Tuesday at 8:07:26 p.m. (New York Time), Iranian Americans worldwide celebrated the 1,386th Persian New Year, also known as Norooz. The event is a cultural celebration and follows in the tradition of Zoroastrianism.
The Iran of Holocaust-questioning president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is not the country that Iranian ex-patriots know, love, celebrate and nostalgically call home. For every American shaking his head at Iran's nuclear development, there is an Iranian proudly claiming himself and his country as tolerant.
And it's no wonder why.
As a first-generation Iranian American and someone who grew up in what has popularly been dubbed "Tehrangeles," I know that the Iran of my culture-Persia-is not the Iran of current world politics. Despite efforts from FOX News to convince the American people otherwise, Iranians are tolerant, and their history (past and present) proves it.
Iranians know themselves first and foremost as Persians, and it is perhaps for this reason that their pride has allowed Iran-now avidly called a part of the "Axis of Evil" or the hotbed of Hezbollah-to sully relations with America and the Western world. Arguably the newest and most prosperous modern empire, the Western world, its democratic ideologies and capitalist economies are viewed as contenders to the Iranians; though the Iranians, with their rich Persian history, are not given the same esteem by their Western adversaries. Instead, Americans settle for the common, regurgitated stereotypes of Iranians: terrorists, towel heads, sand monkeys and camel jockeys.
The Persian Empire, which dates back to 550 BC, is renowned for its humble and tolerant leader, Cyrus the Great, who ardently believed in religious freedom. He was the first leader to free the Jews to return to Israel and is the only Gentile referred to in the Bible as a messiah. Cyrus the Great also refused to enslave those people his empire accumulated through conquest, which was an anomaly.
Many present-day Iranian figureheads also espouse tolerant ideals, including human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi and chief international correspondent for CNN Christiane Amanpour. Still, the Iran of today is known for violence and intolerance, a reputation that predates Sept. 11 and accusations of nuclear aggression.
In the months and years following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Iranian saying "Death to America" became a popular scare tactic of the American government. As an American generation that remembers (even if not personally) the Gulf War, Bush senior and junior, the Iran hostage crisis and the current "War On Terror," we are familiar with many Iranians' anti-American mentality. But they do not possess this anti-Americanism because "they hate our freedom"; rather, it is the result of a disappointing relationship with the United States.
It's a wonder that a country rich in a history of tolerance, especially toward the Jews, could espouse such anti-Semitic rhetoric or such militant aggression toward America.
Iran's now-hostile relationship with the United States-and even the religious dogma of the Islamic Revolution-is a result of years of political betrayal and ignored promises, as well as economic exploitation and humanitarian neglect. It is not the result of an intrinsic Iranian savagery toward religious difference or the Western world. Iranian nationalists, though critical of the American government and its Middle East policies, are renowned for their warmth and hospitality toward non-militant Americans, and many American journalists, including Geraldine Brooks and Elaine Sciolino, have written books that provide testimony to this fact.
Sadly but surely, Americans have not afforded Iranians the same respect, and many Iranians living in the United States today do so as unwanted intruders. For myself and many other Iranians, living in the United States means constantly proving oneself patriotic and "American."
The United States rarely takes responsibility for its own role in devastating diplomatic relations between itself and countries it now calls enemies. Instead of understanding the historical foundation of severed relationships, the United States has misleadingly simplified these relations for the American people. Again, Iranians are reduced to inhospitable people who "hate" our American ways-our American freedom-and not recognized as a worthwhile people with a remarkable Persian history.
It is my hope for the New Year that this misperception will change.
For the better half of the 20th century and even into the 21st the Middle East has been considered an area in crisis and a problem that the United States has tried avidly to solve. But the problem of the Middle East, at least as it pertains to Iran, is very simple: The United States must take responsibility for its long line of international mistakes. Despite the recent hoopla, Iranians are tolerant, and even a fanatic president like Ahmadinejad can be easily influenced by a little sincerity. After all, he too is a Persian.
Shadee Malaklou is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Wednesday.
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