8 ms·

All these politics and political games are such a shame. The Tehran that the author describes seems like a really vibrant city that I'd really like to visit and

by maverick2007 7y ago

All these politics and political games are such a shame. The Tehran that the author describes seems like a really vibrant city that I'd really like to visit and experience. But I never will for fear or something like this happening, becoming some tiny pawn in a much bigger game. And I wish that Iranians could come to the US and visit NYC or SF and see our culture. Then we might realize that the other side is something more than the strawman that media or government portrays them as.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
MisterTea 7y ago
I once went on google maps and looked around Tehran. I found pizza shops and other very familiar things. I sat there with same conclusion: we're not that different. just trained to hate each other because a bunch of megalomaniacs want more power and money.
- selimthegrim 7y ago
  Ask a Baha’i that.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  They have the largest bookshop in the world: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/worlds-largest-bookshop-opens-tehran/ http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/worlds-largest-...
- TomVDB 7y ago
  There was this British guy who drove from Beijing back home on a Honda C90 moped. His video about Iran is heartwarming. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
  - zenmaster10665 7y ago
    awesome vid - thanks
  - smortaz 7y ago
    Hah. Came to post the same video :). He didn’t actually visit a lot of the “beautiful” parts of the country, but it does paint a good picture of the peoples’ attitudes (even in really harsh economic times under a brutal regime)
yodsanklai 7y ago
> And I wish that Iranians could come to the US and visit NYC or SF and see our culture Plenty of Iranians live in the US or western countries.
- maverick2007 7y ago
  Sure, that's definitely true but I'm just saying that this same thing happens going the other way too. There was actually just an story about it the other day. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/us/michigan-iranian-student-detained/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/us/michigan-iranian-student-d... So maybe I should've said that I wish more Iranians could come to our country safely and easily.
  - madengr 7y ago
    There is a big difference between being denied entry (to the USA) and being held for interrogation (in Iran).
ljm 7y ago
I really recommend watching Persepolis.
Centigonal 7y ago
Tehran is a beautiful city with a wide range of smart, compassionate, cool people. My cousin in Tehran introduced me to games like Counterstrike, Grim Fandango, and Battlefield, which got me into PC gaming, which got me into open source game scripting. We spent a few summers in Tehran, and there was this electronics bazaar called Paytakht[1] that I'd always beg my mom to take me to. They had everything from motherboards and CPUs to cracked versions of Photoshop to iPhone screen repairs. Cosmopolitan Iranians are stuck in a strange situation: a majority resent the current regime for a litany of reasons (repressing religious minorities in Iran, regressive attitudes toward women, corruption, economic stagnation and inflation, the list goes on) - but they also resent the US and UK governments for denying them a chance at being a secular democracy[2]. They don't want to be the next Iraq, or the next Libya, or the next Afghanistan, either. OTOH, because of this conflict between the people and their government, many Iranians see a country's actions as not representative of the sentiments of its people. This (plus Iran's hospitality culture) is why, despite the political tensions, Americans generally get treated very well in Iran. It's also likely why most people the author of this article interacted with treat him with an air of "I'm sorry, it's not personal." When it comes to Islamic fundamentalism in Tehran, only a vocal minority's hearts are really in it. [1] Still exists! https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/width960/38765094_bQrfJdryG7ppyQEem3ADlXqpzmdXQWDmB4Lix_l9H6I.jpg https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/width960/38765094_bQrfJd... [2] If you want to understand US/Iran relations at all, you need to know about the 1953 coup and its after-effects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...
- albroland 7y ago
  This mirrors my experience when I visited: incredibly hospitable, polite, and outgoing people. As a US passport holder with no relation to Iran or Israel, it was easy enough to visit, although you are under the watch of your state-sanctioned minder the entire time as the author eluded to. Going through immigration on arrival, I was detained for about an hour while they presumably were examining my documents, but every encounter I had with police was fairly cordial if not a bit unprofessional. Once inside, it is indeed a vibrant place. Tehran has a booming nightlife, and outside the gaze of the religious police people were living quite freely (especially in the Armenian or jewish communities). It seems they go to great lengths to do everything as privately as possible, as to not attract the attention of the morality police, allowing them to save face. Young people were quite adamantly secular, and apologetic for their theocratic government. You definitely get the impression that citizens feel the government doesn't represent them at all. I'm not sure I plan on returning, but I'd certainly encourage curious people to visit as there is a lot worth seeing.
trenning 7y ago
It's really unfortunate there are even Iranian athletes who can't get visas to come here and compete.
gfodor 7y ago
I can't think of any examples where people in the US have erroneously conflated the Iranian public and government in recent times. That seems like a strawman. The green revolution a few years ago had widespread support in the US. The recent pushback against the regime in the days following the recent soleimani killing should have led to more support from the public in the US. Sadly, since doing so would 'align' them with Trump's anti-regime rhetoric, many people who so eagerly donned green avatars on Twitter many years ago decided to stay silent and ignore it. I don't think people in the US think of the regime and public as the same entity, but I do think that the US's public support of Iran's counter-regime forces will be fickle as long as Trump supports those forces.
- maverick2007 7y ago
  I was mostly speaking from my own experience earlier in my life. I was raised on pretty much exclusively conservative media for the first 18 years of my life and I would've sworn up and down that every or at the very least the majority of Iranians not only hated the US but went into the streets and chanted "death to America". I'll admit that a lot of this naivety is the result of youth but I think you might be surprised that a lot of US citizens still believe what I used to.
- chris11 7y ago
  I disagree. I haven't heard anyone in the US say Soleimani was a good person. The liberal viewpoint is that killing him was an act of war, and there's no interest in war with Iran. Other complaints include a general belief that the killing made us less safe. Nobody knew what the short-term impact would be, and the long term impact is unknown. Also, increased tensions with Iran before the killing were directly caused by Trump's foreign policy, and the lack of communication and process involved in the killing meant we lost international support for future actions against Iran.
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    The simplest explanation is that Qasem Soleimani beat ISIS. ISIS was a long-term project of the military-industrial complex, by which they looted a great deal of money from USA taxpayers. Had ISIS existed as a "credible threat" for a longer time, they could have looted more. So, MIC hated Soleimani. Nearly everyone in Washington is on MIC payroll, so very few of them could voice an authentic criticism of the assassination.
benbreen 7y ago
I'm an American citizen and visited Iran back 2017 with no problems. I was nervous about getting questioned but surprisingly, it turned out to be one of the smoothest border crossings I've ever experienced - when entering Iran and the US I literally got no questions at all. (Getting an Iranian entry visa as an American without a government minder was bit trickier, but I was also pleasantly surprised by how smoothly that went - they even wrote me a check to reimburse me for a priority processing fee that didn't end up being necessary, which was a first). That said - 2017 was, in retrospect, a pretty easy time to visit Iran, and I wouldn't risk it now given the events of the last few months. But I very much hope to be able to go back. I can confirm what several others here are saying - Tehran is a cosmopolitan, fascinating city, and Iranians are wonderful, on the whole. Some of the biggest surprises for me were 1) the religious and cultural pluralism on display - I saw Zoroastrian temples, synagogues, and plenty of churches (with the prominent exception of Bahá'i, who are forced to live in the shadows). Not to mention that the vast majority of Iranians I talked to about religion were on the atheist-agnostic spectrum, although they participate in religious holidays and customs in much the same way that my lapsed Catholic family did when I was growing up. 2) How much Iranians like American culture, and how connected they are to it by friends and family who live in the US. I knew this from before, of course, but it was surreal to be, say, talking to an older couple in a tiny provincial village and end up discussing their favorite taquerias in Orange County (that really happened to me). Or the kids in a mall who insisted on taking a bunch of selfies with me when they found out I was from the US. Anyway, I found the whole trip to be extraordinary and came away from it convinced that, on the level of culture and society if not our current governments, Americans and Iranians are natural allies. I hope for a future where that can happen.
- cowboysauce 7y ago
  > Getting an Iranian entry visa as an American without a government minder was bit trickier How did you manage that? I thought that it was required for American citizens to have a tour guide with them at all times. Did you get some sort of non-tourist visa that allowed that to happen?
- wolco 7y ago
  Until 1979 they were. As quick as it changed it could change back if the poltical pressures change. All it would take would be Iran/Israel making peace which would push the Saudis into the bad guys role.
gherkinnn 7y ago
Tehran is a mostly awful place. The traffic and air pollution are something else. Though it is interesting and worth visiting. Cities in the south and northwest are more pleasurable. Take places like Shiraz, Tabriz (to name a few common examples) for example. They are something to behold! And in the north, squished between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz mountains, you will even find temperate rain forests.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

MisterTea 7y ago

I once went on google maps and looked around Tehran. I found pizza shops and other very familiar things. I sat there with same conclusion: we're not that different. just trained to hate each other because a bunch of megalomaniacs want more power and money.

selimthegrim 7y ago
Ask a Baha’i that.
tonyedgecombe 7y ago
They have the largest bookshop in the world: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/worlds-largest-bookshop-opens-tehran/ http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/worlds-largest-...
TomVDB 7y ago
There was this British guy who drove from Beijing back home on a Honda C90 moped. His video about Iran is heartwarming. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
- zenmaster10665 7y ago
  awesome vid - thanks
- smortaz 7y ago
  Hah. Came to post the same video :). He didn’t actually visit a lot of the “beautiful” parts of the country, but it does paint a good picture of the peoples’ attitudes (even in really harsh economic times under a brutal regime)

yodsanklai 7y ago

> And I wish that Iranians could come to the US and visit NYC or SF and see our culture Plenty of Iranians live in the US or western countries.

maverick2007 7y ago
Sure, that's definitely true but I'm just saying that this same thing happens going the other way too. There was actually just an story about it the other day. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/us/michigan-iranian-student-detained/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/us/michigan-iranian-student-d... So maybe I should've said that I wish more Iranians could come to our country safely and easily.
- madengr 7y ago
  There is a big difference between being denied entry (to the USA) and being held for interrogation (in Iran).

ljm 7y ago

I really recommend watching Persepolis.

Centigonal 7y ago

Tehran is a beautiful city with a wide range of smart, compassionate, cool people. My cousin in Tehran introduced me to games like Counterstrike, Grim Fandango, and Battlefield, which got me into PC gaming, which got me into open source game scripting. We spent a few summers in Tehran, and there was this electronics bazaar called Paytakht[1] that I'd always beg my mom to take me to. They had everything from motherboards and CPUs to cracked versions of Photoshop to iPhone screen repairs. Cosmopolitan Iranians are stuck in a strange situation: a majority resent the current regime for a litany of reasons (repressing religious minorities in Iran, regressive attitudes toward women, corruption, economic stagnation and inflation, the list goes on) - but they also resent the US and UK governments for denying them a chance at being a secular democracy[2]. They don't want to be the next Iraq, or the next Libya, or the next Afghanistan, either. OTOH, because of this conflict between the people and their government, many Iranians see a country's actions as not representative of the sentiments of its people. This (plus Iran's hospitality culture) is why, despite the political tensions, Americans generally get treated very well in Iran. It's also likely why most people the author of this article interacted with treat him with an air of "I'm sorry, it's not personal." When it comes to Islamic fundamentalism in Tehran, only a vocal minority's hearts are really in it. [1] Still exists! https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/width960/38765094_bQrfJdryG7ppyQEem3ADlXqpzmdXQWDmB4Lix_l9H6I.jpg https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/width960/38765094_bQrfJd... [2] If you want to understand US/Iran relations at all, you need to know about the 1953 coup and its after-effects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...

albroland 7y ago
This mirrors my experience when I visited: incredibly hospitable, polite, and outgoing people. As a US passport holder with no relation to Iran or Israel, it was easy enough to visit, although you are under the watch of your state-sanctioned minder the entire time as the author eluded to. Going through immigration on arrival, I was detained for about an hour while they presumably were examining my documents, but every encounter I had with police was fairly cordial if not a bit unprofessional. Once inside, it is indeed a vibrant place. Tehran has a booming nightlife, and outside the gaze of the religious police people were living quite freely (especially in the Armenian or jewish communities). It seems they go to great lengths to do everything as privately as possible, as to not attract the attention of the morality police, allowing them to save face. Young people were quite adamantly secular, and apologetic for their theocratic government. You definitely get the impression that citizens feel the government doesn't represent them at all. I'm not sure I plan on returning, but I'd certainly encourage curious people to visit as there is a lot worth seeing.

trenning 7y ago

It's really unfortunate there are even Iranian athletes who can't get visas to come here and compete.

gfodor 7y ago

I can't think of any examples where people in the US have erroneously conflated the Iranian public and government in recent times. That seems like a strawman. The green revolution a few years ago had widespread support in the US. The recent pushback against the regime in the days following the recent soleimani killing should have led to more support from the public in the US. Sadly, since doing so would 'align' them with Trump's anti-regime rhetoric, many people who so eagerly donned green avatars on Twitter many years ago decided to stay silent and ignore it. I don't think people in the US think of the regime and public as the same entity, but I do think that the US's public support of Iran's counter-regime forces will be fickle as long as Trump supports those forces.

maverick2007 7y ago
I was mostly speaking from my own experience earlier in my life. I was raised on pretty much exclusively conservative media for the first 18 years of my life and I would've sworn up and down that every or at the very least the majority of Iranians not only hated the US but went into the streets and chanted "death to America". I'll admit that a lot of this naivety is the result of youth but I think you might be surprised that a lot of US citizens still believe what I used to.
chris11 7y ago
I disagree. I haven't heard anyone in the US say Soleimani was a good person. The liberal viewpoint is that killing him was an act of war, and there's no interest in war with Iran. Other complaints include a general belief that the killing made us less safe. Nobody knew what the short-term impact would be, and the long term impact is unknown. Also, increased tensions with Iran before the killing were directly caused by Trump's foreign policy, and the lack of communication and process involved in the killing meant we lost international support for future actions against Iran.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  The simplest explanation is that Qasem Soleimani beat ISIS. ISIS was a long-term project of the military-industrial complex, by which they looted a great deal of money from USA taxpayers. Had ISIS existed as a "credible threat" for a longer time, they could have looted more. So, MIC hated Soleimani. Nearly everyone in Washington is on MIC payroll, so very few of them could voice an authentic criticism of the assassination.

benbreen 7y ago

I'm an American citizen and visited Iran back 2017 with no problems. I was nervous about getting questioned but surprisingly, it turned out to be one of the smoothest border crossings I've ever experienced - when entering Iran and the US I literally got no questions at all. (Getting an Iranian entry visa as an American without a government minder was bit trickier, but I was also pleasantly surprised by how smoothly that went - they even wrote me a check to reimburse me for a priority processing fee that didn't end up being necessary, which was a first). That said - 2017 was, in retrospect, a pretty easy time to visit Iran, and I wouldn't risk it now given the events of the last few months. But I very much hope to be able to go back. I can confirm what several others here are saying - Tehran is a cosmopolitan, fascinating city, and Iranians are wonderful, on the whole. Some of the biggest surprises for me were 1) the religious and cultural pluralism on display - I saw Zoroastrian temples, synagogues, and plenty of churches (with the prominent exception of Bahá'i, who are forced to live in the shadows). Not to mention that the vast majority of Iranians I talked to about religion were on the atheist-agnostic spectrum, although they participate in religious holidays and customs in much the same way that my lapsed Catholic family did when I was growing up. 2) How much Iranians like American culture, and how connected they are to it by friends and family who live in the US. I knew this from before, of course, but it was surreal to be, say, talking to an older couple in a tiny provincial village and end up discussing their favorite taquerias in Orange County (that really happened to me). Or the kids in a mall who insisted on taking a bunch of selfies with me when they found out I was from the US. Anyway, I found the whole trip to be extraordinary and came away from it convinced that, on the level of culture and society if not our current governments, Americans and Iranians are natural allies. I hope for a future where that can happen.

cowboysauce 7y ago
> Getting an Iranian entry visa as an American without a government minder was bit trickier How did you manage that? I thought that it was required for American citizens to have a tour guide with them at all times. Did you get some sort of non-tourist visa that allowed that to happen?
wolco 7y ago
Until 1979 they were. As quick as it changed it could change back if the poltical pressures change. All it would take would be Iran/Israel making peace which would push the Saudis into the bad guys role.

gherkinnn 7y ago

Tehran is a mostly awful place. The traffic and air pollution are something else. Though it is interesting and worth visiting. Cities in the south and northwest are more pleasurable. Take places like Shiraz, Tabriz (to name a few common examples) for example. They are something to behold! And in the north, squished between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz mountains, you will even find temperate rain forests.