How is life like under a coup d’etat?

When everything has the mark of a bleeding wound ...

Since three weeks before the 10^th Presidential election in Iran, there were whispers about coup d’état. My grandmother once mumbled it, and then I heard it from the people in the streets, passengers in bus stations and distributers of advertisements. Certainly, as an educated person I could not trust the political prediction of people in the streets, could I? But one thing that I learnt perfectly since then is to trust historical memories of a nation. Uneducated people do not predict according to theories or statistics or news. Instead, they rely on their unconscious truth. The recent election has taught me that Iranians have not forgotten 1953 American’s coup in Iran. The historical memory of the nation alarmed us in many ways but we, the confident, educated, active to sum up the represented class of the society, resonated to our defense mechanism and constantly ignored the signs of the catastrophe until it unfolded. The coup d’état appeared from nowhere and like a slap on our face injured us. For many of you reading this note, it is a finished event now that coup is indirectly recognized by the international community. But for us it is the beginning of a strange and unknown process through which we become new subjects entirely different from our previous being.

In the following months after the coup I desperately looked for G.G.Markez novel “the autumn of the Patriarch”. I had read it nearly 10 years before and found it strangely unbelievable. I had used to think dictatorship and censorship would only affect the people who are actively engaged with the intellectual sphere and the production of thoughts and ideas such as journalists, political activists, artists, etc. But in that novel ordinary people in the streets, shop keepers, farmers and sweepers turn mad. But why? How could politics affect their personal life so strongly?

This is a truth that I learnt after the tenth presidential election in my country. I see that we are changing. We are driven to our edge. Our tolerance is reducing and we are becoming restless. Today, I opened the newspaper. It said that the housing ministry discarded the result of the internal election of association of civil engineers. The minister illegally interfered the domestic affair of an independent body of engineers and rejected the result. He replaced some of elected names with his own preferred ones. The legally elected engineers announced that they leave the institute. Since then I’m thinking who is going to supervise the construction works in the country; engineers or political opportunists? How can we trust the safety of buildings in our city hence?

The pressure from illegal officials intends to silence us. We are surrounded by lies. We are prohibited to comment and act based on our consensus necessity. The necessity of a small group of opportunists is dominating our lives: Coup has imported rice 176% more than what was required, has imported 4 million ton of wheat instead of 500’000 originally needed, has flooded the shopping centers with Chinese textiles, has let the Western cooperation to open their store after 30 years of resistance against capitalism. Coup has indirectly humiliated us by forcing us to be the sterile consumers of the global market. From the proud self-sufficient producers in the reformist times we are turned to baggers. Coup has lavishly spend our natural treasures –oil, gas, gold, water, soil, …  in exchange for Pakistani oranges, Indian rice, Chinese tea, Nike shoe, Bourgeois lipstick … When the government and semi governmental companies rub the nation, it is no surprise to see the deterioration of moral principles nationwide, no surprise to see the drastic increase of fraud, betrayal, rape, murder, and other crimes. Under the coup cunning liars are exceptional talents, the smart and unique is the one who cleverly deceives and cheats and gets away with it.

It is not merely the political, social and economical spheres affected by the hypocrisy of the coup. It is our very emotional state, our mentality which is under attack. I have seen relationships, friendships and acquaintanceships falling apart and my perception is that under the coup there is no space for dialogue, no space for tolerance, no desire to sustain and build up relations, no longing for creation. Under the coup only silence survives. Our horizon has been occupied by distance and fear. Under the coup we fear to love, we do not care for making an impossible possible. Under the coup no carving for life lasts. All private social gatherings are suspended. All private meetings involving more than five people are dangerous and should be planned carefully. People are falling into the illusion that their phones are tabbed. People are pushed to think that the intelligence is especially following them. Collective terror has arisen. People are paranoid about their collogues, friends, relatives, neighbors. Trust has faded. Coup intends to imprison us in the cell of mental disorders it has produced. In these mental and physical terrifying corners, it is only destruction that is going on. Everything, statistics, news, facts, logic, emotion and faith are destined to turn to empty illusion we cannot liberate ourselves from.  And our wishes for survival become disturbing daydreams.

By Rene Magrit

You have probably seen the demonstration on your TV but it could not show you how difficult it is to live the everyday life. How unbearable it is to open newspapers and read the headlines. How catastrophic it is to buy food from the market, go to work and think about future under the coup…. future … future … future … under the coup you retreat, you give up. Only fear, only pessimism, only terror and censorship seem to survive. Death intends to occupy our collective horizon.

Yes, we might be broken and shattered. We might be fearful and restless. In the absence of free circulation of news, we might be lost and perplexed by the rumors, by the black holes created in our knowledge, in our perception of the world around us. Yes, we might feel like an abandoned piece of dust floating in nowhere, a weightless object without being affected by any gravity.  Yet, we cannot ignore that the coup through suppressing us has actually brought us to fore. Coup was like a fatal earthquake which has broken our solid ground intending to throw us down the hell. Indeed we are on the edge of falling into the black whole of our contemporary disaster. Yet, we believe that we have been a fortunate generation. Our understanding of freedom, citizenship, change, hope, action, happiness, unification is changing. We owed the meaning of these words to the generation before us but now a rift has cracked those conceptions and a space has opened up for us to be the inventor of the new meanings, the creators of new views. Now we are in a historical moment, a zero level of time, whereby we can build up our horizons, we can define our perspectives, we can express our long awaited desires and demands.  A new hegemonic project is shaping through which the peculiar identity of our generation is emerging. In this process all the disparate signs and practices find their link to be defined through one massive social movement. The new hegemonic horizon addresses the existing social gaps and attempt to unify our distant souls and minds.

Here, in Tehran, a significant change has occurred about our view towards the very space we inhabit. We grew up with the relentless comments of our last generation about how ugly Tehran is. We are told that Tehran does not reflect any fraction of our past, present or future identity, that it is an embarrassing jumble of unmatched houses, that it’s architecture is nothing comparing to the European cities. We grew up fraught with feelings of detest towards Tehran, with disgust towards its sickening pollution, unbearable traffic, anxious, tired, indifferent and impolite people. We had no emotional link to our city.

Green Musavi on the Wall

Yet, since the fraudulent presidential election, Tehran has opened its supportive body and embraced our frightened and injured flesh. When you s the violent protests on your TV you would have thought that how could this go on for hours? How could protesters resist the anti-riot guard and return to the streets of Tehran every fifteen minutes? For us out in the streets and squares the inefficiency of the design of alleys and highways is no more an embarrassing character of our city. Irregular constructions, hidden lanes, unregistered gateways and wired highways are integral in our uprising. It is not us conducting the revolt against the coup. It is the city of Tehran guiding us to rise. It is the city of Tehran helping us to remain in the streets. Its formerly intolerable traffic now scatters the guard and help the Greens to flee. The mess of a thousand cars erupts the inorganic order of the coup’s administration especially when cars start to blow irregularly. It is the city of Tehran which hides us, rescues us and then brings us back to the main boulevards to persists the demonstration.  Tehran is no more an unpleasant burden for its youth. Today, it is the organic body of the Greens.

There was this regressive and sterile trend between unhappy Tehranis to call the neutral pre-revolution names of the streets: Eisenhower instead of Freedom (Azadi) street, Castle (kakh) instead of Philistine street, Persepolis instead of Martyr Motahari.  We were constantly mumbling about “what is our relation with the images of revolution, of martyrs, of the eight year war which have filled our public space? Why do we have martyr Hemmat highway? Martyr Bakeri stadium? Martyr Fatemi Street? Martyr Chamran high school? Martyr Rajayi mosque? “.

You see, there was a huge gap between the signs in Tehran and the subjects who were circulating them. That can partly show how the frustration with the discourse was formed. Nonetheless, on the contrary to what many outsiders assume, the Green movement does not intend to subvert the heritage of the 1979 revolution or to denounce it. You see the fatal clashes between Greens and the coup police, you read about dead and wounded people, you hear about arrests and tortures. The question is “what the motivation of this resistance is? What fuels the movement?” Between all the possible answers we emphasize on the fact that it was the Islamic Republic of Iran, the very same government, who thought us to be future revolutionaries. The repetition of all the signs and practices has left its impact on the collective unconscious of the new generation. It is our unconscious which is reacting to the election. In this conflict all the disparate discursive signification and practices including our urban space stimulates the lost cause.  It is the name of the streets and mosques and squares, it is the picture on the most visible places in the city that is guiding the movement. We are the true decedents of the revolution. The aim of the Greens is to denounce the betrayal of the coup government to the revolution. And through this process the social gaps, the separated subjects are unified: the lost cause has appeared in the our social horizon.

Working, watching TV, reading newspapers can be suffocation but when I go out in the street I see people have left the sign of their sufferings on the walls: Our public space is filled with anti-coup slogan. Close to the event of each protest you see new slogans on banknotes, on bins and on walls. “We are not alone when we are together”.

On the banknote: Where is our vote?

We run away from the inhumane and crude anti-riot guard. We are blinded by tear gas. We breaths the gas and see the death. We hide behind a construction site. Here, Afghan workers bring papers for us and set them on fire. Now we can breathe and see our savers. In what other occasion we would be faced with workers linked through a common cause? What other occasion could cross the class difference and pushes us to face the gap?

We are in the staff room with other colleagues. One man receives a text message” Ayatollah Montazeri passed away. Condolences”. He turns to us and read it loudly. Another person receives it too. Now everyone is shocked and people start to comment. My male colleagues discuss the cause of Montazeri’s death with me. I am shocked. These male colleagues have never talked to me since last year when I started working in this place. I think in what other occasion gendered boundaries and problematic divisions would be confidently lifted up?

Coup has also done a favor to us. It has connected dissatisfied people, linked the fragile voices. Our suppressed ideas, thoughts and emotions have found a space to erupt. We have revived our cause which unifies us whether we are students, workers, journalists, housewives, sweepers, artists, managers,  …

A new social project is forming

Global media and foreign commentators ask questions about the leadership of the Green movement, political strategy, its targets and aims, what it has achieved so far, what it can actually hope to gain etc. These analyses compare the uprising in Iran with the similar social movements in the Western countries and try to identify it with the same positivist tools of investigation. What they miss to see and report is the fact that the movement is not merely a political reaction. It is an attempt to form a social horizon which could define all aspects of life anew. It is not an attempt to gain. It is an attempt to discover and invent. The movement has already achieved significantly. It has managed to give a voice to the previously oppressed, has connected them, has astonishingly deconstruct the sign and practices of the current discourse and has claimed the surplus meaning of the signification.

Let the fragile couples separate. Let the fearful friendships break into pieces. Let the problematic boundaries smash and disappear. Let the new bindings emerge. Let the workers and students merge. Cross the racial division. Cross the gender injustice. Cross the cultural borders. Now it is the time to shake off our hesitancies. Now it is the time to come fore. Now it is the time to break the silence, the regression, the fear with our fresh voices, with our newly expressed ideas. It is the time to re-unite with our lost cause, to melt into the city which is emerging from our wounds and bloods.

*Pictures are taken from the internet

BBC Persian and the 200-year-old project of Subject Making(3)

By the tomb of the lost

b) Reviving the Persian

It is clear that BBC Persian aims at connecting Farsi-speakers through linking their common issues. The documentary showcase screens class C films only to familiarize the majority of audience, the Iranians, with Afghan lifestyle, Traditional Tajik fiestas and similar unheard topics. I personally am surprised by the increasing number of amateur documentaries which are about Sunni traditions in the region (nothing about widespread lifestyles in Iran, or Shia ceremonies so far). Although, I am delighted that in the absence of a counter post-colonial cultural policy in IRIN TV, we are offered a chance to know more about the other aspects of our language and culture which has been violently taken away from us. Personally, it has been joyful to listen to the sweet variations of Farsi, to see the colorful proliferation of traditional Persian outfit, to learn about common mentality. Yet, I don not think that this chance has been offered to us for the sake of purely philanthropic purposes.

The emergence of BBC Persian TV demonstrates significant changes which is undergoing in the region. Firstly, the project of subject making is regarded as a failure and has expired. In Africa this project (dividing the continent into countries regardless of ethnic, cultural and economical realities of the people) has ended up in disasters like Uganda genocide, constant war between neighboring countries and emergence of fundamentalism. Likewise, Britain never predicted that a buffer state like Afghanistan, which was planned to obstacle the growth of Russia, would fall into the abyss of tribal bloodbath and blind fundamentalism. It was not imaginable that Afghanistan would turn to a black whole, to a place totally incomprehensible and inaccessible to modern politics. The fact that BBC Persian attempts to re-connect Afghan identity to the Persian (which was disempowered by the same power structure), proves that currently the only possible alternative to the chaotic social condition in Afghanistan is to undo the 200-year-old project of subject making. This project did not lead the Afghans into creating a modern state-nation. Instead, their specific geo-political condition (being surrounded by mountains and not having access to free waters) also disconnection from Persian identity culminated in the empowerment of tribal life and eventually pervert rejection to religion as Talibanism. The substitution of Persian identity was not creative, productive and progressive.

Secondly, I believe that the emergence of BBC Persian indicates the formation of new social and cultural context in the region which has alerted political powers present there. The first time I heard about the unification of Farsi-speakers was back in late 1990s at the outbreak of reformist movement in Iran. In that hopeful atmosphere the modernist fiction writer Houshang Gulshiri wrote an article in his magazine Karnameh about what the activities of the independent association of writers (Kanoone-nevisandegan) should be. Although the association never got the chance to officially register and work due to constant threats from Anti-reform frontier, which eventually ended up in serial murders of intellectuals in 1997, the article opened up a new horizon for young people like me. Gulshiri suggested that the association must accept members from all the Farsi-speaking countries and co-operate with them in holding seminars and conferences also must connect publications, writers and journalists. He believed that apart from social and cultural benefit of unifying Farsi-speaking writers we can enrich our language by recognizing and registering all the existing variations of Farsi. Gulshiri assisted many Afghan writers to publish their collections of short stories and poems. A project which still the same publication attempts to continue.

Lost in Escape by M.Soltanzadeh the Afghan writer published by independent association of Iranian intellectuals

Nonetheless, in the subsequent years the fear and terror and lack of budget prevented independent intellectuals to follow this goal. Yet, still the reformist government was perfectly aware of the significant power that the unification of Farsi-speakers would produce.  Thus, the reformist government appeared in the scene and in the absence of independent intellectuals the ministry of culture (vezarat ershad), started projects with the aim of reconnecting Farsi-speakers. For instance, in 2004 I attended a conference in Tehran on the subject of current Farsi fiction held by ministry of Culture. It was an interesting gathering of all type of writers and literary critics. In addition, it was more interesting to see the Tajik and Afghan guests who overtly expressed how challenging yet pleasant experience it was. Not just in cultural sector, but also in various industries (entertainment, education, food, clothing…), Farsi-speakers with the governmental assistance began to work together. I remember I read many news about the success and prosperity of these cooperation. However, the joy and delight didn’t last long as Ahmadinejad came into power and all the plans and people who were involved at those projects were discarded from the new government.

Since then a gap has remained open. A demand which first intellectuals then reformists tried to address and benefit but both were prevented. In the absence of such cultural activities, grand projects and regional determination, caused by seemingly hardliners like Ahmadinejad, BBC Persian has emerged. Hence, it seems like whenever seemingly hardliners and fanatics came into power they open up a space for the emergence of post-colonial projects. Fundamentalism suppresses authentic social and cultural movements by accusing them to be Liberal and Westernized. This reflection on the vital relation between fundamentalism and post-colonial powers reminds one of Zizek’s argument (1) that capitalism and fundamentalism are not opposing frontiers. Rather, they are power structures which supplements each other. Talibanism exist not as an alternative to capitalism. It is produced by capitalism and ensures its continuation. BBC Persian has not emerged as an alternative to the hardliner TV, IRIN. Rather IRIN works suppressively to guarantee the productivity and influence of BBC Persian. BBC Persian is not a liberating canal for airing the suppressed and fragile voice of writers, artists and activists. Rather, Ahmadinejad government has blocked the legitimate ways of speaking out for intellectuals so that the existence of  BBC Persian can be justified. Post-colonial projects and fundamentalism work hand in hand to prevent the formation and growth of an authentic social movement in global south.

We would not like to be distracted from the main point we made here and that is the post-colonial powers present in the region have been alerted to the formation of new social structure. Airing an expensive project like BBC Persian amid the sever global recession signifies just how important it is to give a direction to this new structure and guide it through the familiar social and cultural frameworks. It would make the new subjects predictable and controllable. Global media like BBC can connect to this unfamiliar, anxiety-evoking, new generation of Farsi-speakers and mark them with recognizable categories while imposing Western Capitalist moulds.

Thirdly, we do not intend to be ignorant of the global division of labor. There’s no doubt that the target audience of BBC Persian can also be regarded as the population which has not been integrated into the global market. In this part of the world Nike, Body Shop, Mango, … and many other multinational cooperation have not opened their notorious factories to exploit women and children for under-paid labor yet. In addition, cooperations have not found the opportunity to open their stores and absorb consumers.  Since, Iran had a protective market before the empowerment of Ahmadinejad government and other Farsi-speaking countries were not regarded safe enough for the investment of global capital.  In this way it would not be very difficult to realize what it means when global powers emphasize on their determination to make Afghanistan a secure place. (Secure for whom? For the global capital?) Or when they brand Iran as axis of evil in its most peaceful and productive decade – reformist time, the government of Khatami- in fact they point at the resistance against the global market inside Iran. The shining and attractive programs of global media like BBC Persian indirectly advertise the consumerist lifestyle which is a pre-condition for integrating into the global market. In these programs on music, sport, IT technology, … one can easily detect the basic assumption of cultural capitalist policy: the importance and value of consumption, the newer the better. BBC Persian finds and invents new cultural commodities for the Farsi-speaker audience to establish this settled practice in capitalism that lacks, misfortunes and impossible desires can be covered and cured by fleeting objects that the media invent.

Are we going to conclude this writing by suggesting that we should boycott BBC Persian TV? As it is the continuation of the 200 year-old-project of subject making, as it is another offspring post-colonial project? If we boycott the TV is anything really going to change? Or rather we should think about how we can influence and challenge it? What are the effective ways of diverting it from its targets and goals to ours?

We believe that this complicated situation can be dealt with through what G. Spivak, the well-known Marxist, deconstructionist and feminist theorist has formulated as the “constructive complicity”.  Spivak invents this term in the context of post-Kantian critical thought. In her book the Critique of Postcolonial Reason she traces the idea of how non-western subject becomes excluded from the seemingly encompassing philosophy of namely Kant, Hegel and Marx. However, she goes on to argue that this exclusion shouldn’t discourage us, the postcolonial theorist, to boycott these thinkers rather we should deploy them in a constructive manner. She explains:

“ In the process of dismantling the Three Worlds paradigm and the limitations it has imposed on our way of understanding the world, postcolonial studies remain complicit in the Western philosophy tradition of critique as developed in the thought of Kant, Hegel and Marx. This relationship of complicity is also relationship of responsibility to the ideological blind spot imposed by the explanatory power of post-Kantian thought. “ (2)

In this way Spivak recommends that through treating post-Kantian thought  (which is the originator of the foreclosure of non-western subject) as remote discursive precursors, it is possible to discover a constructive complicity instead of a disabling complicity between postcolonial studies and post-Kantian philosophy. (3)

In the same manner, we should not ignore the power that global media has acquired. One way of disempowering them is to set up or support alternative media but the limitations this type of media face, prevent us to be entirely effective. Another way as Spivak proposes is not to ignore their facilities and try to challenge them by their very own media. What is possible is to get involve with them but keep a critical stance and be cautious about their direction and propaganda.

Here, we have some guests. The talk is about politics and we discuss the satellite channels including BBC Persian. We switch to the channel and start to watch a program which is about an Afghan family living permanently in Britain. The interviewer asks the father of the family if he likes to go back to Afghanistan now that the war is over. He refuses. Then the interviewer asks the opinion of an Afghan cultural figure on the matter. This person who has seemingly dressed up to teeth (according to his standards) responds: “The Afghan nation is very pleased that some of her citizens have found the opportunity to live in a country which is among the pioneers of civilization in the world”. The viewers in our house burst into laughter and start to comment one by one:

- Pioneer of civilization!

- You poor Afghans don’t really know anything about history or civilization!

- Oh Lord! Only an Afghan would say such a humiliating thing in front of a camera!

- Well, what do you expect? Afghans aren’t like us, they have nothing, what can they be proud of?

- Recognizing Britain as the pioneer of civilization? Where were they when Persians invented the science of Algebra, when they built finest building 2000 years ago, when they discovered medicines? No surprise why Afghans overestimate Europe…

My sister turns to me and blames me for the many times that I praised non-Iranian Farsi-speakers and expressed my delight at seeing and getting to know them: “You see! Here are the Afghans you always defend. They have no pride. They are naïve and simplistic and the whole business of BBCPersian is to show them to us just to smash our national pride, to humiliate us, just to mark us at the same level as them, to remind us that Farsi-speakers are so low and miserable that they take Britain as their guidance through civilization.”

I remain silent as there is no way to defend Afghans in this situation and I have to admit what my sister claims.  I cannot repeat my idea that we should take this chance and try to reconnect to other Farsi-speaker and through that we would be able to practice our own cultural trend, preserve and develop our common mentality and enrich Farsi as the reservoir of our identity. No, I can see clearly that Afghans have surrendered to the cultural policy of BBC Persian. Yet, that does not discourage me. Wouldn’t we behave in the same way if we had torn apart between 20 years of civil war, left damaged and fearful looking around for any sign of assistance?

My eagerness, my desire, all the possibilities that unification through Farsi would provide us sketch a splendid horizon before my eyes. It does not matter if a little snake like BBC Persian glides around trying to divide us through its uncertain movement called the project of subject making. What I can see is the mother arising from its ashes again, Farsi starting to shine and brighten the media. Unlike what many Iranians mistakenly think it is not ruins and legends of lost powers and empires that give a distinctive history to us. It is the spirit of this house, the language that we communicate which elevates our future, past and present.

Our Coy Mistress Farsi by Ebrahim haghighi

Farsi the reservoir of 3000 years of experience, hope, loss, desire, despair and resilience.

Forgotten men and women convey their power, their phantasies, their wisdom, their regrets in this language.

We are not alone, we are not divided, we are not defeated and isolated if we let Farsi speak from the mouth of its 100 million speakers to our wounded souls.

I was told that as a Persian literature graduate I must protect Farsi and promote it in this global village where global media push to dominate local languages.

How childish! How laughable!

It is Farsi that protects us. It is Farsi that heals us. Let it grow, let it manifest itself in any form that is available, be it BBC Persian, Voice of America or IRIN TV. Let Farsi experiments with all the possible moulds. I will be delighted to see how the unconscious of 3000 years of life resists and constructs itself. Whatever form they impose, Farsi playfully slides away. It renders through its own tendencies. No global power, no fleeting coup d’état no narrow-minded racism can direct it for a long period. That is what I discovered while I was writing these posts on BBC Persian, while I was attempted to analyse the resistance, while I was thinking about alternatives. The truth is IRIN TV by now must have produced a generation of religious extremists, an army of faithful believers to IRI. But is it successful in that attempt? Rather the more it pushes for, the more the audiences divert from the intended direction. That is because the tool of communication, the tool of domination, Farsi, is problematic itself. An ironic, coy and metaphoric language with many irregularities which provide a chance to subvert the meanings, to break through dominations and move around dangerous red lines and incomprehensible black hole.

I believe that BBC Persian is the beginning of an uncertain and unpredictable and rather fruitless project. Surprisingly, unlike what it is expected from the conservative British, they have ignored their historical mistakes. Perhaps their technological and industrial superiority created this illusion that they can achieve their newly-set goals in the region despite the cultural obstacles.  Yet, we very much doubt it. The presentation of BBC Persian TV clearly demonstrates that there is a little knowledge about the consumption point. At the production point they are testing all the possible ways to identify the audience. Personally, I am enjoying witnessing how they attempt to fit the well-known objective moulds of BBC into a subjective, poetic and abstract language like Farsi. In fact we can look at BBC Persian as a new experimental project with Farsi and I have no objection to that. Anyone familiar with the history knows that Farsi will soon react in a creative manner.

This is the last post of the series BBC Persian and the 200-year old project of subject making in which we tried to discuss our idea about the BBC persian claim of impartiality. We demonstrated that the TV has appeared in long with historical interests of colonial and post-colonial power and we should be critical and cautious about the seemingly neutrality of global media. Also, We discussed the fact that how the TV is attempted to revive the old concept of Persian and through that participate in shaping the emerging identity in the region. Would it be a successful project or would it join the trash bin of history like the colonial project of subject making?

In the next post we will argue how BBC Persian tries to influence and divert the authentic emerging social and political projects.

1) Zizek, s., Welcome to the Desert of Real. 2002. Verso: London.

2) Spivak, G., A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of Vanishing Present, 1999. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

3) Morton, S., Gayatri Spivak. 2007. Polity Press: Cambridge.

BBC Persian and the 200-year-old Project of Subject-Making (2)

2) Why Persian?

a)The Disintegration of Persian Identity by Former Colonial Powers

There are many questions which have remained unanswered regarding the prim functions of BBC Persian. For me the first question was Why it is entitled Persian? Why didn’t they name it simply BBC Farsi like the website or BBC Iran or BBC Afghanistan?

The question might not seem necessary as we, inside Iran, equate Persian with anything Iranian or related to the culture. But any Farsi-speaker outside Iran especially in the West would soon realize that there is a disturbing abyss between these two seemingly similar concepts. I personally encounter it when I was a post-graduate student in Britain. Whenever I introduced myself as an Iranian there was almost an immediate response asking why I don’t call myself Persian. At first it was not very clear to me why Westerners prefer to name me Persian but gradually I understood that there are many connotations attached to the Persian identity that the Iranian one lacks.  For instance, to many people Persian is a reminder of white, cute and arrogant Persian cat or Persian rugs. As I gradually understood even between educated and well-traveled Europeans there are many people who would prefer to associate me to the impression they got from reading the book 1001 Arabian nights and the wonders of a legendry empire called Persia. People rather liked to regard me as an inheritor of a mysterious past who would open a door to radically different existences. The way my identity was constructed in the West is well described by E.W.Said in his Orientalism as the representation of imaginary geographies. Rather than a material location it is a mental space, an imaginary construction where the Occident ascribes its hidden desires, phantasies and also fears. It might seem that we, as Iranians, should be delighted because we are recognized by our glorious and exceptional past. However, I cannot ignore the fact that through promoting Persia our modern identity is deliberately ignored and discarded. Iran is a title; representative of a modern state-nation. A real territory with the necessities of a contemporary conception of a country which is manifested in the form of government, the integration of ethnicities, modern economy, etc. Being entitled Persian indirectly reveals that our integration into modern world has not been accepted. We are pushed back to the stage before the nation-state. By Persia this picture is imposed upon our representation: some scattered people without any unificatory principles that would distinguish them from other people, make them different from the other nation-states.

Legendary Persia 500 B.C

Personally, for me the gender associations are unbearable; as Persian I’m seen as that sexy, sensual woman with a radically different appearance. A mysterious entity which evokes both desire and fear.  I found it insulting that people regard me in relation to the Persian cats, the arrogant and unfaithful pet. Even in the legendry Persia there were many other cultural phenomenon that are more worthy of attention such as the traditional painting, the literature, the historical stories, etc. But they are not as sexually charged as cats and the fables of 1001 Arabian nights.

The way I was branded as Persian was very much like how women’s sexual identity is constructed. For a woman it is very difficult to assume a subjective position in a sexual relationship as woman is regarded as object and not the subject of desire. For instance, it is perfectly all right if a man reaches to kiss his partner in a public place like a coffee shop (even in Iran) or to touch her knees from under the table in a restaurant or to touch her hands in a taxi any time he wants to. This is regarded as the manifestation of passion, intimacy and desire. But the moment the woman attempts to do the same she will be branded as touchy and demanding.  Since it is only the man’s right to start and be the subject of a sexually charged act. Woman can be happy to have this absolute right to passively enjoy. It is not a matter of question whether the woman needs to be the subject of an act, maybe she is on a specific emotional verge, or maybe she needs to express herself for a fleeting instance.  No, she can only exist as a receiver.

I have gradually realized that identity, racial or sexual, renders within the same pattern: it is not a matter of personal choice. One cannot choose to be what she wants to be. It is rather the matter of assignment. We are endowed with an identity whether we like it or not. And if we question it, if we object to it, we will throw ourselves into serious challenges.

Weather I like it or not once again and this time in my house in the very location of Tehran I am entitled Persian rather than Iranian BBC Persian. I was silent and tried to explain with careful politeness to European friends why I prefer to be regarded Iranian when I was living out of the country. Nevertheless, the shadow of a vague and problematic Persia chases me even in my homeland and attempts to jump at my face to become my privileged representation. This time though it is not contented to dominate my global representation but intends to intervene into the national conception of our Identity. Again I feel a compulsion to examine the reason. What is the reason of reviving the old concept of Persia by British broadcasting agency?

In 18^th century, the remainder of ancient Persia was involved in a massive project called the Great Game. As the last powerful Iranian (or Persian?) ruling dynasty, Ghajar, was dying out, the new colonial powers were gearing up in the Middle East to strengthen the root of their dominance. Among many unfinished and unsuccessful projects they led, the Great Game is notable to remember since its outcomes have remained alive up until now in the 21^st century.  200 years ago when the British rule was almost established in India, the colonial power faced new challenges in order to maintain its power. First of all it needed to secure the road to India so that other local or colonial powers (such as Russia and France) could not be able to affect the accessibility to India. Second, it needed to prevent other colonial powers from growing and outbalancing the presence of Britain in the region. Thus, Britain became involved in a long and consuming project which is now known as the “Great Game”.

Persia at the Beginning of Great Game in 1814 (marked by yellow line)

The other major player was the Russian empire who needed to access free water through Persian golf in order to establish its dominance.  In that case, it would be able to disconnect Britain from India while acquiring the upper hand in the region. The battlefield of this game was the old Persia which other than current Iran included present Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gorjistan, Azerbaijan and Armanistan. The two empires had opposing interest yet that did not prevent them to reach an agreement as to how disempowere the regional rulers. The vast, powerful and influential rulers like Ottoman, Safavid and Ghajar dynasty were the major obstacles in the development of colonies. The best way to weaken them was to disintegrated the empires and break them down into separate pieces. This plan was exceptionally useful for Britain, as through producing buffer states between Russia and India, British interests would be secured while the expansion of Russia would be limited. In this way new state-nations like Afghanistan emerged on the map.  The buffer countries in the Middle East and central Asia did not appear through popular movements or social, historical or economical necessities of the people. Rather their independence from old empires came about as the outcome of conflict of interests between colonial powers. This project has been modeled in other colonies especially in Africa as the “subject-making” project. The disintegrated people were recognized as citizens of the new country and were encouraged to construct their new identity in order to distinguish themselves from the previous encompassing identity, in this case the Persian. Britain assisted local authorities in the central Asia particularly in Afghanistan to claim independence and helped them in the subsequent wars. It even encouraged the new-born identities to promote their local language such as Pashto instead of Farsi. In the 200 years ensuing the Great Game Britain has done it’s best to highlight the differences, to weaken the cultural links and create a distance in the region. Thus, everything seems to be completed. New countries with new identities were produced to fulfill the growing demands of early capitalist Britain.

Disintegrated Persia 1848 ( current Iran marked by blue line)

Do you find it difficult to believe? Another conspiracy theory? Another example of political myths of developing countries? To support my claim I would suggest you to read Spying for Empire: The Great Game in Central and South Asia, 1757-1947 (1) or The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (2) or look up the Great Game in Wikipedia or simply google it and I’ll guarantee it will come up between the first top 10 searches. But for me, for an Iranian, these reasonings are unnecessary. We can see the cultural impact of the Great Game in our everyday life in Tehran.

In Tehran anything out-dated, regressive and generally unrespectable is branded as Afghani. All beggers are regarded as Pakistani. If you are from Tajikestan your Farsi is considered under-developed. If you are Afghani that means you are either a construction worker or a criminal. In any case, these nationalities are Sunni which proves vividly how their understanding of religion is primitive(!). Every Farsi-speaker knows that Iranians are arrogant. But what are they proud of? Any casual talk with an Iranian immediately ends up in him/her taking refuge behind the ruins of the glorious past of Iran, the Great Syrus, Percepolice, etc. And because of this imaginary legendary past they assign themselves a higher social ranking than other Farsi-Speakers. However, Iranians ignore a crucial fact that if the past of an identity is that essential to its presence, then they should share the glory of it with other Farsi-speakers as the ancestors of Afghans and Tajiks played a great role in constructing the Persian identity. There is no Persia imaginable without the legend of Samarghand and Bokhara. The trade, the literature the culture and history of Persia was partly shaped in these current impoverished and torn-between-war states. Yet, Iranians fail to recognize that since they are under influence of 200-year-old strategies and propaganda of Great Game. The power of cultural links, the common practices, the mother Farsi is faded in the shadow of grand separatist policies of both colonial powers and colonial-dependant governments. Thus, I believe that the constructed alienation in the region is the inheritance of colonialism.

So if Britain has been the supporter of separatist cultural policies why it has traversed them to a unifying policy in the region by creating BBC Persian?

In the next post we will discuss the revival of Persian identity.

References:

1)   Johnson, Robert, The Great Game in Central and South Asia, 1757-1947 2006, London: Greenhill.

2)    Hopkirk, Peter , The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, 1992, London: Kodansha International.

* Maps were taken from the Internet

BBC Persian and the 200-year-old Project of Subject-Making (1)

1) On the popularity of BBC Persian

BBC Persian - 5pm to 1am

The arrival of BBC Persian TV in January 2009 was not an insignificant media event for Farsi speakers around the world. There were many Farsi satellite channels which had started working with the aim of providing an alternative to IRIN TV in Iran, an alternative for its cultural, political and social principles. However, they do not seem to be successful in fulfilling this aim as these America’s funded channels such as VOA, Tapesh, MBC Persia; etc (yes, they are many) have fallen into another type of stereotypes at the other end of spectrum. They advocate Westernization of all aspect of culture through a wide range of programs imitated from American channels. It cannot be easily ignored that these channels manifest their perplexity on the matter of their general strategy. In fact they are very confused about what an alternative to IRIN could be. What they show has attracted a portion of Iranian middle class who take the Western world as the ultimate and only possible Utopia. On the other hand, they have repelled a large group of audience who support committed modernized media who would protect and nourish their cultural principles through moderate modification. The America’s funded channels lack the attraction of a progressive media in any respect.
To take an example I remember a VOA program called “Contemporary Woman” in which the presenter talked about many political and social issues and ignored the supposed subject of the program “Contemporary Woman”. The program had fallen into cliché type of analysis whereby anything done by or through IRI is wrong, injustice and fanatic whereas anything not done by them is fair, excellent and appropriate. The presenter clearly intended to sketch a model for supposedly miserable Iranian women living in IRI while she herself and the design of the program seriously lacked the sophistication required to attract middle class Iranians. These channels indirectly humiliate the Farsi speakers.

Contemporary Woman - VOA

It was in this atmosphere of dissatisfaction, distrust and ignorance that BBC Persia went on air and immediately turned to the alternative that American-Farsi channels once wished to be. The channel funded by British taxpayers has many attractions for its target audience.

Firstly, it clearly has a defined strategy. News, analysis and different type of programmes all are vividly produced in the direction of grand strategies. There is no sign of perplexity especially in the general political strategies of the channel. It is not difficult to realize there is a unified, coherent and planned perspective who runs the production point. Anyone following the news will realize that BBC Persian is a conservative TV that seeks to maintain its ties to IRI. That could partly be the reason why it has chosen a more journalistic approach than VOA which focuses more on standpoints of opposition groups and dissidents abroad. BBC Persian is careful not to become an opposition TV.

Secondly, the channel resorts to the familiar and typical BBC strategies when it deals with controversial issues. These issues are not discussed in subjective and open ways. Sensitive debates are approached in a rather indirect and seemingly objective ways. In the case of problematic topics the TV attempts to step aside and assumes that it is not intervening in the situation while in fact it is running the show. I witness a funny example of it last week. “Your Turn” is the name of a program where Farsi-speakers from all around the world including Iran phone in and express their point of view on the subject chosen. This time the topic was “Is it right to have sex before marriage?” Anyone coming or living in Farsi-speaking world knows that it is an absolutely sensitive issue which engages the speakers not with culture and tradition but also with the clear verdict of religion. It is obvious that if BBC had produced a documentary on the topic, an analysis program where they speak with their “experts” (who are these experts? Where do they get their authority as experts?), it would loose the trust of a large proportion of its audience as they assume that BBC had attempted to impose Western lifestyle. However, BBC did advocate its view on the matter of sex before marriage but through an indirect way. “Your turn” claims that it gives a chance to every voice but eventually it is clear who is represented as the progressive, fair and wise one. I watched this program with some friends who as far as I know all have the experience of sex before marriage. Nevertheless, we found it problematic that a channel funded by British taxpayers is actually teaching us what lifestyle would be better to follow and as we are truly known as the subversive generation against any authority (in this case the authority attempts to buy our support through hypocritical approaches rather than a fair and clear discussion) we made fun of the naïve callers and the robot-like presenter who did his best to look impartial.
Thus, I would like to say that one of the main functions of BBC Persian is to earn the lost trust of Iranian audience (in this case not the general Farsi speakers); the valuable trust that has been absent since two hundred years ago ensued the time of so-called “Great Game”.

Thirdly, it should be considered that the Internet users in Iran are limited to nearly 17 million (nearly 20% of the population) who mostly live in the industrial cities. Whereas the reference to the satellite channels is more common as nearly 65% of Iranians own a satellite dish and a receiver. Thus, it is not difficult to see why the arrival of the TV created excitement and absorbed that silent proportion of Iranian audience which do not have the access to the net nor are intrested in IRIN TV or American-Farsi channels.

Fourthly, BBC Persian channel has opened a door to the fast-changing and shining world of contemporary media. There are strands on music, art, culture, science, technology, sport and a documentary showcase. I gradually realized that this aspect of the TV has more viewers than news and discussions. There are many new arrivals on the cultural scenes who seeks representation, who look for a chance to be recognized, debated and evaluated. And at the consumption point there are many people who strive to hear about new cultural events, new music, books, plays, recent hi-tech developments, emergence of new media and the phenomenon in the internet. IRIN is incapable of searching, recognizing and introducing new, young and talented voices in the cultural domain. Partly because it is generally conservative and skeptical about anything new and partly because it does not intend to share power with the other levels of society through endowing the chance of being represented. Moreover, IRIN TV is not furnished with modern graphic design while there are many good designers who would love to work for the national TV. My sister who is a new comer into the design industry entertains herself everyday by carefully looking IRIN programs and making ridicule of their repetitive, backward, dull and almost pervert designs. Then she thinks about a replacement or an alternative for the embaressing design. Hence, I believe one of the main attractions of BBC Persian TV is the fact that intelligently it has step into the rift IRIN TV has produced and attempts to address the lack. The shortcomings of IRIN and generally the cultural policies of IRI has brought into light now. The revolutionary government has not been able to create a novel cultural model which would be capable of competing with the fast-changing world of global media. It has not been able to shape and define a model identity which would secure its subjects from the hegemony of Liberal Democracy. It has not been able to satisfy the voyeuristic desires of its viewer in an innovative and productive way.

However, The arrival of a rival TV has put the dominance of IRIN into question. IRI, which successfully suppressed the attempts of a national private TV in the last decade, is now confronted with audience who has new expectations. At least we can name one fruitful aspects of BBC Persian for Iranian viewers: in a long run it will put pressure on IRIN to open up a space for a hybrid national TV.

My Imaginary Love, You the Top Prostitute … (2)

I've got it all by Tracy Emin

1)

This time it is my other sister and I in the street. We are going to a formal meeting so we were careful about the code of dressing and aren’t casual. We have put on nice cloths. We are waiting for a taxi. Now an elegant black Prado approaches us and flashes its light right into our faces.  It slows down and we can hear the voice of the driver: Where would you ladies like to go? I don’t turn to the window and continue looking straight ahead of me, at the street. But I can sense how uncomfortable my sister is as she is nervously moving her hands. The driver tries more: You don’t look like shy girls, come on, name your place. My sister can’t stand it anymore: Why don’t you go to hell alone, rubbish? I take my sister’s arm and move a few meters away while saying calm down. We hear another man’s voice from the car: That’s a familiar game … but we can afford any price, don’t worry. They laugh. My sister shouts: filthy rubbishes and I complete it with a threat: If you don’t go away right now I write down you car’s number and call the police. Get lost now! They laugh more and say: Wooooow! How scary! We are frightened! My sister continues swearing and I bring out my mobile dialling 110 (police emergency call). I know it is no use as the police is just other men doing the same game with their police cars but I move to the front of the car to see the number. At this point, the car moves. I can see the men inside. They are three. The driver says: ugly fat dwarf!  We stopped because we pity you miserable, otherwise who do you think you are? Go back to your parent’s bed. The other one says with a smile: Oh, don’t be unkind to these young girls. They just need some time to grow up and be a proper woman. Then they go.

That is not a good start for our day. Two or three other cars pass while they flash their lights into our faces. In one of these cars the man next to the driver while passing shouts: Oh, wish to eat your sexy sunglasses.

My sister nervously says: What’s wrong with my sunglasses? I say nothing. It’s not even a chic expensive fashionable one. Silence. Then she says: Is there anything wrong with us? Have we dressed badly?

-I don’t think so.

-So why are we mistaken with street women? What is prostitute-like about us? Once more I look more closely to what we have put on. The only unusual thing is that we don’t wear black or dark colours.  We’ve grown up is a society where black was the only officially acceptable and normal colour. We wore black uniforms in the school for 12 years apart from 1980s when wearing black Chador was compulsory even for kids. So we define ourselves against it. We all wear light and bright colours, or as my youngest sister does we wear unmatched screaming colours, hoping to gratify our aesthetic senses, to make a difference and revolt against the hegemony of Islamic fascism.

So we might look nice and different but is it equal to prostitution? The reason for this misrecognition opens up another debate about how women are watched and received in the streets of Tehran.  Repetitive incidents as described demonstrate the general belief that an attractive and dressed up woman makes this illusion that she is in fact on a stage doing her best performance to absorb men. The only reason men can think of for a woman to make herself pleasant is to sexually attract men. Men assume themselves as the only addressee and the ultimate target of woman’s appealing appearance. Would women have any other purpose for carefully selecting clothes? Could any other reason, personal desire, story or memories be possibly involved when I choose a colour, especial pair of shoe or a scarf than to please men? No, for the men in the streets -particularly if they are empowered by being in a car either expensive or cheap- we only signify one concept: sexual pleasure.

2)

The fact that woman are regarded and graded according to their stereotypical sexual appeal (which is the norm of brothels), is not limited to the street encounters. In the last decade I have been fearfully witnessing the growing trend between young men to recognise this gradation as the standard for evaluating all type of women.  To the extend that looking for woman (the way that my sister and I were treated) is called “flower excursion” (gol-gasht) and there are neighbourhoods mostly uptown and westernized ones which have gained exciting reputation for the top women (according to brothel standards) they offer. Men overtly and shamelessly boast with this excursion even in the presence of educated, ordinary and not streets women in order to intensify their sex appeal.

For a long time I had this idea that this type of idealisation of woman is related to our discriminating education. For instance, if we had co-educational system, where men and women had the chance to get to know the Other sex in everyday encounters, the dominance of obsessional sexual phantasies (which manifests itself in the image of the professional prostitute) would be reduced.  But socializing with foreigners in Tehran has convinced me that the problem has a different source.

Here we are in a recently open, chic, uptown coffee shop where wireless facilities provide the opportunity for the polished customers to show off their Macs. I meet foreign travellers talking with a group of Iranians. I try to open up a conversation with a Dutch student named A as I’m interested to know how he has found Iran. While his gaze slides between my face and the two other Iranian women next to me, he says: I arrived Iran expecting to see deserts and camels and people in their traditional dresses. When I got out of the airport and saw highways and cars I was very shocked. The two young women next to me giggle. He continues: We passed through modern streets and saw women and men in ordinary dresses and went to a flat of my acquaintance, which had nothing less than our flats in Amsterdam. I didn’t expect that at all. I had prepared myself to be disconnected from modern world totally. But here everyone has mobile phone, there’s wireless in cafés…

I’ve heard this re-discovery tale of Mideast from many foreigners so its no new story to me but the two women next to me laugh and mumble something like how nice! Now A just fixes his gaze on them impolitely ignoring the fact that it was me who has initiated the talk and says: Yes, and that night even though I was exhausted because of the flight, I went out with some Iranian guys on their cars and they started to follow a car full of girls and once we reached them they taught me to say (here he slides his fingers through his blond hair and tries to mimic the Farsi expression with the relevant flirtatious gesture) Jigaret-o-bokhoram! (a very vulgar joking expression meaning “I want to eat your heart”). Seeing my shock, he adds that at the time he knew nothing about the meaning of the expression.

I rather find it very difficult to believe that a European man with such a primitive knowledge about this country trusts Iranian men on the first night of arrival and mimics what they ask him to do without knowing the meaning. But the young Iranian women do not have any problem with the story and encourage him to tell more. It turns out that the foreigners have no ethical consideration to join the so-called flower excursion.

The appalling reaction of some of young Iranian women aside (which we will discuss and analyse soon in another post), from this and many similar encounters I learnt that education has little to do with the current type of idealisation of women. If education could sketch a less obsessively sexual picture of women, the educational system of Nederland and generally Scandinavia, which are well- known, admired and modelled for their progressive gender policies even in Europe, would have been more successful with A and his the like. Their male subjects would have believed more firmly in their ethics of sexual difference.

3)

This type of idealisation of women has come about as a result of the drastic changes in the relations of production in the market since mid 1990s in Iran when the privatisation of economics turned to the absolute necessity of the market. When the pressure of war was lifted up the market opened its doors to the new type of trade. Over a quick period of time conventional relations of the market were replaced with what is called the rules of development. In this process everything turned to an object for sale. By this I don’t mean that before the recent development women were living in heaven and were not observed as an object of exchange. The traditional and religious conception of womanhood was nothing to be nostalgic about. What we have witnessed is that the conventional objectification of women (which was protected by its own social practices, definitions and limits) has been replaced with harsh and excessively demanding type of exchange that does not recognise any limitations and makes both parties ever more ungratified and hysteric.

The situation reminds me of an infamous Farsi expression I had heard in my teenage years, that “Iranian men desire and look for a women who even the sun and the moon has not seen her (a trope for saying she is that ultimate virgin who no hands had experienced her body) but would like her to perform like a skilled porno star in the bed”.  During that time the feminine body was regarded as an object which had a past, which bore a sign of possession or not.  The feminine body had a history (although a cliché and suppressed one), which was important to know. Now in the monstrously expanding Islamic capitalism, the feminine body is reduced to the state of a memory-less entity. The men who kindly flirt in the streets, pay for our occasional expensive food or a pleasant trip do not care about who we are, what our past is, how many men we slept with, how we were hurt before, what the meaning of pleasureis for us, what our dream is, etc. Are our pain, our defeats, our thoughts and experiences important at all? No one would make a question to avoid listening. This part of our identity is not related to men. No virgin is required anymore. Instead, they demand us now to dress, flirt, behave and have sex like a professional “proper women”. Only that part of our identity is interesting which makes the competition in the market more exciting, like our location in this economical hierarchy according to our class or racial background, our careers, our social connections … in other words the pretentious social persona we put on to marketize ourselves. This is something no Scandinavian progressive gender education can compete with as the cost of feminine object is more affordable in this country and no social institution protests against the harsh objectification of feminine body and no tradition has remained to even conventionally protect women.

Here I’m in one of these recently opened glowing shopping centres, which have grown like poisoned mushrooms all over Tehran even in the impoverished neighbourhoods. I go to a boutique and ask to see closely a top in the display window. The two salesmen take the pleasure of sliding their gaze from my face to my breast, then my waist, then my legs and feet and return back to my face shamelessly. While I’m looking at the top I pretend I don’t notice the gaze. I ask the price. One of them says: whatever you would like to pay. I ask again. He flirtingly says the price. I think the amount of exchange value is ridiculous considering the simplicity of the top. I say: Don’t you think this top is too simple for such a price?

- Look at the brand my dear. It is blob blob, produced in blob blob, I imported it two weeks ago from Dubai. Don’t hesitate its ORIGINAL. But if you are still hesitant you can take it as a gift.

As usual I don’t get the meaning of the offer. I say: I don’t want to gift it. I want it for myself and it is unreasonably too much. He smiley says: I mean you take it as a gift from me.

I now understand. I want to ignore what I heard and leave but remember what my mother always tells me: Don’t remain passive. Don’t remain silent. Don’t remain defeated. You can’t change their mentality but you can make situation difficult. You can scare them. Do something to always remember you, so the next time they are doing this to another women they will be hesitant, they will be fearful.

Oh mother, this is not the first time I am disappointing you. You know that I am not a confrontational person. I just lift up the top with two fingers looking into the eyes of the salesman. I say: What makes you think I’m interested in your gift? I am out. All shops are shining, there’s this artificial scent in the air. At least I can write about it. Out in the streets I see the summer’s sharp sunlight on the trees and the edges of expensive cars parked around.  There is a war going on. We should take up a stance.