persian. Something that I work hard to dispel in the courses I teach (at a large public Midwestern University). While the video clip above is "strange" and the choice of music may seem random, it counterbalances the other images of Iran that are prevalent in Western media outlets.
I am a critic of the Iranian regime and would appreciate a more democratic and "secular" (is any govt. really secular?) regime in Iran. However, people in Iran, like my extended family, live average lives compared to the rest of the world and are not necessarily rich like the portrayal of some of the lifestyles in the video. However, Iranians that are middle class can travel and enjoy leisure time like much of the world.
The overall point is that when Americans say "I didn't know there were cities in Africa" because they only think of Africa has containing wildlife and tribal lifestyles, there is something wrong with how their perceptions are created. The same is true with how Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc... are portrayed in recent news coverage. As if Arabs could ever be civilized? Why do Americans and other westerners think this? This speaks to a large problem in our global order. One last example that may relate to the above video well is the representations of China - Americans still hold on to this lingering idea of an austere "communist" state. When in reality nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, there is a large peasant class in China, however there is a large and rapidly growing materialist/capitalist class. The term communism is void of all meaning when it comes to China. Therefore, not all Iranians are terrorists that hate the U.S.
Apologies for rambling, but since you didn't post much in terms of comment about the video I thought I might begin some dialogue.
keep up the good work,
Jubin
I'm with Jubin on this.
http://tehranlive.org is a factory of great photos.
THe people shown aren't just "upper class" (in fact these are pretty ordinary Tehran sights.)
I guess the point is that Iran isn't what the media portrays it as -- my friends for example were totally shocked to see pictures of snow in Iran because OF COURSE everyone KNOWS that the entire Mideast is just one large desert dotted with camels, oil wells and crazy Jew hating scimitar carrying beduins, right? You may not thinks so but the majority of Americans do.
It's a different thing, but I consider myself fairly well informed, yet I was quite surprised to see Egyptian protesters in coats a few weeks ago, so I did some search-engining and found out that it's regularly in the 40's and there is even occasional snow in Egypt. Had no idea.
Though I think it's also odd that anyone would find fault with this sort of lack of knowledge. I find Europeans pretty unaware of most things American as well. Back during the Kosovo crisis, I talked to people in Italy, including a lot of serbs, who felt that we were intervening because the glorified violence in our movies and tv shows had given our populace a bloodlust. As if the Kosovo intervention was driven by any interest at all at the popular level. Most Americans would have been completely happy not bothering - it was driven mostly by elite anger at what was happening and guilt over "allowing" the genocide in Rwanda. I think we can leave aside the question of whether the intervention was the right thing - my point is merely that it had nothing at all to do with the sort of things many pacifist Europeans attributed it to. The sorts of people who cared about Kosovo don't even watch tv shows and action movies for the most part.
People everywhere are naturally quite unaware of the average lives of people in other countries that they don't get to visit. It's great to dispel such things. But the chips on the shoulders of people seeking to do the dispelling can also be an impediment to understanding.
This means one thing. you should never just listen to Fox News or JPost. :-) For the past 33 years the west has been trying to portrait Iranians as backward and dangerous terrorist. Some bought it some did not.
You need to go beyond these so called western media that only spread hate for profit. Educate yourself by talking to people.
Quite a few videos like that, some with equally idiosyncratic music choices -- compare this one, for instance. They're created for Western audiences as a self-conscious antidote to popular media portrayals, and as others above have noted, are a necessary antidote.
As an Arab I do not have a problem with Iranian people,as a Lebanese I do have:why the pro Iranian regime in my country glorify death and war and mayhem in Lebanon, encouraged and financed by pasdaran and Mr. Ahmadinazad ,and this clip shows how splendid and wonderful the life in Iran is?