Plz read this question only if you're mature, understanding and have enough time (This is so long)?

Question

I think reading this in 5-7 minutes would be better than listening to the news in a lifteime.Plz don't think I'm a very old person.Just 18.A university student studying English who just cannot sit back and hope.
My question is: what percentage of what I say is acceptable to you?
Hi.I'm Iranian and I live in Iran.When I chat with people from other countries, I understand that they have totally wrong ideas about Iran.I just wrote this article to correct you.
The first thing they accuse our government of, is that they don't let you be free.Actually, Iranians would be some of the most liberal people in the world (liberal meaning not obeying laws that they don't like).Thousands of millions of strict rules in other countries, don't even exist in Iran.Also, you should understand that what may seem so normal to you, maybe a nightmare for us and vise versa.That's why you don't understand a few of Iran's laws.In Iran every single house has a sattelite. Sattelite channels have a serious influence on people,the most fashionable clothes are worn by Iranians.Maybe it's a kind of immitation, but still it's got an unique style, only there are scarves that don't seem to be worn because we're Muslems.People wear fashionable scarves to make themselves more attractive and most part of their hair is out.They do whatever they wish to, and some of the things they do, don't fit our culture at all, however it's normal in Iran, since people have got used to such acts and behaviours.You really need to pay a visit to Iran and you'll be surprised seeing the difference between what you imagine and how the real Iran is! It's wonderful, believe me.The Iran you know, is related to at least 40 years ago.At present, everything's so great if you don't take unemployment into account.Even at that time Iran was not a bad country either, but many things have changed so far.
Some people think music is forbidden in Iran, but did you know that Iranian pop music has won the prize in France in 2005?Iran's full of music and they're all current pop /Trance/ DJ music.The best you've ever heard.I've put some links at the bottom of the page to some Iranian music.If you like you can just right click on them and choose "save as" to download.I do recommend you to try Iranian music.


Some people think women don't have any rights in Iran! What would you tell me if I tell you that women are now overtaking Iran? They're treated very well, most of the times they're the winners in most cases: They get into the best universities, they get the best jobs, they've got rights that have made it difficult for men to marry them, because husbands seem to be under control of women and they have to buy them expensive things and treat them very well, otherwise women will have the right to divorce them, and then the their husbands have to pay them a great amount of money which most husbands cannot afford. (so, they can simply sit in the corner of prison! lol).The only thing that women are not allowed to do in Iran is getting into stadiums and that's just because IN IRAN, such places are usually full of cheeky guys who would cheek girls.I don't think girls would go there, even if they're allowed to do so.Another funny thing: Your footage about stoning the women who have committed adultery.Have you ever asked yourself they relate to how many years ago?Just for your information, those are from Afghanistan which was once ruled by those freaks (Taliban).I find it difficult to make you understand that Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan are SEPERATE COUNTRIES! and thet we're Persian not Arab!And I find it even more difficult to make you understand that Iran is a normal country like any other countries in the world.There's nothing mysterious about it!(The media is very good at making good scary titles: BEHIND THE CLOSED DOORS!!! IRAN UNDERCOVER!!! This would be enough to scare people away! Iranians are much more educated,sophisticated, intelligent and open-minded than what you think!!! I'm sure you don't know that there are lots and lots of Iranian geniouses and scientists that are all under 25.You don't hear about their discoveries and inventions on TV. A small example is this 17 year old boy who's invented 72 amazing inventions that the biggest scientists haven't ever managed to.You don't know that Iranian students and spotsmen are winning gold and silver medals in different compotitions in the world all the time such as robotics, biology,maths,physics,anything! Why don't your media talk about them?Did you know that the countries having the highest number of scientists in the world are in this order? 1-India 2-Korea 3-Iran
A few weeks ago Iran uncovered the most effective anti-H.I.V medicine and now it's signing treaties with other countries to export it.I digged the news on the internet, but there was no single sign of that.What I found instead? "Prez Bush CLAIMS that bomb parts are imported from Iran into Iraq!" The media have gone mad.They'd put CLAIMS on the headlines, but they would never talk about facts!Some interesting facts: Iran is the pionier in medicine and gnetics and Iranian surgents have found lots of new methods for treating spinal defects and many other disease and the the best brain and heart surgents are Iranian surgents.The head of Mars Mission in NASA is Iranian.The best designer of Ferrari cars working in Germany is Iranian.Some of the best 3D animators are Iranian.One of the top 5 movie directors in the world is Iranian.(you've always heard about Spiel Berg I think!).Iran is one of the best countries in counter-engineering.Holds the second place in building dams.The 4th highest tower (Milad tower) in the world is in Tehran (which you can visit in the following links).The strongest man (the lift-weighter) is Iranian.The woman, and a song by one of the pop singers who/which won the nobel peace prize are Iranians.It's the only country that has all 4 seasons during the year.That means while it's winter in one part of it, it may be summer / spring in another part! And as you all know, Iranian girls are famous for being terrific.Persian rug which you all know.Persian literature again you know that is so famous.Persian culture (which is now westernised and only a little has survived!) According to statistics Tehran is the cheapest capital city in the world for foriegners with Dollars of course not for us! (Cos our rate is different) Who do you think is building Dubi?Arabs?No my friends, Iranian engineers and traders funding them, cos they don't think building the same things in Iran would be beneficial for them, Since the media scare tourists away from Iran.There are many other things.It's endless.
Some charactristics of Iranians would be: Proud, greedy, hard-working, intelligent, ambitious, not realistic, not so religious, not so generous, not punctual, well-dressed, formal, well-educated, warm and friendly and hospitable.

Some people think, Iran's a desert! Iran's a modern country with very beautiful nature and lots of historical places to visit.Please take a look at the following links and see if Iran looks like what you think or not! (Surely it doesn't!)
This is a photo of Tehran: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Tehran-2-1600.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran

If you like you can visit these too, hope you like them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hills_south_west_of_Sanandaj_near_the_village_of_Kilaneh.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jhcfjuhfuvfjhyf.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dariushhotel2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kish-island.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dariushhotel3.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran

It's now 2007 and people still think we are uneducated people living in deserts, riding camels and carrying around guns!!!!
See how the media are fooling people? None of the things you hear on the media about Iran are true.If you think I've been admiring Iran too much, that's because you'd do the same thing if you were looked down nearly everyday for some false reasons.

I thought it's better to clarify some political matters as well:
Some of the Americans I chatted with (not all of them), said here in the U.S it's said that president Ahmadinejad hates the U.S and Israel and wants to nuck them!! Now, this is so odd, their media is good at putting comments, it's easy to show a video or an image of our president or leader on the T.V screen or on the internet and say he says this, he says that.....
First of all you should know that Iranians don't hate anyone, if our government complains about some injustice that's now going on in the world, it's not bad.Is it? Nor do we hate Jews, nor do we hate Americans.They're both nice people.If they're media is fooling them, it's not their fault.If I were in thier shoes, I would hate Iran too regarding all the terrible lies they keep hearing about it nearly everyday.Who says we want to force the others to convert to Islam?Have you ever found a Muslem that knocks at your door and asks you to do so?Who says we call Americans athiests?That's so funny, Christians and Jews are both God believers.We've never disrespected them.I wonder why the media like putting words in our mouth and raising hatred.In Iran, religion would be the least important thing, it means that where you come from and what you're religion is, are not important for us at all.And I wonder why some Muslim countries think there's a problem between Shittes and Sunnies, it doesn't make sence in Iran.
I wonder Iran is a threat to whom? How is it possible for Iran to nuke somewhere while it doesn't have any nukes?!!!(The media have never been intelligent liars).Has Iran ever attacked anywhere?There's no proof of that.That's what even nuclear agency says.Only Iran's oppositions are pulling Iran's leg, otherwise what we're doing is ligal.What they ask us to do is illigal and nonsense.
Some say he said: Israel should be wiped off the map! But have they told you the rest of his speech and that why he's said this at all? If you know a little literature, you know that it's a passive sentence.He's never said that IRAN wants to wipe Israel off the map! And he wasn't talking about destroying Israel, he was talking about relocating Israel, so that they could live seperate from Palestinians and they could both live in peace.They've only told you this phrase not the rest of it and it's mistranslated deliberitely.Be concious! Iran's always defended itself, but it's not an offensive country, while most countries have nukes and are clearly threatening Iran to nuke us! Good isn't it? Some say he's said: Holocaust is a myth! Ok, he's said this, but is saying it a crime? If 6000000 Jews were killed, that's so terrible, but those 300000 Shiite Moslems who were killed by Saddam aren't important at all! 650000 Iraqi people are killed and it's not important! When Fox News simply says: America and Israel are capable of destroying and killing all Iran's 690000000 population (, it's OK and no one says they're treatening other countries to nuke them (I saw this with my own eyes on the Fox News web-site) I know Americans don't like it either, but what can they do?
This isn't probably what you expect to hear as Iranian music, since people in the world think Iranians are traditional or something! I've also put a link for you to read the translations.This would be the most rytmic and the nicest tune you've ever heard.You can read the translations here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuU3bcYBNN27yv44GHQIAqwAAAAA?qid=20070303111508AAXhVyi
(I just want you: pop&Trance 2003) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Mansour/Crazy/Delam%20Faghat%20Toro%20Mikhaad(www.Bia2Music.com).MP3
(The window: pop&Trance: 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/03_%20Panjereh.mp3
(Stop world:pop 2006) http://www.sarzaminmusic.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Reza%20Sadeghi%20-%20Vaysa%20Donya/01_%20Vaysa%20Donya.mp3
(Hold my hand:pop 2007) http://www.sarzaminmp3.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mansour%20-%20Beautiful/09_%20Dastamo%20Begir.mp3
(The wind's kiss:pop&Trance 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/01_%20Boosaye%20Baad.mp3
(Keep me in your memory:pop 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/07_%20Yaade%20Man%20Baash.mp3
(Reveal your visage:pop 2004) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mohammad%20Esfahani/04_%20Talab.mp3
(It's beautiful:pop 2007) http://www.sarzaminmp3.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mansour%20-%20Beautiful/02_%20Ghashangeh.mp3
(My bride: DJ 2006) http://www.sarzaminmusic.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mohsen%20Chavoshi%20-%20Im%20Sorry/01_%20Arouse%20Man.mp3

Answer 1

Thank you for your interesting and informative piece about your country. Ted Koppel did a special about Iran, where he showed many positive things about Iran and the Iranian people, but his program was shown only a few times on an obscure cable network, not the ubiquitous ABC.

I agree about the women's dress. From the videos I've seen, young Iranian women still show their figures, their hair can frame their faces, and they look attractive but modest. There is nothing wrong with modesty for women and it doesn't prevent them from having rights.

I disagree with several things you've said about the media. It's not just US reporters who are making these decisions as to what to report - the ruling political party has a way of heavily influencing the stories and what is covered. We really don't have a free press, and there is at least one network FOX that is nothing more than the government propaganda channel. There is also a VERY strong Israel lobby group that injects its views into US media.

Finally, I believe the US kicked out or refused to honor the visas or several Iranian journalists who wanted to visit New York to cover Ahmadinijad's trip to the UN last fall. In retaliation, Iran has prohibited US journalists from visiting now. All I can say is we have a stupid and petty government in the US, and I know how important it is for middle easterners to save face. I hope this gets straightened out, because surely Americans would like to learn about a prosperous and peaceful middle eastern country, and its rough edges. If we get a Democrat President in 2008, relations will improve. The question is, will the current administration do something extremely foolish and immoral while it is still in power.

Thank you again, and I hope you keep giving us information on Iran.

Answer 2

It is good that you are proud of your country - yet it is not so good that you cannot see its faults. Iran is indeed a great nation with a great people, but it has a long way still to go. For instance - if women would not visit stadia then why do you continue to forcibly stop them? Surely women should have the choice whether to or not? Why do the basij arrest or simply beat up those who do not wear headscarfs - yes you say they don't have to wear them to the same extent as in other Muslim nations, yet the basij will still punish those who do not. Why does Iran not have true democracy, but instead have a puppet president who is actually controlled by the Mullahs? Why not have free elections allowing anyone who wants to to stand, unlike the last elections when many perfectly reasonable people were disqualified? If music is allowed in Iran, why are bands such as O-hum banned because of "contraversial" lyrics, despite their lyrics being written by Hafez thousands of years ago?

Also, while the majority of people in Iran are normal law abiding people, there are some who DO seek the destruction (not in a rhetorical sense) of Israel, and for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. There are some who do support terrorists. Iran should no longer ignore these people - if you are to be trusted you need to show goodwill in bringing to rein these people who will undermine those rational people who oppose them.

If Iran is to truly realise its potential to be a great nation you need to overcome these problems - not all of your problems are caused by America spreading lies about you. Yes, an unbelievable amount of people are ignorant of Iran and Persian culture (especially about you not being arabs!) - and the sad fact is many people are happy that way. It is easier to hate people than it is to like them, easier to exploit your enemies than trade with friends. In the current climate it seems things will get a lot worse before they can get better.

Answer 3

I can understand how you would love your country and want to defend other's misconceptions. The problem is you have a great misconception of what the American people think. If we thought you were all stupid poor people wandering aimlessly around in the sand we wouldn't have any concern with you at all.

Also you have erred in describing your president. Ahmadinejad DID NOT make passive statements. I hardly think saying; "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury." is a passive quote. To say that statements such as; "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism," are passive and nonthreatening is either incredibly stupid or dishonest.

Answer 4

Too long to read but i read the first paragraph. My family is from Iran but now we live in the U.S but still have family there, and I think that you informing that Iran isn't bad is a great thing. All this news about terrorist attacks makes people thing that we iranians arn't good people when we truly are. Keep the good work up♥

Answer 5

You will do great with the department of Iranian tourism. The US has all 4 seasons too, as do many counties. I've known many Iranians so I do not doubt your beliefs. The facts are that your leader is nuts and if you are all so free, I recommend you do something about him. This is not just a US issue, Iran is a greater threat to Europe.
Spielberg is American and Jewish.

Answer 6

Sorry,but when your President says Israel should be destroyed and has no right to exist.
It is hard to believe any claims of peace.

Answer 7

I agree that bias in the media is a very rampant problem -- and races or religions should not be stereotyped.

Regarding Christians, ANY Christian who goes to war with moslems or anyone for that matter is in direct contradiction to what God commanded -- love your enemies...do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you...

But I have a question about something I read in the Koran English Translation -- if Islam is a peace-loving religion then what is this passage about?

From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them: so we estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the day of judgment. And soon will God show them what it is they have done.
# O people of the Book! There hath come to you our Apostle, revealing to you much that ye used to hide in the Book, and passing over much (that is now unnecessary): There hath come to you from God a (new) light and a perspicuous Book, -
# Wherewith God guideth all who seek His good pleasure to ways of peace and safety, and leadeth them out of darkness, by His will, unto the light,- guideth them to a path that is straight.
# In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of Mary. Say: "Who then hath the least power against God, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every - one that is on the earth? For to God belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For God hath power over all things."
# (Both) the Jews and the Christians say: "We are sons of God, and his beloved." Say: "Why then doth He punish you for your sins? Nay, ye are but men,- of the men he hath created: He forgiveth whom He pleaseth, and He punisheth whom He pleaseth: and to God belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between: and unto Him is the final goal (of all)"
Surah 005.014

"We are clear of you and of whatever ye worship besides God: we have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever,- unless ye believe in God and Him alone"
Surah 060.004

Surah 05.51. O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust.



This is a basic tenet of the religion of Islam - complete submission to the One God. A Muslim - one who submits completely to the One God - believes in all the revelations of God and does not make a distinction between any one or other of the prophets of God.
[19] God has only required man to submit to Him. Therefore, no other religion except for the religion of complete submission to Him is acceptable to God. [20] All the people will curse them on the Day of Judgment. The believers among people will curse them for their enmity towards the truth of God, while the rejecters will curse them because they were guided towards rejection and disbelief by them. [21] Neither their self-proclaimed gods nor their ancestors, whom they are relying on, will be of any help to them, against God's punishment.


Though one may argue that Islam tolerates other faiths aren't these statements rather intolerant?

Answer 8

"Has Iran ever attacked anywhere?"

The U.S. Embassy in tehran comes to mind.

Answer 9

About -100% They are helping the terroist attack our troops.....

Answer 10

damn you made a lot of good points but that should a book to some degree i agree with you