A few countries have been frequenting U.S. news over the past decade. Countries such as Iraq, North Korea, Israel, or Libya capture the attention of American world news enthusiasts. Stories are told that interested persons will likely never experience first hand but the stories do a good job of stirring up personal emotions and evoking avid opinion sharing. Another country that gets a surplus of attention is Iran, a country that many Americans likely cannot even find on a map despite its fairly large size. The American general public for the most part relies on media sources for information regarding events happening outside the country. It isn’t feasible after all for us all to take a field trip to every country. But after finding myself quite enraptured in the news coming to America about Iran, I couldn’t help but question its validity, especially in regards to a few certain topics such as the Iran Hostage Crisis and the recent efforts to bring Nuclear energy to the country.

Not too long ago I happened to find an Iranian citizen online using Debate.org, a site I visit every so often to see candid public perception on many topics. This citizen, Arezu, was kind enough to answer a number of questions I had about Iran and boy was it worth it! Arezu provides in this following Q&A valuable insight into how the Iranian government works, the importance and application of Islam, the culture of the country, and many other topics that sure would be helpful to anyone hearing more news about Iran.

I encourage you to read all that Arezu had to say about the questions I asked. I for one have an entirely new perception of Iran and would only hope that the general public of America can begin finally to understand Iran a little better, that it doesn’t fit with countries such as Iraq, North Korea, or Libya. Rather, Iran is a wonderful country full of history and culture and is quite inviting; Arezu’s kindness in helping me is evidence enough of that. Enjoy the resulting interview, and remember there will be more parts to come, so below is not the entire interview.

First some Background

Iran, formerly the Persian Empire, is now known as the Islamic Republic of Iran following a revolution a few decades ago. It is roughly the size of Alaska, and located in what we call the Middle East (but purely geographically so). Iran has a population of about 80 million people, and Tehran is its capital. It is 98% Muslim, and a modern country. Everyone receives at least 14 years of school and enjoys many similar things any other person would. The government is a Theocratic Republic meaning a form of democracy that utilizes its religion as the center for administration and law-making. A new leader was elected recently, Hasan Rowhani. The government operates with executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Though it does not have states, municipal leaders are elected. Over 2/3 of the country has cell phones, fiber-network internet is making its way through the country, and is a very inventive country overall. (Source: CIA factbook)

Question and Answer

Most Americans have a fairly limited knowledge of Iran in general. What would you say are the key differences that separate Iran from its neighbors? What’s the difference between a Persian and an Arab?

By far the most important difference is about our culture, as I told you, as Iran is an ancient country and it was civilized since thousands years ago, our culture is rich, it is something that you cannot see in Arabs culture, especially before Islam.

Persian (Iranian) people are too much different from Arabs or other people who live in countries near Iran. Persia (Iran) is an ancient country; it is older than Greece and Rome or Egypt. It was the first civilized country in the world about thousands years ago. We have a rich culture. It is really odd for me that how American people do not know that much about Iran. I wonder

why you are not let to know more about Iran. Iran government is also much different from both Arab’s’ and other neighbor countries’. Iran used to be a very huge country; as a result, some of our neighbor countries were some parts of Iran in the past, so we can see influence of Persian culture on them.

Our language is Persian (Farsi) not Arabic, and its root is totally different from Arabic. As Arabic is the language of Islam and there are a large number of Arabic countries in Middle East, almost all Persian scientists, who lived between 1400 and 500 years ago (such as Avecina, Razi, …), wrote their books in Arabic, so these days, some people might think they were Arabs but they just tended to write in a language that also other Muslims were able to understand. But all Persian poets (like Hafez, Ferdosi, Molana, Khayam, Saedi, …) wrote their books in Farsi since they were interested in their language.

Moreover, Iran’s government try to be an Islamic one and it is something you cannot see in other countries. Even those countries such as Saudi Arabia which claim is an Islamic country, does not rule its country based on Islam. As I have been in Saudi Arabia once, I see they treat women in a bad way and women cannot even drive or vote there but it is not like this in Iran. There are also some people in Saudi Arabia, who are called Vahabi(other Muslims do not believe them as Muslims), they claim they are the best Muslims but honestly, their rules are ridiculous, they are doing against Islam, and they are the ones who do terrorist attacks around the world, they are also in Pakistan.

Lastly, about our appearance, Persians look different from Arabs, Indians, and Pakistanis; their skin is darker than Persians. We also are not same as Afghanis, a large number of them look like Far Eastern people but Iranian are not. I can say we somehow look like European people but with dark eyes and hair.

Iran is a theocratic society, yes? Do you think Dr. Rowhani will be able to accomplish all he wants to do to help all Iranians despite not having the final word in what happens?

i’m really happy about the recent election because both ordinary people and those who are in charge are satisfied with it. almost everyone is keen on Dr. Hassan Rowhani. today, he also held a conference and talked about different issues and the ways he is gonna handle them. i guess i’m gonna be a fan of him as my president.

You know, it’s not like Mr. Khamenei [Muslim leader of the country] dictates everything to the president. It’s right that we are Muslims and as Islam is a religion looking at different aspects of life and guiding us how to live better so there are some useful rules also about politics in it. Therefore Mr. Khamenei just helps our president and gives him some advice according to Islam but he never say he has to do this or that. Even before the recent election Mr. Khamenei didn’t talk about which candidate he was in favor of or which one we were supposed to choose. He just guided us that thought carefully and chose the best one we thought was the best. Honestly, I’m a fan of Mr. Khamenei since he has never dictated anything either to us or the government but everyone likes him as he is a wise leader and he is also so kind toward us. As a result, I guess Mr. Rowhani can lead the country as he believe is right, as he said; he is going to both listen to our leader’s advice and do as he thinks is the best.

American media likes to highlight religious discrimination in Iran, particularly when it happens to Jews or Christians. Do you see any of that discrimination?

You must be kidding me, although the number of Christians, Jews and Zoroastrian is so small- just 2% of our population- and they are not supposed to have any representative in our parliament, each of these groups have their own representatives in Iran’s parliament. Therefore, not only there is not any religious discrimination, but also they have special privileges.

How is the parliament structured to allow for representation of other faiths? I assume there’s no party system. Is it Federalistic? Ethnofederalistic? A certain designated number of seats for various religions? And what do you mean by special privileges?

Our parliament consists of 4 parties and coalitions. There are 290 seats. After 2012 election, according to 32.5 million votes, there are 182 conservatives, 72 reformist, 19 independents and 14 religious minorities’ representative. Apart from the number of religious minorities’ representatives seats, which has been decided based on religious minority population, the number of other seats are not fixed. The Christian, Jews and Zoroastrian privilege is even though their population is so small, they can choose their 14 representatives based on their religion and region. They are 2% of Iran’s population but their representatives are 5% of Iran’s parliament. People of each city and village in Iran, based on their population choose their representative(s) in parliament.

Would you say Mr. Khamenei (Spiritual leader of the country) has more of a consulting role to Mr. Rowhani? And should Mr. Rowhani make a decision that is opposition to the Islamic religion, would Mr. Khamenei step in and overrule Mr. Rowhani; does he have that power? And who is ultimately in charge of the courts, the church or the state?

As Iran is called Islamic republic so we all like to have an Islamic country. You know, maybe there are some misunderstandings about Islam, some ones might think Islam is just about some strict laws but honestly there is just an incorrect face that is shown in some western countries. There are five basic rules in Islam; believe in 1.God 2.God’s justice 3.the life after death in another world 4.Hazrat Mohammad as the last prophet 5. Fourteen people who were innocent so everything they did were right and they are our models. There are also a large number of different rules which some of them are flexible and can be changed according to time or situation and some religious experts can judge about them; therefore is really easy to live as a Muslim. To tell you the truth, when I do as Islam said I feel relax because I do as God like. Leave those terrorist people showed to you as Muslims, we do not even call them Muslim, from our points of view they do not even believe in God.

As I said, since we think Islam is the best way, we tend to do according to it. Moreover our government is trying to do base on Islam. Sometime they might also make some mistakes and do not do as God likes and Islam because we are humans but they are trying their best.

All our presidents were trying to do as Islam said and they were not against it so I have never seen that our leader stepped in. we have a quotation that our politics is not apart from our religion because as I said there are also some Islamic rules about politics.

We have different elections and we choose members of parliament, if the president does against the law they will dismiss him. People of each city choose some representatives to select the mayor of that city. We do not have states so all the rules are the same all over of Iran, each city has its mayor. There is also a person in charge of courts.

What would you say your typical day is like?

Well, same as others, we go to school, university, work and participate in different classes. we spend our free time by either paying a visit to our relatives or going out to cinemas, parks, restaurants, sport clubs,… . I should mention we do not have pubs or bars like those ones in your country, since we are Muslim we do not drink. Moreover we are not allowed to have sex before marriage, -it is just between husbands and wives-; therefore, there is no place for it in Iran.

All of this interview is [SIC]. Copies of this interview are not permitted without approval from the author or interviewee.