Our Man in Tehran

[sweede]

Anyone in here know about this series? It was broadcasted a while ago in Sweden and I just found out that they are showing it on PBS and it is already out there to grab for those who don´t have the channel.

I´m very interested to hear what you americans think of Iran, and if by chance would change your mind about Iran in general after watching the 4 hour docu. I think it was indeed worth my time and I would like to hear your opinion.

I would also like to mention that I have some Iranians known to me in my social life, and they are just great people, and they are muslims.

I really hate the rhetorical nonsense going on here where all muslims are painted as bad seed.

Watch this and please change your mind!

 

[DIDM]

I’m just guessing, I don’t watch TV, especially PBS, but do they paint it as a great place to live?

 

[xcvbn]

Iran should be the least of our worries in the ME. They're the only self-sustaining country there who develop productive citizens. Their country is ran by conmen, but so is ours, which makes that a pathetic excuse to turn our backs on decent people.

But because Israel and the US Israeli lobbies we cream our pants over them.

 

[sweede]

I’m just guessing, I don’t watch TV, especially PBS, but do they paint it as a great place to live?

Not at all, you get the good and the bad. But when you see the good people, you wonder why on earth do you accept some of the things going on in your country? Get out of there!

 

[spin]

my thoughts on iran come from my ex who grew up there. as such i dont worry about what warroom posters have to say about it.



but can confirm the muslims fucked it up

 

[sweede]

Iran should be the least of our worries in the ME. They're the only self-sustaining country there who develop productive citizens. Their country is ran by conmen, but so is ours, which makes that a pathetic excuse to turn our backs on decent people.

But because Israel and the US Israeli lobbies we cream our pants over them.

You are so correct sir!

 

[sweede]

my thoughts on iran come from my ex who grew up there. as such i dont worry about what warroom posters have to say about it.



but can confirm the muslims fucked it up

You mean as her family booted you?

 

[Son of Jamin]

I grew up with many Iranians and they were great students and had parents that were very active in their children’s lives and futures!

Hanif Bali (a prominent Swedish politician from Iran), once said that when he called his family that he had received a seat in the Swedish parliament, their reaction were; But how is your degree coming along?!

My hairdresser is from Iran and she wishes that the crazy Muslims that rule Iran should fall and she thinks they should stop supporting groups that are attacking Israel!

The vast majority of Iranians that I know are secular and see Islam as something Arabs forced upon them!

 

[Trotsky]

Iran is one of the most beautiful and storied places on earth and home to a truly inspiring and worldly people. Of course, there is a significant portion of the United States citizenry (and the Sherdog member list) that will say "it's a shithole and its citizens are lousy terrorists" just on the basis of its location and majority religion.

TS, can you summarize the series and what you would expect viewers to get from it?

 

[Trotsky]

The vast majority of Iranians that I know are secular and see Islam as something Arabs forced upon them!

Err, even with the disproportionate prevalence of Sha-supporter exiles in Western countries, this seems....unlikely, and at best very skewed to your own perception.

 

[Billy no mates]

The vast majority of Iranians that I know are secular and see Islam as something Arabs forced upon them!

So like the reverse of Turks then....religious with a secular system forced upon them , maybe some sort of swap should be arranged .

 

[Son of Jamin]

Err, even with the disproportionate prevalence of Sha-supporter exiles in Western countries, this seems....unlikely, and at best very skewed to your own perception.

Not really, they have done surveys on which parties Iranian people in Sweden vote for and the most popular party is at least on paper a Conservative party that is very weary of Islam!

The reason being is that many of the Iranians that came to Sweden in the early 80’s are educated and secular, they saw firsthand the effects Islam had on their country!

Iranians in Sweden are more supportive of that party than Swedes.

 

[sweede]

Iran is one of the most beautiful and storied places on earth and home to a truly inspiring and worldly people. Of course, there is a significant portion of the United States citizenry (and the Sherdog member list) that will say "it's a shithole and its citizens are lousy terrorists" just on the basis of its location and majority religion.

TS, can you summarize the series and what you would expect viewers to get from it?

I will gladly do, but it will be a bit later and I would like present it with printscreens from crucial parts of the docu. And could you please tell me how I insert pics from my device? I remember I could do it before but now I can´t find the button where to click.

 

[Trotsky]

Not really, they have done surveys on which parties Iranian people in Sweden vote for and the most popular party is at least on paper a Conservative party that is very weary of Islam!

This is a strange conclusion to derive from that data. Wouldn't it make just as much sense to conclude that they're voting for conservative parties because they come from a comparatively conservative country with a conservative culture? People tend to forget that Muslim political coalitions are generally right-wing, particularly if Islamic values are the centerpiece of their platform.

The reason being is that many of the Iranians that came to Sweden in the early 80’s are educated and secular, they saw firsthand the effects Islam had on their country!

Iran has been Muslim for 1,500 years. At the time of Muslim conquest, it was stagnant and in deep decline. Following the conquest, the region saw rapid growth and renaissance. Now there have been regressive social reforms since 1979, but any economic effects (if that's what you're talking about) are wholly unrelated to Islamic governance.

Even the most secular Iranians that I met in Iran, who are largely critical of the Ayatollah and the democratic stiffness of the Islamic Republic, and that I have known in the United States positively view the Islamic Revolution as freeing the country and people from Western domination and exploitation and positively view the religion of Islam in general. Now, of course, educated persons and persons of means tend to be less religious and certainly less fundamentalist (the same is here in Western countries), but what you're speaking of is almost a sort of anti-proselytization.

I obviously can't speak to the intersection of the Iranians you're meeting or why you get that impression, but I nevertheless find it very peculiar.

 

[Son of Jamin]

This is a strange conclusion to derive from that data. Wouldn't it make just as much sense to conclude that they're voting for conservative parties because they come from a comparatively conservative country with a conservative culture? People tend to forget that Muslim political coalitions are generally right-wing, particularly if Islamic values are the centerpiece of their platform.

Iran has been Muslim for 1,500 years. At the time of Muslim conquest, it was stagnant and in deep decline. Following the conquest, the region saw rapid growth and renaissance. Now there have been regressive social reforms since 1979, but any economic effects (if that's what you're talking about) are wholly unrelated to Islamic governance.

Even the most secular Iranians that I met in Iran, who are largely critical of the Ayatollah and the democratic stiffness of the Islamic Republic, and that I have known in the United States positively view the Islamic Revolution as freeing the country and people from Western domination and exploitation and positively view the religion of Islam in general. Now, of course, educated persons and persons of means tend to be less religious and certainly less fundamentalist (the same is here in Western countries), but what you're speaking of is almost a sort of anti-proselytization.

I obviously can't speak to the intersection of the Iranians you're meeting or why you get that impression, but I nevertheless find it very peculiar.

Most Muslims here vote left but if they feel inclined to vote more conservative, they have other conservative parties to choose from that are far more friendly to Islam than this popular party among Iranians in the diaspora!

To my limited understanding from growing up and going to the university with Iranians is that they may be secular but they are not very pro-America or pro-Israel either. Which correlates to what you wrote about the revolution and the delieverance from Western influence and colonialism.

 

[Trotsky]

Most Muslims here vote left but if they feel inclined to vote more conservative, they have other conservative parties to choose from that are far more friendly to Islam than this popular party among Iranians in the diaspora!

To my limited understanding from growing up and going to the university with Iranians is that they may be secular but they are not very pro-America or pro-Israel either. Which correlates to what you wrote about the revolution and the delieverance from Western influence and colonialism.

I would also imagine that the Iranians that you met were from metro areas as well. It's pretty jarring (at least it was to me) when you meet rural people in Iran. The cultural difference between Iranian city dwellers and rural citizens is very stark, both as a traditional matter of demography (in pretty much any country, the rural people are less educated, more religious, and more socially/politically conservative) and due to the fact that the Islamic Revolution did tangibly address and benefit rural Iranians after the Sha more or less neglected rural areas and focused on metropolitan development similar to that of Europe. The Islamic Revolution was disproportionately supported by rural Iranians and, after it was successful, deep reinvestment in rural infrastructure and economic development took place.

https://www.merip.org/mer/mer250/thirty-years-islamic-revolution-rural-iran

Right now, it seems like the biggest thing keeping Iran conservative and theocratic is, ironically, the Republican Party and people like Donald Trump. There are lots of critics of the Republic who nevertheless temper their criticism and back the Ayatollah based on the fact that failing to present a united front could leave the country open to Western re-invasion. If the country were left to its own devices, I'm fairly confident that the country would be even more liberal than it already is, and that the Ayatollah would be further reduced to a ceremonial head of state-type role.

 

[spin]

You mean as her family booted you?

?


no, fucked up iran.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

Every Iranian I've met has been cool as hell, friendly and open to just free flowing dialogue...

Most were not thrilled with the ayatollah or the Shah.

 

[sweede]

This is a image many from the western part are having when it comes to Iran.

But who are they really? Do they really hate USA 24/7, or is there another side of this huge country for the curious to discover?

Thomas Erdbrink is a Dutch journalist. He has been based in Iran since 2002, and currently works as Tehran Bureau Chief for The New York Times. Erdbrink is one of the few Western reporters accredited for U.S media in Iran. And by beeing so and married to an Iranian, he has access to the other side of Iran most of us didn´t know about. And we get really, really close to see who they really are.

The documentary started filming in 2014 and it was a very long road to get permission to do this series. The first part is divided in to 4 chapters dealing with Love, A world apart, The empty river of life and Rules of the game.

The second part is filmed 3 years later and starts with opinions from a very important Iranian man and what he thought about the first part, and for the most, it was well recieved. The second part is dealing with No backward country and the longest chapter in the series named American dreams.
In part 1 we meet a guy named Mr. Big mouth and to see his transformation from the angry man who is shouting death to America, and how he appears 3 years later is astonishing. He is still crazy religious, but the scenes with him was the best part and I had a smile on my face during that time.

I will only touch the first chapter Love.

Thomas has been living in Iran for 18 years and he has been married to an Iranian Magnum photographer for 14 of those. I found it a very touching episode where we get to see how love of all kinds manage to break taboos and conservative minds. Thomas new family is what we would call in the west a very modern muslim family with alot of tolerance and permission, but they were in the start very sceptical to the marriage and while they are dining together we get to find out that Newsha his wife was the one who did the proposal and the rest of the family was very surprised. It is by defacto the man who do this kind of bidding and not the other way around in Iran.

And a little extra bonus from the dining scene. The youngest daughter and a real hottie, now living in U.S.

Damn it takes to long time to load the prt screens to Imugr and I really don´t have this amount of time to do the rest of the episode. But you get what this is about. A really honest portrait about a nation that is beautiful and have some other parts that is not so beautiful. And we get to see all that with Our man in Theran.

 

[Son of Jamin]

I would also imagine that the Iranians that you met were from metro areas as well. It's pretty jarring (at least it was to me) when you meet rural people in Iran. The cultural difference between Iranian city dwellers and rural citizens is very stark, both as a traditional matter of demography (in pretty much any country, the rural people are less educated, more religious, and more socially/politically conservative) and due to the fact that the Islamic Revolution did tangibly address and benefit rural Iranians after the Sha more or less neglected rural areas and focused on metropolitan development similar to that of Europe. The Islamic Revolution was disproportionately supported by rural Iranians and, after it was successful, deep reinvestment in rural infrastructure and economic development took place.

https://www.merip.org/mer/mer250/thirty-years-islamic-revolution-rural-iran

Right now, it seems like the biggest thing keeping Iran conservative and theocratic is, ironically, the Republican Party and people like Donald Trump. There are lots of critics of the Republic who nevertheless temper their criticism and back the Ayatollah based on the fact that failing to present a united front could leave the country open to Western re-invasion. If the country were left to its own devices, I'm fairly confident that the country would be even more liberal than it already is, and that the Ayatollah would be further reduced to a ceremonial head of state-type role.

Good post! They are city dwellers here, never wore hijab and nor did their mothers! When they traveled back home, I’m pretty certain that it was Teheran albeit I don’t remember so vividly from my childhood! Sometimes they met their relatives in Turkey (meeting halfway).

As for Trump, he is most likely buck dancing for Israel, U.A.E and Saudi Arabia when it comes to Iran!