Interview with an Iranian (Part I of IV)
May 13, 2008
If you’re a regular reader of TheCandidacy.com you know that I’m an active critic of U.S. foreign policy, a subject center-stage in this year’s presidential contest. Near the top of the foreign policy issue list is Iran’s nuclear program. The next president will have to tackle this issue head-on. Recently, I bumped into a fellow blogger, writer and journalist from Iran – Kourosh Ziabari. Here’s part I of IV of our conversation about Iranian and U.S. politics and culture (don’t worry, there are follow-up questions). Big thanks to Kourosh for taking the time. I enjoyed our discussion. Comments and feedback are welcome. - RHM
Based on your experiences, how do you think most Persians view the United States? And what are the primary motivations for their feelings?
In the name of God the compassionate the merciful.
Not necessarily as a journalist, I’ll tell you as a common citizen that the relations between Iranians and Americans have been very fair, friendly and peaceful during times. Despite of rough political tensions between the two states, Iranians and Americans were always good friends and we have very popular and famous examples to prove that.
- As a sample, let’s remember the Iranian national football team victory for 2-1 against your football team during the France 1998 World Cup. I clearly remember when President Clinton sent a congratulation message for the people of Iran and their precious victory within the FIFA World Cup.
- On the other hand, perhaps you can remember the condolence message of President Khatami after the 9/11 incident to American people where he officially announced the Iranian government readiness to participate in the reconstruction process.
- Or as another example, maybe you know that there are more than 2 million Persian residents living in US and they established more than 100 independent cultural, scientific and social associations there. The importance becomes more considerable when you see the traditional Haft Sin table is settled at White House in honor of Iranian New Year celebrations, Nowruz.
Iranians also have participated in predominant fields of endeavor in different organizations of US. Omid Kurdistani who is the chief sales manager of Google, Anoushe Ansari who is the first female private explorer of spatial station, Prof. Firouz Naderi who is one of the highly respected VIPs of NASA and thousands of other examples that express the tranquil and peaceful relations of two nations.
Iranians are deeply regretful for the frequent conflicts between Tehran and Washington, but they believe these strives more likely to be political deceives rather than being hostility and rancor.
President George Bush currently has the highest disapproval rating (more than 60%) than any other U.S. president in history. Does President Ahmadinejad have similar numbers or is he popular with the Iranian electorate?
It was not much surprising for me to hear about the abundant disapproval rate which Bush gains. I read the entire report and its details in CNN. Occupying Iraq and killing more than 2 million innocent and civilian people during 5 years, invading Afghanistan with the pretext of war on terrorism, the scandal of accusing Iran of struggling for nuclear weapon after the CIA report published on the issue and finally driving the world toward terror, war and violation specially in Somalia, Rwanda and other African countries were all dark points that caused the result for US president.
It is totally natural to be such detested when you leave thousands of orphan and homeless by military expedition in a far country just because you think that you are the absolute power.
At the time being, President Ahmadinejad gains a lot of popularity among two major groups of Persian society. At first, the youth and athletes; during the 3 passed years of his presidency, 1500 sports stadium have been constructed in different parts of Iran and the amount of special state budget dedicated to sports rose to about 300% in compare with the state of President Khatami.
The poor and indigent are the second group. Increasing the salary of factory workers, distributing the stock exchange among ordinary and average-income people and reducing the rate of unemployment from 21% to 13% during 3 years all made Ahmadinejad very popular and charismatic among citizens.
He also made the global sanctions ineffective by his unique foreign policy and you can see more than 1000 publications from 75 countries have participated in TIBF 2008 (Tehran International Book Fair) and also 515 important oil and gas companies from US, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Italy and 15 other countries contributed in IranOil exhibition few weeks ago.
There was not any poll about the popularity of President Ahmadinejad in Iran yet, but the unofficial estimates show him well-esteemed though.
In part II we discussed free speech in Iran and, of course, the Mohammed cartoon controversy which continues to inflame the Muslim community.
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11 Responses to “Interview with an Iranian (Part I of IV)”
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hi.
i just wanted to put my opinion about my friend’s interview ,with u & others.
what i see on the ground is far from what he makes up . at first about the disapproval of the Mr Ahmadinejad, lots of people in Iran really don’t like him because of his failure in economical and humanitarian crises and also rising unemployment (the newly rate is up to 16 %) .
and we should not forgot that so many problems in Iraq , Lebanon & Palestine, is Iran’s policy (Iran’s former president , Mr khatami’s speak
approves that because he complained about Mr ahmadinejad and weapons trade to Iraq and Lebanon by Iranian governments. ) . and we should not forget the number of execution happened in this year . and lots of other humanitarian crises which is rising stop less . also exactly the people how dislike him most , are youth , because they are under pressure in universities and also in streets when police stop them because clothing style(on of the first human rights) (of course it’s not just cloth ), (the newly demonstration in universities around Iran and lots of videos in you tube approves that ).
people in Iran are not as wealthy as he mentioned and number of poor people are rising not lowering .
the process of building those construction and the stadium he mentioned had been started before(some of the 13 or 16 years ago) but just finished in his presidency (lucky he is)
as Kourosh has explained in his blog he said this untrue statements about situation in Iran because he thought if he say those true things,
he is betrayer towards his country ( he does not believe that all human being are family).
just this (yet).
I am a British Muslim currently living in Glasgow and been in Tehran for 3 months and really enjoyed my stay there. I am one of the strongest supporters of Ahmadinejad’s policy on nuclear issue and economy too, and can not understand the meaning of what Pouya says about Iran.
As I witnessed, the women are absolutely free in Iran, nobody interrogates them for their clothing type, they are happy with their choices and that is the matter all.
Also I can not find any other country that constructed 1500 sports stadiums just during 3 years and it is a record. I am sure that Iranians accept me and if their slight problems will be solved, Iran can become the strongest country of Asia.
Hi Randy
I would never mind an Iranian blogger such brave, realistic and friendly.
His replies shows his personality and I want to congratulate you for the topics mentioned. By all means, agree that: “It is totally natural to be such detested when you leave thousands of orphan and homeless by military expedition in a far country just because you think that you are the absolute power.”
Bye!
Hello and greetings
Randall, I am Dirk from the Netherlands. as one of your permanent readers, I enjoyed reading the interview and want to ask you to hold up the 5th part of interview about Iranian bloggers and newspapers in more details with Kourosh. Of course he has valuable things to say about that.
hi
when i saw Mr Steve’s comment i was shocked .
it doesn’t make any sense for me that someone comes to Iran from UK & understand every thing about Iran in only 3 month & be pro or against the president of Iran . but i brought as many proof as needed , for what i said , but he has no proof of what he mentioned .
just go to you tube and search words like “Iran” “execution in Iran” “Ahmadinejad” and words like this.
you will see who is true .
(: .
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At first i should compare present president with the past one… . perhaps mr ahmadinejad couldn’t gain so popularity as mr khatami but after 3 years he could keep himself on iran complex policy. like other presidents he has advatages and disadvantages but in further he did a great work like nuclear program which i can compare it with mosadegh’s work in more than 50 years ago for oil… .
Kourosh Ziabari is a vary infamous and disreputable person in ‘Persian blogger comunity’ because of his fanatical and fogy thoughts. He is relative to Hizbollah and Islamic Republic of Iran. His dogmatic tenets are NOT represent the public viewpoint in Iran.
The hizbollah and Ahmadinejad arent popular in Iran and fanatic peoples like Kourosh Ziabari that supports the goverment are vary minority here in Iran.
Please dont take this vulture kid too serious. He just looking for renown and political sovereignty.
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Kourosh, this is first time I heard about you. It seems you are not frankly in represent of true situation of Iran.
Try to be honest in your life