I just read this article in the Montreal Gazette, over breakfast, a short while ago.
If you click on the link above, you can read it, too.
It's another of those fascinating articles which shows you a side of Iran never seen in US media, and that begs the question as to why ?
So, let's lift the curtain on Iran, and see how "The Great Satan" is actually seen :
Iranians' new love affair with the Great SatanThe average Iranian has an astonishing fondness for the United States and what it represents
AZADEH MOAVENI, The Gazette
Published: 1 hour ago
On a recent afternoon, while riding a rickety bus down Vali Asr Ave., Tehran's main thoroughfare, I overheard two women discussing the grim state of Iranian politics. One of them had reached a rather desperate conclusion. "Let the Americans come," she said loudly. "Let them sort things out for us once and for all." Everyone in the women's section of the bus absorbed this casually, and her friend nodded in assent.
Although their leaders still call the United States the "Great Satan," ordinary Iranians' affection for the United States seems to be thriving these days, at least in the bustling capital. This rekindled regard is evident in people's conversations, their insatiable demand for U.S. products and culture, and their fascination with the U.S. presidential campaign.
One can't do reliable polling about Iranians' views under their theocratic government, of course, but these shifts were still striking to me as a longtime visitor - not least because liking the United States is also a way for Iranians to register their frustration with their own firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
t might startle some Westerners to realize that Iran has one of the most pro-U.S. populations in the Middle East. Iranians have adored the United States for nearly three decades, a sentiment rooted in nostalgia for Iran's golden days, before the worst of the shah's repression and the 1979 Islamic revolution. But today's affection is new, in a sense, or at least different.
Starting in about 2005, Iranians' historic esteem for the United States gave way to a deep ambivalence that is only now ending. President George W. Bush's post-9/11 wars of liberation on both of Iran's borders - in Iraq to the west and Afghanistan to the east - rattled ordinary Iranians, and Washington's opposition to Iran's nuclear program - a major source of national pride - added to their resentment. In early 2006, when I lived in Iran as a journalist, I had only to step outdoors to hear the complaints. Standing in line for pastry, I heard indignant matrons suggesting a boycott of U.S. products. The pious bazaar merchant who lived across the street grumbled that America was trying to "boss Iran around." On the ski slopes outside Tehran, I heard liberal college kids in designer parkas lionize Ahmadinejad for "standing up to the U.S. like a man." It was a time when Iranians of all ages and backgrounds united in their pique against the United States, turning their backs on its traditions and culture. A movement emerged to replace Valentine's Day (long celebrated here in satin-hearted American style) with Armaiti Day, a love festival in honour of an ancient Persian deity. DJs began playing homegrown Iranian rap at parties, instead of OutKast and Tupac Shakur. For the first time in years, millions sat at home in the evenings watching a domestic Iranian comedy, Barareh Nights, rather than bootleg DVDs of American films.
But on a recent two-week trip to Iran, I found the shift in sentiment palpable. This year, restaurants were booked solid for Valentine's Day months in advance. Heart-shaped chocolates and flower arrangements sold briskly enough to annoy the authorities, who reportedly began confiscating them on the street. American-style fast-food chains such as Super Star, seemingly modelled after the West Coast burger franchise Carl's Jr., are drawing crowds again. Walking through my old neighbourhood, I discovered people lining up at a grill joint called Chili's, bearing the same jalapeno logo as the U.S. chain. (The Iranian government shuns international trademark laws).
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id
=24cfd369-7958-42ee-ba6d-ad00a62fdaf9
That's just the start, there's MUCH more there to read.
I lived in Iran until last summer and experienced all the reasons why Ahmadinejad has replaced the United States as Iranians' top object of vexation. Under his leadership, inflation has spiked at least 20 per cent, according to non-government analysts - thanks to Ahmadinejad's expansionary fiscal policies, which inject vast amounts of cash into the economy. My old babysitter, for example, says she can no longer afford to feed her family red meat once a week. When I recently picked up some groceries - a sack of potatoes, some green plums, two cantaloupes and a few tomatoes - the bill came to the equivalent of $40.
Inflation has hit the real-estate market particularly hard. Housing prices have surged by nearly 150 per cent, according to real- estate agents. For most Iranians, previously manageable rents have become tremendous burdens. On one of my first evenings back in Iran, I watched Ahmadinejad on television as he addressed Iranians from the holy city of Qom. He blamed everyone - the hostile West, a domestic "cigarette mafia" - for the economic downturn, just as he had previously claimed that a "housing mafia" was driving up real-estate prices. Many Iranians who initially believed this kind of conspiracy talk now admit that the president's policies and obstinacy are actually at fault.
Another trend turning people against Ahmadinejad is the conspicuous affluence of wealthy Iranians. Instead of bringing the country's oil wealth to ordinary people's dinner tables, as promised, Ahmadinejad is presiding over an unprecedented rise in status display. New-model Mercedes-Benzes and BMW SUVs now whiz past the local clunker, the Iranian-produced Peykan, thanks to eased controls on car imports. Posh restaurants with menu items such as "risotto sushi shooters" are packed, while cartoons in newspapers bemoan the shrinking size of bread loaves. (The government controls bread prices but not loaf sizes, allowing for a de-facto cost increase.) This newly stark class polarization, together with the economic downturn of the past three years, is reinvigorating young Iranians' vision of America as a land of opportunity. "You can compete in the United States because it has a much fairer legal system than most countries," Ali Ghassemi, a struggling 34-year-old graphic designer, told me. He spoke proudly of the financial success of a cousin who immigrated to Orange County, Calif., while complaining that Iran reserved prosperity for the heirs of ayatollahs.
Strangely, the average Iranian seems to be motivated by many of the same things that Americans are motivated by.
High food prices, housing prices, a growing aristocracy, and a politician that's over the top and too extreme for them.
To add to Iranians' weariness, there are the interminable lines that have accompanied the government's new gas-rationing scheme. During the busy early evening, it takes an hour to fill up on gas, and policemen are required to direct the snarled traffic. Ahmadinejad has insinuated that the unpopular plan was a precaution against possible Western sanctions, but most people I spoke with considered it another instance of his administration's mismanagement.
Some things are indeed universal, it seems.
Beyond the new penury, Ahmadinejad has also resurrected unpopular invasions into Iranians' private lives. On the second day of my trip, newspapers announced that police would begin raiding office buildings and businesses to ensure that women were wearing proper Islamic dress. One of my girlfriends, an executive secretary, told me that as a precaution, her office had set up a coded warning message to be broadcast over the intercom. On the third day, police swept our street to confiscate illegal satellite dishes. I climbed to the roof to remove the coding device from my parents-in-law's dish. Such gadgets are costly to replace, unlike the dish itself, and the raids of recent months have made Iranians expert in such matters. "I'm going to miss American Idol," a neighbour sighed, fiddling with her satellite dish.
Invading their private lives ? American Idol ?
And this is why it's important to not rush to action and judgment in matters concerning Iran. Those people , that growing demographic of young Iranians, are the best hope for change there.
As you can see, when forces are placed against Iran, they inevitably result in Iranians moving towards defending their own self-interests and culture. That's totally normal.
Attack them, and they will go towards their only other option - the defense of their country, and into the arms of the hardliners.
14/12/2007
The Iranian opposition on Friday labeled President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust "political adventurism," saying to unnecessarily harmed Iran's international standing.
"It was totally unnecessary political adventurism by the president, which harmed the country," Abdollah Nasseri, the spokesman of the Reformist Coalition Headquarters (RCH), told reporters in Tehran.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934703.html
Conservatives Prevail in Iran Vote, but Opposition Scores, Too
April 27, 2008
Conservatives won nearly 70 percent of the seats in the voting, which concluded Friday. But that group includes many people who oppose Mr. Ahmadinejad’s economic policies. Reformists, who favor more political and social openness, also did relatively well.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the departing interior minister, said Saturday that 198 of the 290 seats went to the conservatives and 47 to reformist candidates, local news agencies in Iran reported. Reformists control 40 seats in the current Parliament.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/middleeast/27iran.html
Another great site for information is the blog " View From Iran" written by an American woman who spent many years there. She writes of things that might shock Americans, too long exposed to the media blitz of this administration, MEMRI, and CAMERA.
http://viewfromiran.blogspot.com/
Listen… Despite what you all might think, I love Iran. Yes, you read correctly. I love the country. That might be why both Keivan and I can be so critical sometimes. It is out of a kind of passion for what Iran is, was, and can become.
Iran is far from monolithic or doomed… It is diverse and delightful and filled with people who are unbelievably welcoming. Can you imagine Iranians traveling to America or Europe and being met with sincere kindness by 99.9% of the people they run across? Yet, when I travel Iran, I *am* met with kindness. Yes me. An American. I tell everyone who asks that I am American. Yes I do. I tell everyone. I tell the Revolutionary Guards and the soldiers and the police and the school girls and their mothers and brothers and fathers and friends. I tell cab drivers and business men and oil execs and refugees. Everywhere I go, I am met with kindness. When Iranians say to me, “It’s your government we hate, not you.” I say, “The government represents me. I may not have voted for it, but you must hold me and other Americans responsible for its actions.” Yes. They should, but they don’t.
The West sees images of Iranians throwing smoke bombs and burning flags and shouting down with America… You don’t see the 16-year old girl trying out her English with me. You don’t see the soldiers who greet me with jokes. You don’t see the families who have served me countless dinners. You don’t see any of this.
The West has chosen to demonize Iran. I don’t agree with Iran’s politics; I don’t agree with its legal system; I don’t agree with a lot of things here. Iran is flawed. Well aren’t we all…?
http://viewfromiran.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-heart-iran.html
There was this great story from her, which I can't find right now. As she traveled across Iran, discovering it's people, she met this one fellow that really scared her - the sole exception to her experience otherwise.
She asked some Iranians about him afterwards, and they said " He scares US, too ! "
So, on this Sunday, perhaps some of you will rethink your position on Iran based on some of the evidence brought forward here.
Some more Iranian blogs to discover :
http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/middle-east-north-africa/iran/
