I was so glad to get your recent letter telling of all the good fortunes happening to you in America. Clearly the opportunities to pursue your science are proving to be much greater than possible in our native Iran. So I am very happy you chose to make this move with your family. 1000 years ago our Persian people led the world in scientific leadership and accomplishments. Your recent achievements in mathematics and astronomy serve as a good testament to that legacy.
I am also happy to hear of the many new friends you have made in America who have made you feel welcome into their society. (Though we can still tell in your letters that not all Americans have been so welcoming to you.) We were originally quite worried about your safety and acceptance by the Americans, given the tensions that continue between the two governments. It is good that any hostile treatment towards you and your family is at a minimum. The American reputation of friendliness and opportunity to many diverse immigrants seems to be true.
Yet I am saddened to hear of the many misperceptions, and lack of knowledge, you have encountered that Americans have about our country, our way of life, our people, and what drives our thinking. It seems as if the world does not want to recognize our modern and sophisticated Iran. The truth of our prosperous middle class, 80% literacy rate, and half of our university classes and many social leadership positions comprised of women seems to be unacknowledged outside our borders. Instead, the developed nations seem to see us only as another “backward,” middle-eastern narrow-minded country like so many of our neighbors.
Unlike most nations, America is such a young country, having started from scratch only 400 years ago. So they do not seem to appreciate a country like Iran whose known history can be traced back to agricultural societies 10,000 years ago. Traced to our first city of Susa 6000 years ago. Or to our first royal dynasty 4800 years ago. Our Persian history is long and glorious, providing a pride that still beats in Iranian hearts.
Yet like many European and Asian nations, ours is a long history filled with invasions, overthrows, and rebellions for dominance over our land. So we have always been forced to defend ourselves against outsiders. Even after the Arabs invaded and brought the wonder of Islam to us in the 7th century, it took only a hundred years later that we separated ourselves from Arab culture and restored our Persian heritage. That cultural separation, and our adoption of Shi’ite rather than Sunni Islam, helped to fuel the lasting antagonism of the Arab countries toward us. But the wisdom of that restoration was demonstrated 500 years later as the European nations lay culturally stymied in their Dark Ages, while Persian culture led the world in literature, arts, science and medicine. It was even thanks to our efforts that much of the Greek/Roman culture now so important to the Western heritage was saved by educated Persian hands. It is that leadership among nations, that respect, that we even now seek to restore and honor.
Yet as you know, Abdullah, the threats of invasion and outside domination continued into each century, from all directions and all manners of despots and the national ambitions of others. In our modern times, in World War I the British and Russians occupied our proud land. In World War II, they once again took possession of our country. On their own they threw out our first Shah who had ruled for 20 years, and replaced him with his son Riza Pahlavi as their puppet Shah. Our country, and our government, continued to be dictated to by outsiders. You might remind your new American friends that in 1951 we first attempted western-style democracy and elected our own Prime Minister. Yet two years later, in order to protect their control of our oil, the British and American governments conspired with the Shah to have the Prime Minister thrown out of his legally-elected office and arrested. After which, our British/Russian-installed Shah became increasingly dictatorial, spreading fear and torture against our people and suppressing opposition. As you know, Abdullah, it is from this overthrow of our elected Prime Minister, and the subsequent oppression inflicted upon us from the false Shah, that our distrust and anger towards America really began.
No wonder we revolted against the Shah and his repression in 1978, following the Ayatollah Khomeini as the only available outspoken opposition to the Shah. And no wonder that, when the Americans chose to give the hated Shah asylum in their country, our anger would be extended towards all Americans. In retrospect, when my compatriots and I seized the American Embassy and captured its employees, I can understand the disbelief and anger that Americans felt toward us at that time. But when one has lived under such ruthlessness, and after having lost both my father and my brother to the Shah’s secret police, my anger towards his benefactors needs to also be understood.
Do Americans remember that when Iraq’s evil Saddam Hussein started his unprovoked war against us in 1980 – once again a threat to our safety and independence – America took his side in the conflict against us and gave him military arms to fight us? This was the same Saddam Hussein that America herself would later turn around and fight twice – briefly in Kuwait, and then for 10 long years in Iraq itself. We lost almost a million of our countrymen in our war with Iraq, including 95,000 lost as child soldiers. You know that this included the young life of my first son – your dead cousin Hassan. As a result, today more than 2/3rds of our country is under 30, owing in large part to the many Iranian lives lost in that war who would now be middle-aged. All of this interference in our sovereign affairs. All of these past attempts to defeat or control our country. Yet your new friends wonder why we do not trust America?
Perhaps, dear nephew, you can help in some small way to bridge the misunderstandings between America and our country. Two countries, each with an admirable past, both caught in a current turbulence of internal difficult change and external mutual distrust. Internal changes that are so similar in many ways when one looks closely in each other’s mirror. How do we change that destructive relationship into a positive one for the betterment of all? Perhaps, dear Abdullah, it can be with many more efforts such as yours: individual to individual. But can they who have long opposed us and been our enemy now be our friend? Can we who have resisted them now be able to feel secure? Removing the past angers; learning to trust one another instead. Can the leaders in each country put the past behind us, and achieve peace and understanding for all of us?
Your most loving uncle, Samir
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