Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran

A glorious past inspires a conflicted nation.

By Marguerite Del Giudice
What's so striking about the ruins of Persepolis in southern Iran, an ancient capital of the Persian
Empire that was burned down after being conuered b! Ale"ander the #reat, is the absence of
$iolent imager! on what's left of its stone walls. Among the car$ings there are soldiers, but the!'re
not fighting% there are weapons, but the!'re not drawn. &ainl! !ou see emblems suggesting that
something humane went on here instead'people of different nations gathering peacefull!, bearing
gifts, draping their hands amiabl! on one another's shoulders. In an era noted for its barbarit!,
Persepolis, it seems, was a relati$el! cosmopolitan place'and for man! Iranians toda! its ruins are a
breathtaking reminder of who their Persian ancestors were and what the! did.
(he recorded histor! of the countr!
itself spans some ),*++ !ears, culminating in toda!'s Islamic ,epublic of Iran, formed in -./. after a
re$olution inspired in part b! conser$ati$e clerics cast out the Western0backed shah. It's arguabl! the
world's first modern constitutional theocrac! and a grand e"periment: 1an a countr! be run
effecti$el! b! hol! men imposing an e"treme $ersion of Islam on a people soaked in such a rich
Persian past2
Persia was a conuering empire but also regarded in some wa!s as one of the more glorious and
bene$olent ci$ili3ations of antiuit!, and I wondered how strongl! people might still identif! with the
part of their histor! that's illustrated in those sur$i$ing frie3es. So I set out to e"plore what 4Persian4
means to Iranians, who at the time of m! two $isits last !ear were being shunned b! the international
communit!, their culture demoni3ed in Western cinema, and their leaders cast, in an escalating war
of words with Washington, 5.1., as menacing would0be terrorists out to build the bomb.
6ou can't reall! separate out Iranian identit! as one thing or another'broadl! speaking, it's part
Persian, part Islamic, and part Western, and the parado"es all e"ist together. 7ut there is a Persian
identit! that has nothing to do with Islam, which at the same time has blended with the culture of
Islam 8as e$idenced b! the &uslim call to pra!er that booms from loudspeakers situated around
Persepolis, a cue to $isitors that the! are not onl! in a Persian kingdom but also in an Islamic
republic9. (his would be a stor! about those Iranians who still, at least in part, identif! with their
Persian roots. Perhaps some millennial spillo$er runs through the makeup of what is now one of the
world's ticking hot spots. Are $estiges of the life0lo$ing Persian nature 8wine, lo$e, poetr!, song9
wo$en into the fabric of abstinence, pra!er, and fatalism often associated with Islam'like a secret
computer program running uietl! in the background2
Surviving, Persian Style
Iran's capital cit! of (ehran is an e"citing, pollution0choked metropolis at the foot of the Elbur3
&ountains. &an! of the buildings are made of tin! beige bricks and girded with metal railings, gi$ing
the impression of small compounds coming one after the other, punctuated b! halted construction
pro:ects and parks. (here are still some beautiful gardens here, a Persian inheritance, and pri$ate
ones, with fruit trees and fountains, fishponds and a$iaries, flourishing inside the brick walls.
While I was here, two Iranian0born American academics, home for a $isit, had been locked up,
accused of fomenting a $el$et re$olution against the go$ernment. E$entuall! the! were released. 7ut
back in the ;nited States, people would ask, wasn't I afraid to be in Iran2'the assumption being that
I must ha$e been in danger of getting locked up m!self.
7ut I was a guest in Iran, and in Iran a guest is accorded the highest status, the sweetest piece of
fruit, the most comfortable place to sit. It's part of a comple" s!stem of ritual politeness'taarof'
that go$erns the subte"t of life here. <ospitalit!, courting, famil! affairs, political negotiations% taarof
is the unwritten code for how people should treat each other. (he word has an Arabic root, arafa,
meaning to know or acuire knowledge of. 7ut the idea of taarof'to abase oneself while e"alting the
other person'is Persian in origin, said William =. 7eeman, a linguistic anthropologist at the
;ni$ersit! of &innesota. <e described it as 4fighting for the lower hand,4 but in an e"uisitel!
elegant wa!, making it possible, in a hierarchical societ! like Iran's, 4for people to parado"icall! deal
with each other as euals.4
Where$er I went, people fussed o$er me and made sure that all m! needs were met. 7ut the! can get
so caught up tr!ing to please, or seeming to, and declining offers, or seeming to, that true intentions
are hidden. (here's a lot of mind reading and lighthearted, meaningless dialogue while the two
parties go back and forth with entreaties and refusals until the truth re$eals itself.
7eing smooth and seeming sincere while hiding !our true feelings'artful pretending'is considered
the height of taarof and an enormous social asset. 46ou ne$er show !our intention or !our real
identit!,4 said a former Iranian political prisoner now li$ing in >rance. 46ou're making sure !ou're
not e"posing !ourself to danger, because throughout our histor! there has been a lot of danger
there.4
Geography as Destiny
Indeed, the long course of Iranian histor! is saturated with wars, in$asions, and mart!rs, including
the teenage bo!s during the Iran0Ira war of the -.?+s who carried plastic ke!s to hea$en while
clearing minefields b! walking bra$el! across them. (he underl!ing reason for all the drama is:
location. If !ou draw lines from the &editerranean to 7ei:ing or 7ei:ing to 1airo or Paris to 5elhi,
the! all pass through Iran, which straddles a region where East meets West. =$er )@ centuries, a
blending of the hemispheres has been going on here'trade, cultural interchange, friction'with Iran
smack in the middle.
&eanwhile, because of its wealth and strategic location, the countr! was also o$errun b! one in$ader
after another, and the Persian Empire was established, lost, and reestablished a number of times'b!
the Achaemenids, the Parthians, and the Sassanids'before finall! going under. In$aders ha$e
included the (urks, #enghis Ahan and the &ongols, and, most significantl!, Arabian tribesmen.
>ired with the 3eal of a new religion, Islam, the! humbled the ancient Persian Empire for good in the
se$enth centur! and ushered in a period of &uslim greatness that was distinctl! Persian. (he Arab
e"pansion is regarded as one of the most dramatic mo$ements of an! people in histor!. Persia was in
its ine"orable path, and, e$er since, Iranians ha$e been finding wa!s to keep safe their identit! as
distinct from the rest of the &uslim and Arab world. 4Iran is $er! big and $er! ancient,4 said 6oussef
&ad:id3adeh, a leading Iranian archaeologist, 4and it's not eas! to change the hearts and identit! of
the people because of this.4
(he! like to sa!, for instance, that when in$aders came to Iran, the Iranians did not become the
in$aders% the in$aders became Iranians. (heir conuerors were said to ha$e 4gone Persian,4 like
Ale"ander, who, after la!ing waste to the $anuished Persia, adopted its cultural and administrati$e
practices, took a Persian wife 8,o"ana9, and ordered thousands of his troops to do the same in a
mass wedding. Iranians seem particularl! proud of their capacit! to get along with others b!
assimilating compatible aspects of the in$aders' wa!s without surrendering their own'a cultural
elasticit! that is at the heart of their Persian identit!.
Welcome to Aratta
(he earliest reports of human settlement in Iran go back at least -+,+++ !ears, and the countr!'s
name deri$es from Ar!ans who migrated here beginning around -*++ b.c. Ba!ers of ci$ili3ation'tens
of thousands of archaeological sites'are !et to be e"ca$ated. =ne recent find uickening some hearts
was unearthed in )+++ near the cit! of Ciroft, when flash floods along the <alil ,i$er in the southeast
e"posed thousands of old tombs. (he e"ca$ation is :ust si" seasons old, and there isn't much to see
!et. 7ut intriguing artifacts ha$e been found 8including a bron3e goat's head dating back perhaps
*,+++ !ears9, and Ciroft is spoken of as possibl! an earl! center of ci$ili3ation contemporar! with
&esopotamia.
6oussef the archaeologist, an authorit! on the third millennium b.c., directs the digs. <e used to run
the archaeolog! department at the ;ni$ersit! of (ehran but lost his :ob after the re$olution and
mo$ed to >rance. =$er the !ears, he said, 4things changed.4 Interest in archaeolog! re$i$ed, and he
was in$ited back to run Ciroft. 6oussef thinks it ma! be the fabled 4lost4 7ron3e Age land of Aratta,
circa )/++ b.c., reputedl! legendar! for magnificent crafts that found their wa! to &esopotamia. 7ut
thus far there's no proof, and other scholars are skeptical. What would he ha$e to find to put the
matter uneui$ocall! to rest2 <e chuckled wistfull!. 4(he eui$alent of an engra$ed arch that sa!s,
DWelcome to Aratta.' 4
Prospects for more digs at the thousands of une"plored sites seem daunting. In Iran the price of
meat is high, there aren't enough :obs, the bureaucrac! is inscrutable, bloated, and inefficient, and
state corruption'as described to me b! three different people'is 4an open secret,4 4worse than
e$er,4 and 4institutionali3ed.4
4(he countr! has man! needs,4 6oussef said, 4and certainl! archaeolog! is not the main sub:ect.4 7ut
since Ciroft, 4all the pro$inces are interested in e"ca$ating, and e$er! little town wants to be known
around the world like Ciroft. (he!'re proud, and there are ri$alries.4
6oussef was slouched happil! in a fau"0leather chair in the offices of his publisher, munching tin!
green grapes while musing about wh! Iranians are the wa! the! are. As much as an!thing else, he
thought, it was the geograph!, for when the Iranians were being o$errun time after time, 4where
could the! go'the desert2 (here was no place to run and hide.4 (he! sta!ed, the! got along, the!
pretended and made taarof. 4(he tree here has $er! deep roots.4
Superpower Nostalgia
(he legac! from antiuit! that has alwa!s seemed to loom large in the national ps!che is this: (he
concepts of freedom and human rights ma! not ha$e originated with the classical #reeks but in Iran,
as earl! as the si"th centur! b.c. under the Achaemenid emperor 1!rus the #reat, who established
the first Persian Empire, which would become the largest, most powerful kingdom on Earth. Among
other things, 1!rus, reputedl! a bra$e and humble good gu!, freed the ensla$ed Cews of 7ab!lon in
*E. b.c., sending them back to Cerusalem to rebuild their temple with mone! he ga$e them, and
established what has been called the world's first religiousl! and culturall! tolerant empire.
;ltimatel! it comprised more than )E different peoples who coe"isted peacefull! under a central
go$ernment, originall! based in Pasargadae'a kingdom that at its height, under 1!rus's successor,
5arius, e"tended from the &editerranean to the Indus ,i$er.
So Persia was arguabl! the world's first superpower.
4We ha$e a nostalgia to be a superpower again,4 said Saeed Ba!la3, an economic and political anal!st
in (ehran, 4and the countr!'s nuclear ambitions are directl! related to this desire.4 (he headlines are
familiar: A consensus report of ke! ;.S. sp! agencies'the Fational Intelligence Estimate'concluded
last 5ecember that a militar!0run program to de$elop nuclear weapons in Iran was halted in )++E.
Iran continues to enrich uranium, insisting that it wants onl! to produce fuel for its nuclear power
plants, but highl! enriched uranium is also a ke! ingredient for a nuclear bomb. As a deterrent, the
;F has imposed increasing economic sanctions. 7ut Iran's president, &ahmoud Ahmadine:ad, a
conser$ati$e hard0liner, is gi$ing no ground while at the same time making freuent threatening
remarks about nearb! Israel, den!ing the <olocaust, and, according to the ;.S. go$ernment, sending
weapons and munitions to e"tremist militias in Ira that are being used against Irais and ;.S.
forces there.
4At one time the area of the countr! was triple what it is now, and it was a stable superpower for
more than a thousand !ears,4 said Saeed, a slender, refined man in glasses and starched shirtslee$es
rolled to three0uarter length, sitting in his elegant apartment ne"t to a lamp resembling a cockatoo,
with real feathers. (he empire once encompassed toda!'s Ira, Pakistan, Afghanistan, (urkmenistan,
;3bekistan, (a:ikistan, (urke!, Cordan, 1!prus, S!ria, Bebanon, Israel, Eg!pt, and the 1aucasus
region. 4(he borders ha$e mo$ed in o$er the centuries, but this superpower nostalgia, so in
contradiction to realit!,4 he said, 4is all because of the histor!.4
At the foundation of which, again, is 1!rus, and in particular something called the 1!rus 1!linder'
perhaps Iran's most e"alted artifact'housed at the 7ritish &useum in Bondon, with a replica
residing at ;F headuarters in Few 6ork 1it!. (he c!linder resembles a corncob made of cla!%
inscribed on it, in cuneiform, is a decree that has been described as the first charter of human rights
'predating the &agna 1arta b! nearl! two millennia. It can be read as a call for religious and ethnic
freedom% it banned sla$er! and oppression of an! kind, the taking of propert! b! force or without
compensation% and it ga$e member states the right to sub:ect themsel$es to 1!rus's crown, or not. 4I
ne$er resol$e on war to reign.4
4(o know Iran and what Iran reall! is, :ust read that transcription from 1!rus,4 said Shirin Ebadi, the
Iranian law!er who won the )++E Fobel Peace Pri3e. We were in her central (ehran apartment
building, in a basement office lined with mahogan!0and0glass bookcases. Inside one was a tin! gold
cop! of the c!linder, encased in a Ple"iglas bo" that she held out to me as if presenting a newborn
child. 4Such greatness as the c!linder has been shown man! times in Iran,4 but the world doesn't
know it, she said. 4When I go abroad, people get surprised when the! reali3e that @* percent of the
college students here are girls. =r when the! see Iranian paintings and Iranian architecture, the! are
shocked. (he! are :udging a ci$ili3ation :ust b! what the! ha$e heard in the last E+ !ears4'the
Islamic re$olution% the rollbacks of personal freedoms, particularl! for women% the nuclear program
and antagonism with the West. (he! know nothing of the thousands of !ears that came before, she
said'what the Iranians went through to remain distinct from their in$aders, and how the! did it.
>or instance, she said, after the Arabs came, and Iran con$erted to Islam, 4e$entuall! we turned to
the Shiite sect, which was different from the Arabs, who are Sunni.4
(he! were still &uslims, but not Arabs.
4We were Iranian.4
In fact, the first thing people said when I asked what the! wanted the world to know about them was,
4We are not ArabsG4 8followed closel! b!, 4We are not terroristsG49. A certain Persian chau$inism
creeps into the dialogue. E$en though economicall! the!'re not performing as well as Arab states like
5ubai and Hatar, the! still feel e"ceptional. (he Arabs who conuered Iran are commonl! regarded
as ha$ing been little more than 7edouin li$ing in tents, with no culture of their own aside from what
Iran ga$e them, and from the $ehemence with which the! are still railed against, !ou would think it
happened not -I centuries ago but last week.
I met a woman at a wedding who ga$e off the air of an aging mo$ie star, her dapper husband beside
her wearing his white dinner :acket and smoking out of a cigarette holder, and it wasn't fi$e minutes
before she lit into the Arabs.
4E$er!thing went down after the! came, and we ha$e ne$er been the sameG4 she said, wringing
someone's neck in the air. And a friend I made here, an English teacher named Ali, spoke of how the
loss of the empire still weighed on the national consciousness. 47efore the! came, we were a great
and ci$ili3ed power,4 he said, as we dro$e to his home on the outskirts of Shira3, dodging motorc!cles
and tailgaters. Echoing commonl! stated 8though disputed9 lore, he added: 4(he! burned our books
and raped our women, and we couldn't speak >arsi in public for E++ !ears, or the! took out our
tongues.4
The Cult of Ferowsi
(he Iranians spoke >arsi an!wa!. (he national language has been Arabi3ed to some e"tent, but =ld
Persian remains at its root. (he man credited with helping sa$e the language, and the histor!, from
obli$ion is a tenth0centur! poet named >erdowsi. >erdowsi is Iran's <omer. Iranians idoli3e their
poets'among man!, ,umi, SaDid, =mar Aha!!Jm, <Kfe3 8whose works are said to be consulted for
guidance about lo$e and life as much as, if not more than, the Islamic hol! book, the Aoran9. When
the people were oppressed b! the latest in$ader and couldn't safel! speak their minds, the poets did
it for them, cle$erl! disguised in $erse. 4Sometimes the! were e"ecuted,4 said 6oussef the
archaeologist, 4but the! did it an!wa!.4 So toda!, although Iran is home to man! cultural
denominations 8and languages9 other than Persian'(urkmen, Arab, A3eri, 7aluchi, Aurd, and
others'4e$er!one can speak >arsi,4 he said, 4which is one of the oldest li$ing languages in the
world.4
(he poet0hero >erdowsi, a sincere &uslim who resented the Arab influence, spent E+ !ears writing,
in $erse with minimal use of Arabic0deri$ed words, an epic histor! of Iran called the Shahnameh, or
Book of Kings. (his panorama of conflict and ad$enture chronicles *+ monarchies'their accessions
to the throne, their deaths, the freuent abdications and forcible o$erthrows'and ends with the
Arab conuest, depicted as a disaster. (he most heralded character is ,ostam, a chi$alrous figure of
courage and integrit!, a national sa$ior and 4trickster hero,4 according to 5ick 5a$is, a Persian
scholar at =hio State ;ni$ersit! who has translated the Shahnameh into English. 4(he stories of
,ostam are their m!ths,4 he said. 4(his is how the Iranians see themsel$es.4
(he tales in$ol$e feuding kings and hero0champions, in which the latter are almost alwa!s
represented as ethicall! superior to the kings the! ser$e, facing the dilemmas of good men li$ing
under an e$il or incompetent go$ernment. (he work is haunted b! the idea that those ethicall! most
fitted to rule are precisel! the ones most reluctant to rule, preferring instead to de$ote themsel$es to
humankind's chief concerns: the nature of wisdom, the fate of the human soul, and the
incomprehensibilit! of #od's purposes.
(he original Shahnameh is long gone, and all that's left are copies, including one in (ehran's
#olestan Palace museum. Its caretaker, a sweet0faced !oung woman named 7ehna3 (abri3i, cleared
a large table and co$ered it with a green felt sheet. She retrie$ed a black bo" from a safe in an
ad:oining bulletproof room euipped with fire and earthuake alarms and climate control and laid a
red $el$et cloth on top of the green felt cloth, because the Iranians like to make little ceremonies out
of e$er!thing, if the! can. I had to wear a surgical mask to protect the manuscript from stra! sali$a
and the condensation from m! breath, and 7ehna3 put on white cotton glo$es. She gentl! lifted the
book, which dates to about -IE+, out of its bo" and gingerl! turned the pages with the tips of her
fingers while I e"amined its )) illustrations with a magnif!ing glass. (he! depicted scenes the
collecti$e cultural memor! is steeped in'someone tied to a tree while awaiting his fate% ,ostam
unwittingl! killing his own son, Sohrab, in battle% men on horseback with spears fighting in$aders on
elephants'all precisel! drawn and $ibrantl! colored, using inks that were made from crushed stones
mi"ed with the liuid suee3ed from flower petals.
It is said that :ust about an!bod! on the street, regardless of education, can recite some >erdowsi,
and there are usuall! readings going on at colleges or someone's apartment or traditional Persian
teahouses, like one in south (ehran called A3ari. (he walls were co$ered with scenes from the
Shahnameh, among them the one of ,ostam killing Sohrab. A stor!teller did a one0man dramatic
reading, and afterward musicians pla!ed traditional music and sang about !earning for the lo$e of a
woman or for the lo$e of Allah. People sat together at long tables or stretched out on platforms
co$ered with Persian rugs, smoking their tin! 7ahman cigarettes and clapping to the music, while
waiters brought dates and cookies and tea in delicate little glasses with little spoons, followed b!
kebabs, !ogurt milk, pickles, and beet salad. 1hildren danced on the tabletops as the patrons cheered
them on and took pictures with their cell phones.
!They Can"t Control What"s #nsie $s!
(hanks to >erdowsi, the Iranians alwa!s had their language to unite them and keep them different
from the outside world'and the! also took pains to safeguard their cultural touchstones.
(ake the Few 6ear: Fowru3, a -E0da! e"tra$agan3a during which e$er!thing shuts down and the
people eat a lot, dance, recite poetr!, and build fires that the! :ump back and forth o$er. It's a
thanksgi$ing of sorts, celebrated around the spring euino", and a holdo$er holida! from
Loroastrianism, at one time the state religion of the Persians. Loroastrianism's teachings'good and
e$il, free will, final :udgment, hea$en and hell, one almight! #od'ha$e influenced man! religions,
including the world's three main faiths, Cudaism, 1hristianit!, and Islam. 7! the time the Arabs
arri$ed, bringing what was for them the new idea of worshipping a single #od, Persians had been
doing it for more than a millennium.
(hese da!s some officials see the bond with antiuit! as a focus for hope. 4We are a nation with such
a histor! that the world could listen to us,4 Iranian Mice President Esfandiar ,ahim &ashaee told me.
4We hope that b! taking pride in our archaeological sites, the people reali3e their capabilities, and it
imbues the soul of the nation.4 7ut conser$ati$e Islamists who ha$e no interest in re$i$ing Persian
identit! can still hold swa!. At times the go$ernment has tried to diminish the importance of Fowru3
or replace it with a different Few 6ear, such as the birthda! of Imam Ali, the historical leader of the
Shiite &uslims. 4(he! would bring forces and arrest people,4 m! friend Ali said. 47ut the! couldn't
get rid of Fowru3 because we'$e been practicing Fowru3 for ),*++ !earsG (he! don't reall! control
us, because the! can't control what's inside us.4
(hat has ne$er stopped Iran's leaders from tr!ing, or foreign powers from interfering'particularl!
after the countr! was disco$ered, around the turn of the )+th centur!, to be sitting on what Iran
claims is an estimated -E* billion barrels of pro$en con$entional oil reser$es, the second largest in
the world after Saudi Arabia. Adding to the drama is that the Persian #ulf is located along Iran's
southern border. =n the other side lies much of the rest of the world's crude, in the oil fields of Ira,
Auwait, Saudi Arabia, and the ;nited Arab Emirates. (here's also a hairpin waterwa! in the gulf, the
Strait of <ormu3, through which much of the world's oil passes e$er! da!. So Iran is in a uniue
position to threaten the world's oil suppl! and deli$er!'or sell its own oil elsewhere than to the
West.
=il was at the root of a -.*E e$ent that is still a sore sub:ect for man! Iranians: the 1IA0backed
o$erthrow, instigated and supported b! the 7ritish go$ernment, of Iran's elected and popular prime
minister, &ohammad &ossadegh. &ossadegh had kicked out the 7ritish after the Iranian oil
industr!, controlled through the Anglo0Iranian =il 1ompan! 8later 7P9, was nationali3ed, and the
7ritish had retaliated with an economic blockade. With the 1old War on and the So$iet bloc located
:ust to the north, the ;.S. feared that a So$iet0backed communism in Iran could shift the balance of
world power and :eopardi3e Western interests in the region. (he coup'=peration (P0A:a"'is
belie$ed to ha$e been the 1IA's first. 8Aermit ,oose$elt, Cr., (edd!'s grandson, ran the show, and <.
Forman Schwar3kopf, the father of the Persian #ulf war commander, was enlisted to coa" the shah
into pla!ing his part. Its base of operations was the ;.S. Embass! in (ehran, the future 4nest of
spies4 to the Iranians, where *) ;.S. hostages were taken in -./..9 Afterward, the shah, &ohammad
,e3a Pahla$i, was returned to power, commercial oil rights fell largel! to 7ritish and ;.S. oil
companies, and &ossadegh was imprisoned and later placed under house arrest until he died in
-.@/.
(o Iranians like Shabnam ,e3aei, who has created the online maga3ine Persian Mirror to promote
Iran's cultural identit!, =peration (P0A:a" set the stage for later decades of oppression and Islamic
fundamentalism. 4I think if we had been allowed to ha$e a democratic go$ernment,4 she said, 4we
could ha$e been the Few 6ork of the &iddle East'of all of Asia, frankl!'a center for finance,
industr!, commerce, culture, and a modern wa! of thinking.4
For the %ove of Go
(he shah had his own uses for Persian identit!. <e was big on promoting Persepolis and 1!rus while
at the same time pouring Western music, dress, beha$iors, and business interests into Iran. =ne
attempt to instill nationalistic pride, which backfired and helped turn public opinion against him,
was the ostentatious celebration he staged in -./- to commemorate the ),*++th anni$ersar! of
Persian monarch!. It featured a lu"urious tent cit! outside the entrance to Persepolis, MIP
apartments with marble bathrooms, food flown in from Paris, and a guest list that included
dignitaries from around the world but few Iranians.
(he shah's $ision apparentl! in$ol$ed too much moderni3ing too fast, and man! Iranians bristled.
4We were getting westerni3ed,4 said >arin Lahedi, a drama professor at the ;ni$ersit! of (ehran.
47ut it was superficial, because the public had no real understanding of Western culture.4 Iranians
e"perienced it as a cultural attack and rebelled in the press and with street demonstrations. (he
more paranoid the shah became, the more hea$!0handed were his secret police'SAMAA, created in
-.*/ with the help of American and Israeli ad$isers. At least hundreds of people are belie$ed to ha$e
been e"ecuted b! SAMAA% man! others were imprisoned, tortured, and e"iled, and more than a
thousand were killed b! the arm! during demonstrations. So when A!atollah ,uhollah Ahomeini
spoke in the late -./+s of liberating the people from this latest !oke, the! were mo$ed b! his
elouence and moral rectitude, and for a time the reemergence of religion after the shah's relentless
modernism felt like a cleansing.
6et man! Iranians b! nature are not particularl! religious, in the sense of being mosuegoers and
fasters. 4(he! ha$e a powerful soul and spirit,4 said a carpet salesman named Arsha, 4but that is not
the same.4 (here's a tendenc! to follow more of a Loroastrian model from antiuit!, with its disdain
for rules and for the presumption that an intermediar!, such as a mullah, is reuired to know Allah.
(he spiritual :ourne! has tended to be more inward, in keeping with the Persian pro$erb 4Anowledge
of self is knowledge of #od.4
So while Iranians at first were open to the idea of an increased role of Islam in public life, the!
weren't prepared for it to be forced on them with such rigor, especiall! gi$en the Aoran's specific
instruction that there should be 4no compulsion in religion.4 (he! certainl! didn't e"pect the clerics
to take o$er commerce, go$ernment administration, the courts, and da!0to0da! life, down to and
including how to go to the bathroom and how to ha$e se". Punishments reminiscent of the 5ark Ages
'public stonings, hangings, the cutting off of fingers and limbs'were put into effect. (he central
go$ernment now discourages some of these archaic practices, but stubborn conser$ati$e mullahs out
in the pro$inces cling to the old wa!s. 7eneath it all is the spiritual aim to ser$e Allah and prepare for
paradise.
4(he!'re forcing hea$en on meG4 Ali said.
At his home one night, half a do3en friends sat in a circle and confided how awful it was to be trapped
in an en$ironment of fear and secrec!, not knowing if a friend or a lo$ed one has been put in a
position to make reports on what !ou're thinking and sa!ing and doing.
4(he a!atollahs and the ordinar! people'e$er!one has to pretend,4 said a soft0spoken locksmith
with a huge mustache named &ister 5. 46ou don't know who is telling the truth% !ou don't know who
is reall! religious and who isn't.4
(he Persians ha$e a sa!ing: (he walls ha$e mice, and the mice ha$e ears.
46ou can't trust !our own e!es,4 Ali said.
4If !ou breathe in or breathe out,4 &ister 5 said, 4the! know.4
The Generation of the &evolution
As for the re$olution's effect on Persian identit!2 A t!picall! Iranian thing seems to ha$e happened.
>or ten !ears the doors to the West were closed, and conser$ati$e clerics running the go$ernment
went about tr!ing to minimi3e an! cultural identification that was pre0Islamic, a period referred to in
much of the &uslim world as Cahili!a, age of ignorance. In official documents, where possible,
references to Iran were replaced with references to Islam. Loroastrian s!mbols were replaced with
Islamic s!mbols, streets were renamed, and references to the Persian Empire disappeared from
schoolbooks. >or a time it seemed that >erdowsi's tomb'a big, pale0stone mausoleum outside the
hol! cit! of &ashhad, with a beautiful reflecting pool leading up to it and chirping birds racing about
the columns'might be destro!ed. E$en Persepolis was in danger of being ra3ed. 47ut the! reali3ed
this would unite the people against them,4 Ali said, 4and the! had to gi$e up.4
(he people had welcomed the remo$al of cultural :unk from the West, said >arin, the drama
professor, as we sipped tea in her tasteful (ehran apartment. 47ut we soon reali3ed that the identit!
the go$ernment was introducing also was not e"actl! who we were.4 In the cultural confusion,
4elements of the old culture4'traditional music, Persian paintings, readings from >erdowsi'were
rekindled. 4We call it 'the forgotten empire.' 4
A !oung underground Persian rap singer named 6as :oined us then. <e had black spik! hair, st!lishl!
long sideburns, handsome e!ebrows shaped like two black bananas, and around his neck he wore a
sil$er fravahar, the Loroastrian winged disk that signifies the soul's upward progress through good
thoughts, words, and deeds. <e's part of the #eneration of the ,e$olution, who grew up after -./.
and account for more than two0thirds of the countr!'s /+ million people. Mariousl! described as
:aded and lacking belief in their futures'4a burned generation,4 as Aurdish filmmaker 7ahman
#hobadi put it'the! are increasingl! lea$ing for Europe and elsewhere. Some ha$e a rich
consciousness of their Persian past while at the same time supporting the idea of Islamic unit!% some
feel onl! Persian or onl! Islamic% and others immerse themsel$es in Western culture through
tele$ision programming recei$ed on illegal satellite dishes. >arin said: 4(he!'re schi3ophrenic.4
6as raps about Persian poets, grandparents, and the histor! of Iran. =ne of his most popular cuts,
4&! Identit!,4 was in response to the mo$ie 300, about the famous battle at (hermop!lae between
the Spartans of #reece and the so0called Persian immortals. 4(he #reeks were portra!ed as heroic,
innocent, and ci$ili3ed,4 6as said. 4(he Persians were shown as ugl! sa$ages with a method of
fighting that was unfair.4 (he mo$ie set off a tirade from Iranians here and abroad, who e"perienced
it as a cultural attack. In defense, 6as rapped about Persepolis and 1!rus but also chastised his fellow
citi3ens for resting on the laurels of greatness past.
An iron! is that the Islamic re$olution'at times referred to here as the 4second Arab in$asion4'
appears to ha$e strengthened the $er! ties to antiuit! that it tried so hard to se$er% it has roused
that part of the national identit! that remains connected to the idea, memoriali3ed in places like
Persepolis and Pasargadae, of Iranians as direct descendants of some of the world's most ancient
continuous people. A ci$il engineer named <ashem told me of a recent impromptu celebration at
1!rus's tomb. People te"t messaged each other on their cell phones, and a couple of thousand
4coincidentall!4 showed up, bu!ing multiple entrance tickets to support restoration of the tomb. (he
celebration was informal. Fo speeches, no ceremon!. 4Cust to honor 1!rus and show solidarit!.4
As >arin put it, shaking her lowered head with an air of world0weariness, 4there has been this
constant onslaught on our identit!, and the reaction has alwa!s been to return to that deepest
identit!. Inside e$er! Iranian there is an emperor or an empress. (hat is for sure.4
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/iran-archaeology/del-giudice-text/1