We are Iran [Paperback]

The book is about everything and anything Iranian. There are examples of people who voted for Ahamdianjad and their reason behind it, in their own words. There are Islamists and ayatollahs and their toil for a fairer Iran, to humanist poets and their fight against censorship before and after the revolution. The young and educated youth of Iran, who are 70% of the population. They are the future of Iran. A few years ago I had the honour of working with underprivileged youth in Iran. The way they think, their aspirations and hopes are no different to my own nephews and nieces, and we get a flavour of the aspiration of Iran’s educated youth in this book and their designs for a Iran of their own.

This book to me was ultimately about the freedom of expression. But I would have liked to see the author expand on some of the issues especially in chapter 4, in that it may leave non-Iranians with unanswered questions. I think my best compliment to this book is that as an Iranian I was consciously trying to gauge the author’s political leanings and bias and in the end I just couldn’t. But I absolutely loved it, because the quotes are so moving and intimate and the book is skilfully put together and the closest outsiders will get to the way Iranians think and feel about life and the outside world. It also offers us hope to see a people struggling for a civil society without resorting violence and war, the author depicts vividly how Iranians have had enough of all that.

A whole new generation that was not even around during the revolution 25 years ago (70% 0f Iran) is struggling against the fanatics and will in the end win.

I have just finished reading this book, and the critics of this book are factually correct…the author did not interview 60 million Iranians, and our friend from Tabriz is indeed correct, in that unmarried Afghan building workers are very underrepresented in this book. I can also reveal, having actually read the book, that there are no blogs from blessed cheesemakers explaining the joys and difficulties of making cheese in today’s Iran. But I don’t think the book is the poorer for it.

If our Tabrizi friend is really worried about this, he could publish a periodical to reveal his in depth insight in to the feelings of young unmarried Afghan building workers. But newspaper publishers don’t seem to have a long shelf life in Iran lately. Maybe as he has a computer, it might be safer to start a blog and address this imbalance in the blogesphere?

Yes, by selecting blogs as a source, the book can not be 100% proportionally representative of every Iranian thought. People who can’t read, don’t have a computer, cheesemakers etc.

But that doesn’t make the book less insightful or less unique. What is the next best thing to really reflecting the thoughts of Iranians then? Friday prayer speeches? Deluded CIA funded royalist satellite stations?

For me this book is the most insightful revelation of ANY society I have read. It’s not the view of one or two political analysts, politicians or academics. It really is a slice through all sections of society in Iran that keep a blog. Which is why, short of finding a 60 million page book with an interview on each page you will not get a better glimpse of Iran from any other source that I have seen.

But it is much more than that. It’s about people anywhere and how they experience life, but it just happens to be Iran. But because it is written by Iranians they are more revealing, more poetic and more moving than an average emotionally constipated teenager who has grown up in a more affluent environment. I don’t think I made it through many chapters with dry eyes.

To the critics who haven’t read this book, I would say read the book. You might be surprised to realise that your views are actually represented and at the same time find out what your neighbour is really thinking when he gets home from Friday prayers.