The reality TV showed based on Iranians in LA airs tonight. Lacking in originality as it is a cross between Jersey Shore and the Kardashian show, Iranians all over are talking about it, some nervously. There is some good to be derived from the show. For starters, millions of Americans associate Iran, Iranians, or “Persians” with terrorism and irrationality. This show will, for better or worse, show a very different side to what many confuse as one Iranian/Iran monolith. A similar but in no way identical parallel to my point is the screening of Oscar-winning Iranian film, “A Separation” in Israel. Some Israelis, who for years have been exposed to a vicious warmongering propaganda campaign against Iran and Iranians, came to see Iranians as human beings, with a few surprised that Iranians even had refrigerators and washing machines inside Iran!
There is, of course, a bad side to this show as well. I think a personal anecdote is instructive here. I have a friend in the PhD program who studied in the east coast and lived with an Iranian girl from Newport Beach in southern California during her first year in the college dorms. According to my friend, her roommate was a spoiled “princess.” This same friend thought she had me a figured out because I, like her roommate, am Iranian and had lived the latter half of my childhood in Newport. In other words, because of her experience with one Iranian, she thought she had all of us with a similar background figured out. She made this false assumption even though she’s extremely more educated than the average American. It is safe to assume that many more people will come to see Iranians in southern California in particular, and Iranians in America in general, through the lens provided by the show, which based on the previews I’ve seen presents us as extremely shallow, superficial, materialistic, disconnected, and to put it simply, silly and probably a bit outrageous.
I’m not excited about the show whatsoever (they lost me from the very start with the name of the show!) but based on what I wrote above, I admit that it’s not clear that it’s going to be entirely disastrous. Either way, I’m going to watch it and I encourage all Iranians to do so as well so they can be privy to the way people will come to see them, however wrongly, based on this silly show.
“Some Israelis, who for years have been exposed to a vicious warmongering propaganda campaign against Iran and Iranians, came to see Iranians as human beings, with a few surprised that Iranians even had refrigerators and washing machines inside Iran!”
This quote itself shows how uninformed you are about Israel.
“Warmongering Propaganda”: from its birth, the rulling regime of Iran has been calling for total and absolute destruction of Israel, please tell me which part is “Propaganda” or “warmongering” since you like to use such terms, I hope you are able to back up such statements.
Please refrain from using “arguments” such as “Iran has not attacked a country in such and such years” due to the fact that it is simply a false statements. Iran has been involved in many conflicts and they have used terrorist tactics or direct interference to wage wars against other sovereign nations in the region including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Oman, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt.
I think the core issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not so much what Iran says, i.e. “calling for the total and absolute destruction of Israel…” but rather what is actually happening on the ground: the actual physical destruction of the Palestinian human presence on that land. Until you realize that cold hard fact, I suspect you’ll continue to demonize others so as to not deal with the pressing issues that have long plagued Israel and its security.
As for your listing of countries for which Iran has interfered, I mean, can you be any more selective?
So what would you call Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 78, 82 (and the subsequent 18 year occupation), ’06, its invasion of Egypt in ’56, its attacks and occupation of lands belonging to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in ’67, its assassinations of leaders, dissidents, and militants all over the world, its role in forming Iran’s pre-revolution security apparatus, etc. I mean, can you even compare? lol.
I don’t mean to suggest that Iran’s foreign policy has not affected countries, but who are you to preach? Israel killed more than 20,000 in Lebanon just in the first month or so of its invasion of Lebanon.
Please save it for someone who is blind to this history.
Thank you.