Iran rediscovers value of Persian roots
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Over the weekend, Iran hosted the presidents of Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
and Turkmenistan to celebrate Nowruz, the ancient Persian new year marking the
first day of spring that is celebrated by some 300 million people around the
world who together form an important cultural bloc.
Both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad
used the occasion to emphasize the importance of Nowruz in fostering a global
climate of peace and cooperation. In light of a recent United Nations General
Assembly resolution marking March 21 as International Nowruz Day, Iran has now
set its eyes on spreading the cause of celebrating Nowruz on an expansive
basis.
"It is a cause of joy that through collective cooperation Nowruz
became global," Ahmadinejad stated, adding that "observing Nowruz will not only
promote cultural values, but it will also help nations establish relations
based on friendship, peace, justice and respect." Iran has issued a new postage
stamp to commemorate the UN's Nowruz Day, this as part of a concerted effort to
maximize the benefits garnered by Iran's pre-Islamic heritage.
By all indications, this represents a cultural evolution in contemporary
post-revolutionary Iran dominated by the Islamist discourse. Over the past 31
years, in the complex interplay of Iran's dualistic, part Islamic, part
pre-Islamic culture, the government has prioritized the Islamic and, yet,
increasingly has discovered the trans-Iran potential of the pre-Islamic,
particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rediscovery of
cultural roots connected to Persian culture and language in certain parts of
Central Asia and the Caucasus, above all Tajikstan.
To some extent, the origin of this new "cultural offensive" by Iran should be
traced to a former president, Mohammad Khatami, and his promotion of a
"dialogue among civilizations", which inevitably implicated the Islamist
political system in a discrete re-embrace of pre-Islamic civilization, although
without ever losing the priority given to Islam.
In contrast, although Ahmadinejad, Khatami's successor, has not continued his
civilizational discourse, signs are emerging that as a result of both the
national unifying cause as well as external dividends, Iran is devoting greater
energy to "Persianist" cultural values, including by promoting tourism of
numerous ancient sites, holding international conferences and seminars to
celebrate the poet Hakim Abu'l-Qasim Ferdowsi (935-1020) and promoting the
Farsi language.
Given the foreign priority of maximizing the sources of pro-Iran solidarity
through whatever venues available at a critical time when Western pressure on
Iran over the nuclear crisis is intensifying, Tehran's decision to tap into
cultural values makes sense - and is bound to add to its domestic popularity as
well. The trick is to make sure the unwanted (restorationist) consequences of
glorifying the past monarchical systems are avoided. Such side-effects seem
less important today than the tangible benefits of promoting "cultural blocs"
among nations on the basis of language and culture.
On a broader level, the growing importance attached to Nowruz by Tehran is in
synergy with the globalist self-promotion of the Islamic Republic that, in the
words of Ahmadinejad, has a stake in "global management". This is tantamount to
opening a new front in the conscious pursuit of an alternative global cultural
and political "public sphere" that would not be either Western-centric or based
on Western political hegemony. Nowruz provides Iran with an important cultural
tool to refine and upgrade a cultural toolkit that for the most part has had a
rather one-dimensional focus on the global politics of Islam. Does this mean
that a restructuring of the regime's cosmopolitan identity is underway?
According to a Tehran University political scientist, the regime's identity is
"in a state of flux" and a "hybrid" that due to the recent, more energetic
embrace and application of the purely Persianist cultural values ("within set
limits of course") has become more dynamic. A more organic self-connectedness
to pre-Islamic values on the part of the Islamic Republic may be forthcoming,
depending on "several factors, one being Iran-Arab relations" that are today
marked by some tensions, above all between Iran and Saudi Arabia, says the
Tehran professor.
As a result, instead of the Organization of Islamic Conference, which is
dominated by Saudi Arabia, Iran may find that other transnational organizations
and movements, such as the Non-Aligned Movement, which is slated to be led by
Iran two years from now, may be more receptive to its globalist cultural
intentions.
An important vehicle for Iran's global promotion is the English-language
PressTV, the CNN-like news network launched by Tehran, which provides in-depth
coverage of international issues, particularly pertaining to the Occupied
Territories and the Middle East. The newly-launched network is in many ways a
work in progress that could serve the need of developing nations for
non-Western sources of news and commentaries.
Equally important for its future is to avoid the impression of being a tool of
government propaganda. This is a tall order, and PressTV has still to pass the
litmus test of a true "international network".
Together, Tehran's more spirited promotion of its basket of dual cultural
values and the network are elements of novelty in the evolutionary process of
post-revolutionary Iran.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New
Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) . For his Wikipedia entry,
click here. His
latest book,
Reading In Iran Foreign Policy After September 11 (BookSurge Publishing
, October 23, 2008) is now available.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
