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The cultural paradoxes of Iran


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#1 duke_Qa

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Posted 25 May 2009 - 05:12 PM

Just read an interesting article about Iran and its contrary culture. And i figured that i would try to repeat those here.

Cosmetic surgery is very common among women, they tweak their noses to look more aryan. A large group also dresses in more western ways, with form-fitting dresses, high heeled shoes, small scarfs showing bleached hair and plenty of make-up. this is something i've mentioned in earlier threads about Iran, so thats no surprise to me. the surprise is naturally that they are going for an Aryan look, which we come to next.


Iranians are Persians, which consider themselves Aryans. Which surprisingly is true.

(Aryan roots)...Its history starts with the ancient Indo-Iranians, peoples who inhabited parts of what are now Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India."[1]


They hate Arabs with a passion, partly because of the ethnic differences, and partly because of the Sunni religion. For an Iranian its a smaller sin to convert to Christianity*than its to convert to Sunni Islam. They consider the Arab states rise to power the last decades a disgrace, because the Arabs have in their eyes been nothing but farmboys for millenia, until they found oil in their sand. ("These desert beduins only got a civilization when it found oil a petty few decades ago, while the persian kingdom can trace its history thousands of years back through time")

Also, Mein Kampf by Adolf is a very popular book in Iran, although only in farsi. they get irritated when people claim that they want to wipe Israel off the map, because they consider that preaching from the mosques and not foreign policy. they say that their president has been misquoted on the topic of wiping Israel off the map. what he really said was more or less that Israel was a synthetic/fake country created in an unnatural way, and that the Palestinians should get to vote on its existence, and the Europeans should give the Israelis some land in europe for them to live in instead of in the middle east. its not a very politically correct thing to say either, but at least its a bit less war-mongering.

All in all, they hate jews, but they respect them. But they totally despise the Arabs, which they consider fakes and beneath their superior culture.


At the same time, Iran has since the islamic revolution seen itself as the natural head of Islam in the middle east. With the fall of Iraq, its shia Nemesis and main opponent, it has gained more power here. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have lost power and is annoyed because of that. Syria has sided with Iran in the fight for Sunni/persian influence, in exchange for getting Iranian support to help them with Lebanon through Hezbollah. All in all, the invasion of Iraq was a blessing in disguise for Iran.

Homosexuality is still illegal and punishable by death, but some have found out that surgery to change your sex is totally acceptable. I don't think there are many female to male operations though, considering the limited rights women have(as witnesses in court their voice only counts half as much as a male, if the husband in a marriage is not satisfied he can arrange a short term marriage with other women for money, polygami, etc etc.)

Equal rights for women might look a bit dark, but in the universities 65% of the students are women. The professor asked about equal rights started asking how far this would go, because soon the women would be in power and the men would be at home in the kitchen. Might take a while, but at least its a good sign that there is a majority of women in universities.


The election, now here's a no brainer. It might be an election in the strictest sense of the name, people go out and vote. but since people are so disillusioned by the system, only the fanatics that believe in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the islamic revolution actually go and vote. And since he now more or less has endorsed Ahmadinejad, his current favorite puppet in promoting his vision of Iran, which means that the more reform-friendly opponent is very unlikely to win. It's almost like wondering if the communist party would win the election back in Stalin's days.

Then again, they just had to block Facebook because it seemed that Mirhossein Mousavi, the reformist's candidate and the biggest opponent to the current president, actually might whip up enough couch-voters to turn the election unpredictable(Technology is certainly a blessing).


on the topic of nuclear weapons, they don't really want them and claim that their nuclear activities are only for peaceful purposes, or else Israel would attack and make a mess of things. but it seems that their biggest wish is to gain respect from the nations of the world, and by getting a nuclear weapon would be a way to do that. in fact, they are playing this on the edge, claiming that they are not making nuclear weapons while making it look like they are. For them its a victory in itself that we think they are making it. But not too much, because then Israel would bomb them. they arent too scared of USA because they think the US is too busy in Iraq and Afganistan, so their main threat is Israel.



A very short summary of that article. It was fascinating. I didnt know that the Iranians hated the Arabs so much, or even that there was a difference in there. strange what you can learn. Another thing that is strange is how they can be fans of Islam when it seems that its primarily a Arab religion. And at the same time, they want to be in charge of Islam, even though they are primarily shia, which are like 10-15% of the total muslims in the world. a dangerous train of thought imo. But still its fascinating.






*=(though you can still get executed for it, but you can at least be Christian at heart and keep it a secret, going over to Sunni Islam would be impossible to hide they claim)

Edited by duke_Qa, 25 May 2009 - 05:13 PM.

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#2 Casen

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Posted 25 May 2009 - 05:30 PM

Iran was better before Islam. Would have been better if they had kept Zoroastrianism.

#3 Pasidon

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Posted 25 May 2009 - 06:29 PM

I don't understand why Iranian Women would want plastic surgery... Their faces are always covered by those parachutes.

#4 duke_Qa

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Posted 26 May 2009 - 09:46 PM

I think Shia Islam is a bit like Protestantism and Sunni Islam is a bit like Catholicism. The Sunni's are overall the crazy religious ones. Iran had a religious revolution because it was the only opposing elements to the Shah, and everybody pretty much got pissed once they realized the US/west were playing them for fools.

After that they did what most revolutionaries try to do; keep the power for as long as possible. As of yet they are still holding on to it, but its apparent that the Iranian populace is not one that accepts the religious rule down to the letter.

all in all, if it wasnt for the revolution, Iran would prolly be best friends with the US and the west. they would prolly have been a part of the saudi oil nations and filthy rich. but hey, religion got in the way :lol:

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#5 Casen

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Posted 01 June 2009 - 07:15 AM

Actually duke you'd be surprised.

There's actually a higher percentage of Shia extremists per amount of Shiites than there are Sunni extremists per amount of Sunnis.

Edited by Kacen, 01 June 2009 - 07:20 AM.


#6 Spectre

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Posted 03 June 2009 - 02:52 AM

Again, with feeling.

Are we the leaders of Iran? No.

Should we be? No.

So why should we worry? We shouldn't.

Edited by Durandel, 03 June 2009 - 02:53 AM.


#7 Hostile

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Posted 04 June 2009 - 01:53 AM

Duke, seriously this was a great article. It had me spinning in circles. I agree with alot of your speculations, as well, as your observations.

The comparison between shia/sunni and catholic/protestants was a valid peace. It appears they are going through the process Christians did but later on.

And NEVER call a Persian an Arab by accident.

#8 duke_Qa

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Posted 11 June 2009 - 09:53 PM

Well i only did a basic translation and added some parts like the catholic/protestant thing to it, but it was a very interesting and enlightening article.


All in all, Iran is becoming more and more sympathetic in my eyes these days. the hordes of green-decorated activists running around for the reform-friendly Mousavi is a sight that really brings hope to my heart that there are sensible people inside Iran. We'll see what happens during the election tomorrow. if Ahmadinejad doesnt get 50+% of the votes there will be a new round, and if Mousavi gets more % than Ahmadinejad things would be looking very good indeed... Iran might just improve.

Edited by duke_Qa, 11 June 2009 - 10:09 PM.

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#9 duke_Qa

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Posted 15 June 2009 - 08:29 PM

Well as we noticed things didn't work out quite the way we hoped, but they didn't work out quite the way we expected either.

Basically, interior ministry of Iran claims Ahmadinejad won with +65% of the votes, but the moderate opposition is not too pleased about this. Demonstrations have actually increased the last days, and its certainly the biggest civillian rebellion in Iran since the revolution.

Right now it is rumored that there are millions of moderates demonstrating in the streets of Teheran, a demonstration that the interior ministry forbid and threatened with deadly force if followed through [Video Link]. One is thought to have died of gunshots from loyal militias [link BBC]. I'm actually surprized that there arent any more deaths as of yet, but i bet that if more people are gunned down, the demonstrations will increase.

The best thing about this is the great use of the Internet. the Iranian government is unable to withhold all this information, and we get juicy pictures of whats going on down there. even more important, the demonstrators also gets fresh information, provoking pictures that makes them more motivated, and a "stable"/tenatious source of communication to organize themselves. The internet is the printing press of the modern world. It undermines medieval governments that holds their power with an iron fist. Even if nothing happens right now, a few more years with more and more technology and things will be getting hot indeed.

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