I wanted to write about one of the greatest
achievements of my life for a long time. I have made documentary about
Iran in 2-3 years, it took me a long time, but the result was amazing, over a
million people have seen it, and the comments and feedback was great. But since
then, I was looking for an opportunity to talk about why I put 3 years of my
life to make such a thing, although I have never been a history or film making
major.
I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. My closest
friends are in Iran, my greatest experiences are from there, my personality
shaped in there. So I know what Iran is and what it is not. When I came out of
Iran, I went to Dubai, in Dubai I went to American College, which so many of
the instructors were European/American. They were very nice, and I was friend
with most of them. But over time, I learned that what they know about Iran is totally
different from the Iran I know; they thought that people are all religious,
they all hate USA and etc. So I used to talk to them a lot, and give them as
much as information I had, but I was a computer science major, who had
experiences in marketing too, and had so many experiences but not any in
history and culture major. In this phase I was learning, and it was like an
introduction to me, learning new ideas about Iran, which were not true. Once my
Canadian teacher said, until the 1979 revolution in Iran, in all of our history
books, we had so many materials about the great Persia, and how they helped
others and etc, but after the revolution, it was all gone. This was the first
awakening call for me to realize that their ideas is not from the reality of
Iran, but it’s from politics and games.
I went to Germany, Italy, Honduras, USA and etc,
and all of them for me was new and interesting experiences, I was learning new
thing about myself and life and others, but I knew one thing, that they are all
wrong about Iran, the Iran I was born in and raised in, was not the one they
were talking about, and it was annoying me, because it was so hard for me to explain
it to them, because of two reasons: 1. I did not have enough information to
back up my thoughts and ideas, and I knew that there are so many young Iranians
like me all over the world, who don’t know how to communicate the reality of Iran
to others, and some who are so young who even don’t know which one is the
reality of Iran? So I was thinking, what could I do ?
4 comments:
I think it is great you want to show people a side of Iran that most people have no idea about. I will be honest I don't know much about Iranians and I have stereotyped people from their due to ignorance of not knowing much the country, and especially because of the 1979 event that happened with the American prisoners. I am glad to have you in my class I have a feeling I will learn a lot from you.
I am really impressed by your video. That truly was an impressive feat. All of your commitment and time spent on it was very well worth it. The best part of it was that you were able to educate the viewers at the same time.
I have a lot of respect for you going up to your instructors and telling them the truth about the history of Iran. If I was in your shoes, I definitely would do the same. I also find it great how much pride you have in your country. Once some people leave their home country, they try so hard to assimilate to the country they move to that they lose sense of where they are from. Kudos to you!
I really enjoyed reading this post and watching the video. I am also from Iran and I can relate to a lot of the things you are saying. There is a misconception about Iran and the people so I think its a great thing to start spreading the word one documentary at a time.
I believe that its great that people like you want to share a broader more cultural aspect of a culture that many in this country feel is uncivilized. Judgement are made everyday of middle eastern people that are contrary to the facts. many Americans don't understand the truth behind the war and why so many have to die for nothing (oil i guess). But in the interests of the nation and the people, judgments are made to put down a culture that has been alive for thousands of years before america.
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