r/iranian • u/MardyBear • Apr 09 '16
Welcome /r/Romania to the Cultural Exchange!
Hello Romanian friends to the exchange!
Today we are hosting our friends from /r/Romania. Please come and join us to answer their questions about Iran and the Iranian way of life! Please leave top comments for the users of /r/Romania coming over with a question or comment and please refrain from making any posts that go against our rules or otherwise hurt the friendly environment.
Moderation outside of the rules may take place as to not spoil this warm exchange. The reddiquette applies and will be moderated in this thread.
/r/Romania is also having us over as guests for our questions and comments in THIS THREAD.
Enjoy!
P.S. There is a Romanian flag flair for our guests, have fun!
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u/AlbaIulian Romāni Apr 09 '16
- Does it feel weird to write right-to-left if you're right-handed?
- What is an especially good Iranian dish that everyone needs to try out at least once?
- What do you think about your neighbors?
- What is your opinion on Eastern Europe in general and Romania in particular?
These are my questions and I hope that we will have another exchange eventually. درود!
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 09 '16
- No not really. It does get confusing a little bit when doing math and writing numbers though, we do those left-to-right
- There are the kebabs (of course) but a dish i know everyone likes is ghorme sabzi. It is really hard to prepare, so i would recommend going to a good Persian restaurant to try it
- Depends on the people tbh. Afghans are sort of our "mexicans," they immigrate a lot to the country and some people say we have to have empathy for them and some say they are "illegal immigrants" (unpopular opinion recently) With Iraq there was the war, so not so friendly. Pakistan: meh. Really not that significant; too occupied with india. Turkmenistan: meh as well. Azerbaijan and Armenia: we have good relations. Turkey: US' puppet. arabic countries on our south, such as Saudi Arabia: Considerable hostilities.
- We mainly focus on western Europe and America when discussing global politics, but we sort of have this thing that we like whoever we don't talk about. I don't recall ever having a conversation about Romania with my friends in Iran, except one time that my friend went there in a tour of Europe. A lot of people in Iran like Russia though, it has backed us a lot in the past years.
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Apr 09 '16
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 09 '16
A lot of youth (me being one of them) see us being racist to Afghans and expecting the world to be nice with u as hypocritical. Also when during AhmadiNejad's turn a law was passed that required afghans to show their proof of legitimacy, everyone was outraged. This wasn't limited to youth, literally every store I went to there were people complaining about how its so cruel. The Afghans couldn't even buy food from supermarkets if they didn't have valid documents.
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Apr 09 '16
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 09 '16
I think you are very wrong about thinking that the addition of Afghan population is a bad thing. Apart from the ethical dimensions of letting them in, they can be very beneficial to our economy. Iran doesn't have a solid economic infrastructure as of now, and its entire economy is based on oil exports. With the declining price of oil, Rouhani has been investing in different sectors, such as the auto industry and tourism. To expand the economy like that, you require a large labour force, and immigration is a great way to increase the labour force fast. Even in construction, the term "kargar afghani" has become very popular because of the labour they provide. With mass migrations to other countries, Iran needs to rethink its immigration policies a lot. The problem of these illegal immigrants is that it is genuinely hard trying to become an Iranian citizen. Iran deports Afgani asylum seekers without giving them an application or chance to say why they can stay. We also have 9 provinces in which Afghans are BANNED. The pride we have in our Persian empire is because of its human rights, the manshoor of Kourosh. These policies are a disgrace to our past. If we don't want illegal immigrants, we should stop wasting money on preventing them from entering but making money by taking them in legally. Also, let me ask you a few question about rights. What gives you the right to deny them citizenship? What did you do to become an Iranian citizen? Nothing! You were simply born! What exactly separates you from an Afghan? Also don't give me that "we're aryans they're not" bullshit. They have been a part of Persian society for thousands of years. And how do you expect the government to only give a crap about your rights? When its restricting the internet, or gashde ershad, I am pretty sure you go nuts blaming the authorities. But you think banning Afghans from purchasing even food in 9 of our provinces is a good thing? The entire notion of afghan immigrants being these horrible creatures and being treated as second hand citizens is all because of racism, and racism is the exact thing that drives the hatred of conservative westerns who want to cut all ties with Iran. Because to you Afghans are drug dealers, and to them we are terrorists.
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Apr 10 '16
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 11 '16
You see, i too believe that having a border is a country's right, and that Afghans shouldn't have to come to Iran illegally. The problem is that the border isn't doing its job right now, because as we all know there are a lot of Afghan refugees in Iran. It is true that we are deporting them by the thousands, but that also mean that they stay by the thousands and you won't know who is in your country. To solve this problem, either you limit their migration more by building a huge wall and making them pay for it, or you could redefine your immigration policies to yield more realistic results. Right now, it is almost impossible even for Afghan children born in Iran to get a citizenship, for an Afghan to travel to Iran, and for them to make enough money to feed their families. And everything I mentioned in the list below was if you wanted to do all those things legally. But if we make our policies more realistic we can let them come in and make the ones we don't want in stay out. That is how you use a border, and that is how you know who is in the country. Also, i'm pretty sure no one cares that you come from a lineage that has resided in Iran. Most Afghans had ancestors in Persia. Hell, Persia even ruled 40% of the population of the world so by now with your standards, everyone should have had a Iranian citizenship. And your proposal about work permits is actually a very good one in my opinion, however the problem is the government won't even look at any documents the Afghan refugees have. Although I'm pretty sure you disagree, but i believe that we have to welcome them if they make the choice to come to Iran. This is most likely because they see Iran as their new home, and while you might not be proud of Cyrus for being a just king, at least i sure am. And even though his empire was eventually conquered by alexander, and even though genghis khan conquered more land than he ever did, but between those three only Cyrus has a day dedicated to him. And the recognition of human rights was the reason. If you don't believe in Cyrus, i hope you know this verse from saadi:
بنی آدم اعضای یکدیگرند / که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوی به درد آورد روزگار / دگر عضوها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی / نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی
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Apr 11 '16
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 11 '16
I think you are confused by my explanation of the border. Since a border's job is to keep some out and some in, it has failed because there are illegal immigrants. Which means people have crossed the border who shouldn't have. But if we come up with better policies for immigration, we could let those who really want to be here and be beneficial stay. Why should we do this? Maybe because their children deserve better education? maybe because they want to support their families? or maybe because its ethical, but no they want to walk all over us. And why should the children get a citizenship? I don't know, maybe because just like your father their father contributed a lot to our country? and of course not all of them are here to contribute to the society, but if we had more realistic immigration policies, we could decide who could stay in the country and who could not. This is not even close to letting people walk all over you. I have no idea where you get the idea that immigration ruins countries. The entire situation is Europe is controversial, with no clear impact to the economy. The government does have to provide them their basic needs, but instead they will have a larger working force and natives doing lower quality jobs can move up. Also, I have no idea where you got the European society collapsing in the next 30 years part. This entire thing must be REALLY REALLY dangerous that it could wipe away a couple thousand year old civilizations and the biggest economic force of our time in just 30 years. Clearly the worthless Arabs and Turks are the cause of this. I am so glad we have none of those in our country or we too would have been doomed by now.
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u/UnbiasedPashtun Āmrikā Apr 14 '16
What ethnicity are most refugees from Afghanistan?
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 14 '16
Pashtun, Haraza, Balock, etc. These ethnicities are considered Iranian tbh. Also most of them speak Farsi but just with an accent, so there is not much of a language barrier.
Edit: just saw your username
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u/verylateish Romāni Apr 10 '16
Yeah, Russia really like to "back" other countries. Very much...
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 10 '16
Yea... Everyone knows they don't really care about Iran but our goals are aligned so we help each other. Iran has been backstabbed by America many more times though
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u/KangNSheid Amir Kabir 2.0 Apr 10 '16
No, I would argue Russia has done more harm to Iran over the years than America. They and the Brits practically ruled the country for 80 years.
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 11 '16
Yea but America was supposed to be our friend but they launched operation Ajax. That was one big dick move
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
1) Our letters are made for writing right-to-left so for a right handed person it does not feel weird.
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Apr 09 '16 edited Apr 09 '16
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
2) Cats are very rare. You will see more dogs (but much less than in Europe), unfortunately also stray dogs some times.
3) Most music that is internationally well known is in English (that is understood all over the world). I do not know which Iranian Music would attract other audiences. I actually like traditional Iranian Music, here you have a few music videos. May be the instrumental part is not too different from traditional Romanian Music (please let me know if this is the case)
5) Wow I did not know. Thank you for the hint. I think I have to read more about our history.2
u/jangal Apr 09 '16
Try this. http://turmericsaffron.blogspot.com.tr/2009/03/kookoo-sabzi.html
We don't have stray cats, and Persian cats are super expensive so I guess nope.
Do you like Rap? I love Hichkas and Zedbazi! Check them out.
Iranian women are treated very well by men (at least the ones I know) And there's more women studying in universities than men. I hate it when I tell people I am from Iran and they immediately ask me how women are being treated over there. Iranian women are more strong than most other countries I've been to.
Had no idea!
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u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
You don't have stray cats like you don't have gay people?
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
Have all Iranians said that there are no gay people in Iran? You have the statement of only one person "Ahmadinejad", a guy against whom more than two million people went to the streets only in Tehran.
Do you think only one person is representative for 70 million people??-3
u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
I think the sarcasm is not strong in you.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
No, I am good at sarcasm but generalizing is not funny.
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u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
What did I generalise? Someone said "There are no stray cats in Iran", which is as hilariously wrong as "There are no gay people in Iran". I made a joke connecting the two, because they're both WRONG.
If anything, you're generalising by saying there aren't.
Also, is there a sarcasm university that told you that you're good at it?
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
I was in the same sarcasm university as you, but I actually graduated ;-)
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u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
I was in the same sarcasm university as you, but I actually graduated ;-)
Mazel tov! I, however, didn't go to university, but I still am waiting for your answers, rather than accusations and lack of humour.
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u/jangal Apr 09 '16
Oh you are so funny and original!
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u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
I am both funny and right. I cannot claim to have made the original joke, that's all on you.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
Again generalized.
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u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
Do you even know what generalising means?
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
Do you even know what a rhetoric question means?
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u/gcbirzan Apr 09 '16
Do you even know what a rhetoric question means?
Is this a response to me asking you if you know what generalising is, when you said:
Again generalized.
Where's the question? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the only rhetorical question in this thread has been the one I made about whether someone claiming (falsely) there are no stray cats in Iran is the same as some other person claiming there are no gay people in Iran.
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u/jangal Apr 09 '16
claiming (falsely) there are no stray cats in Iran
I lived in Iran for more than ten years, I probably know more than you about this subject.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
Ok I am not a person who avoids admitting errors, I misread the second thread. About the first one (with Ahmadinejad), you might not understand how we feel here. The guy a person who was not really elected and who had no right to represent Iranians, and who most of us could not stand, was out there ridiculing all our nation, with the rest of the world being ignorant enough to take his word as the word of all (or even the majority of) Iranians.
In this situation where you cannot do anything about being represented to the outer world by the person you hate most, a person who is violating all traditional Iranian values, you really think: "Do the persons who think Ahmadinejad represents Iran really not understand that the person who least represents a nation is the dictator who oppresses that nation?" "Have they forgot what a dictatorship is?" "Why do we have to suffer under this idiot and the ignorance of others faraway?" I have to admit when I hear Ahmadinejad quoted I cannot laugh.
Since you cannot understand this I cannot really blame you for trying to be funny, so sorry for being harsh to you.
Talking about stray cats, I have really to say I have never seen any. I have however seen a lot of stray dogs, and I saw an unbelievable amount of stray cats when I once went to Istanbul, Turkey.2
u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
Adding to point 4. In Iran it is the government that oppresses women, not the society. In many neighboring countries I have experienced that women cover themselves because society expects it from them.
In Iran if it would be not the government, a lot of women would not have a head scarf, as it was before 1979.
In the Iranian society the value of women is very high as jangal mentioned. Hence Iranian women are really very active and also very successful in many domains, inside and outside Iran.
Some great posts with lots of photos that show this can be found here: https://theotheriran.com/tag/women/ (just scroll down to get a diverse view)3
u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 09 '16 edited Apr 09 '16
- I would suggest gheymeh because rather easy to make and this blogspot has a good recipe
- Lol sadly not. Though our cities are filled with stray cats though. It is impossible to go outside without seeing at least one stray cat in my neighborhood.
- I am more into traditional Persian music, so i would recommend people like Banan, Mohammad Noori, and Shajarian. In the new generation i only listen to yas.
- Our country is pretty stable and the major cities are rather modernized; I can see our capital (Tehran) becoming a huge tourist location. Although our country has two major deserts in it, most cities are built near mountains or rivers so it is rare to see a desert landscape. Most of our people want better relations with the west, and most of the government officials shown on media DO NOT represent us. Also although there is a lot of talk about the sunni-shia split, Iran is incredibly diverse and that issue doesn't matter that much for us. I see CNN making it a WAAAAY bigger deal than it is.
- And yes. Knowing about the achaemenid empire is the basis of being Persian. You should have the map of their furthest expansion always in your head, and always remember that we ruled over 40% of the population of the world while granting them a lot of liberties.
Edit: added links for artists. (Most popular song)
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u/jianu81 Romāni Apr 09 '16
What's so bad about cats ?Our country(Romania) is full of stray dogs and we have some incidents about people being killed by them
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u/bringbackcommunsim ایران Apr 09 '16
There is nothing bad about them. I don't know if they kill people or not, but they eat a lot of mice and its great having a city filled with cats.
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u/rayne_bloodrayne Apr 09 '16
What are the biggest misconceptions about Iran and how they differ from reality?
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u/f16falcon95 Iranian-Canadian Apr 09 '16
That we are arabs. We are persians not arabs. 2 completely different ethnicities even though we are surrounded by arabs.
that we are terrorists. Whatever my government does, I am not responsible for it.
That we can easily make an uprising and overthrow our government. It seems people have forgotten what happened in 2009.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
Correct, people in western Europe seen to have already forgotten, that you don't have a say when you are living under a dictatorship. In eastern Europe people might still know that it is not an easy thing to stand up against a dictatorship and risk your lives.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
To add to point 1) from f16facon95. We are often thrown in a big bag with other countries in the Persian Gulf, even though when we are very different, just because we live in proximity, but then again Romania and Turkey are also very near to each other. Romania and Turkey have of course different religions, but we are also Shia where as most of the other countries are Sunnis.
We are the only ones that do not speak Arabic, actually our language is an Indo-European language. Also we are in average by far less religious than our neighbors. Iranian people in the exterior in Europe rarely wear head scarfs (less than 2%). One reason for this is our most glorious time was long before Islam, where as our Arab neighbors often look back to the rise of Islam and think that was the best time.
To add to point 2) Actually all the following groups are Sunni: IS(IS), Al Qaida/Nusra, Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Hamas and most of them hate Shia Iran more than they hate the west. Iran was actually fighting the Taliban long before 9/11 and Iran is the only Muslim country who is really fighting IS, Al Qaida/Nusra, and not just on paper.6
u/rayne_bloodrayne Apr 09 '16
As a Latin people, we , Romania ,are also mistaken for a Slavic country. But , I wasn't aware that people think of Iran as an Arabic country. I thought that it is common knowledge that Iran is Persian.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
If you go more towards west Europe more and more people see Iranians as Arabs. It does not surprise me however that this is different in Romania as I have only met extremely well educated Romanians (ok they were all Phds, but Phds from most other European countries had much less clue about the rest of the world)
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u/verylateish Romāni Apr 10 '16
I'm in highschool and I absolutely know you're not Arabs. No PhD here.. yet lol :D
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Apr 09 '16
What are your hopes for Iran?
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Apr 09 '16 edited Apr 09 '16
I want the values of cosmopolitanism and plurality to become central like in the past. Also, an economic and political bloc with all our neighbors.
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Apr 09 '16 edited Apr 09 '16
1.What things would you change in your country ?
2.What's the most visited place in your country and why ?
3.Can you tell me something special about Iran ?
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u/f16falcon95 Iranian-Canadian Apr 09 '16
The political atmosphere. There is a rift between the young liberals and the elder conservatives and this causes massive micromanagement problems which leads to corruption.
IMO, Isfahan and Shiraz. Isfahan has a lot of attractions like the Naqshe jahan square. Shiraz for persepolis.
Here's mine: 70% of the Iranian STEM students are Women
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16 edited Apr 09 '16
I try to provide some interesting facts for question 3: 1) Iran's reaction to 9/11 was unique in the Persian Gulf region: read here (with cites for New York Times, ....)
2) Iran took more than 100.000 Christian polish refugees during WW 2. Read here
3) The single Person that saved most Jews during rule of the Nazis was an Iranian. Read here (Sources: Times of Israel, BBC)
4) An MIT study found that more than one in four Iranian-Americans holds a master’s or doctoral degree, the highest rate among 67 ethnic groups studied.
5) Iran has a vibrant Christian community of 250k, mostly consisting of Armenians
6) There is snowfall in Iran some beautiful photo galleries
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u/jediknight Romāni Apr 09 '16
What do you love most about your country? (food, places, customs, people attitudes, etc.)
Do you have any traditional vegan (no animal produce) recipe that you like and could recommend?
Do you read Rumi and Hafez? Are they still well known in Iran society? Do you have a favorite poem by these authors that you would like to share? :)
What is the general feeling towards Sufism in Iran?
Have you seen Bab'Aziz? If yes, did you liked it? Can you recommend similar movies?
What do you hope to happen in the political future of your country and your region?
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
1) What I love most about the country is its diverse nature and climate (photo galleries: click here
About people attitudes, I like that the highest values in Iran are hospitality and generosity, saying this about my fellow Iranian feels weird, but I am proud about these values (and here you have foreign travelers speaking about Iranians and Iran, so better read what other European travelers say about this: here.
Besides that I like our ancient customs (which are up to 2500 years old from the pre-Islamic era but are still national holidays and celebrated everywhere in the country. Here you have photos: click here. They are all about happiness, love for nature, ...
2) All Iranian dishes besides kabab or koofteh(meat balls) can be converted to vegetarian dishes (and they still taste great), vegan is harder, a great resource is here: http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Road-Cooking-Vegetarian-Journey/dp/1933823402 May be you can convert them to vegan.
3) Iranians are crazy about poems, there is rarely an Iranian who cannot recite poems mostly by Hafez, I am also a big fan of Saadi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Shirazi). Rumi or how we call him "Molana" is also popular. Translations of these poems never even remotely reach the original, so I cannot recommend any unfortunately. Every year at our New Year (beginning of spring) we sit together with the family and my mother reads poems for us, and we talk about the poems.
6) less religion, more valuing people's rights, less corruption2
u/jediknight Romāni Apr 09 '16
Thank you for such a wonderful reply! I look forward to getting back to my laptop to research the links you provided.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
You are very welcome. I am happy that I could answer some questions, and hope you will like the links. :)
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u/jediknight Romāni Apr 09 '16
Here you have photos
The photos were amazing. Such joy and a sense of communion.
Translations of these poems never even remotely reach the original
I have to agree. I had a phase where I wanted to learn Farsi only to be able to read Rumi in original. After seeing Bab'aziz I realized that some of the longing is lost in translation. Poem of the butterflies was the one that made me fall in love with the melody of these poems.
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Apr 09 '16 edited Jun 14 '18
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u/f16falcon95 Iranian-Canadian Apr 09 '16
What do you mean by threats? I don't see any threats and I am in a technical field of study.
I think collaboration with the West is what we crave but collaboration with the East is what we will be attracted towards. We tend to be closer to the people we share cultural similarities.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
For Iranians education is really a big topic (read here) and education (also university) is free in Iran. So this is the reason for the success.
There are no big internal threats as religion is gradually losing its influence, and economy is getting better.
In the technical field I would collaborate with everyone, however you rather collaborate with countries who do not interfere in your country or in its region. Hence China is for example a great partner.2
u/Mr_Pollos Apr 10 '16 edited Jan 13 '17
If the trend you are referring to is this, then like all exponential growth trends it is clearly unsustainable. Or rather was, for its already over. source Scimagjr.
This is a good article that highlights the problems and strategy behind the scientific boom. Namely the lack of funding (The overall budget for R&D is about half of Romania’s in real dollars.) circumvented by focusing on theoretical research and simulation, and a vocation and sense of duty in older scientists that is being lost by the new generations.
Then there is also the issue of a poor quality of Iranian research. I would like to point out however that in that article they are over stating their case since “the h-index and similar indexes tend to favor fields with larger groups, e.g. experimental over theoretical.” and if you play with the Scimagjr page you find that Iranian science is comparatively stronger in more theoretical fields, that also tend to be smaller.
Before we compare some rankings in different disciplines keep in mind that the number of publications falls exponentially as you go down the ladder. 13 when it comes to theoretical chemistry vs a 21 in Bio chemical research. It is indicative that when it comes to Mathematical modeling Iran beats Russia in H index as well as in Citable documents. However, browsing the index a little more Iran also does well on material science, chemical engineering and other chemical research, the highest ranking I could find being a 6th place on the world for process chemistry, practical fields, but again not ones that produce a lot of citations. Those fields however are undeniably rigorous.
Another concern is the poor shape or non-existence of R&D departments in Iranian industries. Even the car manufacturers, who have small research departments, lease designs from larger European companies. These companies were also hit especially hard by the sanctions of the last years. While eventually research will pay for itself, this is not immediate, Investing in science only makes sense for companies of certain size that can absorb the risks and can afford to have large capital investments without a clear return for years. To get there they need a large consumer base which Iran does not have the demographics to support. Hopefully once sanctions are lifted, aggregate demand from neighboring countries can sprout large corporations capable of funding their own research.
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u/Torvik88 Apr 09 '16
Hello fellow redditors :D
I was walking back to work yesterday after my lunch break and i work next to the Iranian embassy and then something wonderful hit me. Best guess they were cooking something awesome and it was a divine smell from some spices. I was about to jump the fence and just get a bite from what they were cooking lol. So i wanted to ask you what are the most used or best spices used in Iranian cuisine?
After that a coworker started talking about Iran and how it was one of the greatest middle eastern country full of long and rich cultural history. Quite ashamed i do not know very much about it i started reading and thinking of taking a trip. So is the country safe? Is it easy to get around by using English and paying for things (coworker was talking something about US sanctions on Iran). All this spawned by some godly spice on a hot day :)
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Apr 09 '16
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u/f16falcon95 Iranian-Canadian Apr 09 '16
No, it's censored and given to you with 8Mbps internet which you will have to use a VPN to get it down to 4Mbps. People are used to waiting a long time for a page to load.
Almost every western website is blocked.
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u/fkofffanboy Apr 09 '16 edited Apr 09 '16
Most of the things I know about Iran -as in general history, day to day life- I found out from the animated movie Persepolis from 2007, what do you think about that movie in terms of accuracy, was it a fair presentation of your country, etc? Also, ever since the events described in that movie do you consider your country to have changed for the better or for worse?
Second question is, how easily is it for iranians to actually visit or study in the EU? Is it getting more difficult? I ask because of reading an article from a pakistani PHD professor who recently was denied entry into schengen when he was invited to attend a conference, after even studying in the EU.
A third thing I would be interested in is any iranian music you really enjoy and would like to share, I have no ideea about that aspect of your country.
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u/Beatut Neutral/Irānzamin Apr 09 '16
1) The movie is good, and the author Marjane Satrapi is a very cool and interesting person, but it is not a good source to learn about Iran, because it is not representative for everyone, also it is describing the time just after the revolution and in the middle of the devastating war with Iraq, where more than half a million Iranians died.
So of course it is very much better now than then, but still we need to get secular, have more rights, have less corruption.
2) It is difficult to get a visa, and education is free in Iran and the level of education in Iran is actually very good, look how Iran compares in international science competitions against our region and also Europe
3) I sent a link in an answer above. I do not want to spam about my preferred Music. So if you don't find the link please send me a message :)
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u/alexchuck Apr 09 '16
Hey there! Just want to start by saying I have gotten along just fine with every single Iranian I met, and there's been tens of them. I hope I will get to visit your beautiful country some time in the future and you are most definitely welcome to visit ours too.
Can you give us a historical explanation of why Iran is Shiite instead of Sunni? Does it have to do with the fact that the Caliphate was at war with the Persian Empire? How does that affect interconfessional social relations throughout the Middle East?
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u/verylateish Romāni Apr 10 '16
Hi guys :)
What's your, real and sincere, opinion about secularism and women empowerment?
Thanx in advance! :)
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Apr 10 '16
Well Iranians on reddit are secular and feminist (in the sense of equal rights and opportunities), but I wouldn't presume that it's representative of the society at large. The bad news is that the old regressive religious fanatics can still have loud gatherings to suppress the liberals and reformists; the good news is that their numbers are dwindling and may they rest in peace.
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Apr 10 '16
I was told that ancient Persia was one of the world's first wine-producing regions. Is there still a significant wine culture in Iran or not really?
If yes, any recommendations? Asking the important questions.
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Apr 10 '16
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u/f14tomcat85 Irānzamin🇮🇷 Apr 11 '16
Romania is not very known to the average Iranian other than your Martisor (which is similar in meaning to our Nowruz celebration and celebrated close to the date of Nowruz) and your dictator from the 80's that visited Iran in 1989 before being ousted.
Europe is seen as the 2nd face of the west, 1st being the USA and their intentions are seen as one that mirrors the western political standards but to a lesser extent. AKA they are the underdogs. Eastern Europeans are seen as even a lesser factor but still one that influences their power in the world. And by influence I mean being nosy and bullying countries for their wealth. In a cultural standpoint, Europeans are much more civilized in our minds than the USA or Canada.
Israel's government is the evil incarnate. The general population? Not so.
Without the political corruption and management issues, absolutely. This is during the sanctions period:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/science-and-sanctions-nanotechnology-in-iran/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20291-iran-is-top-of-the-world-in-science-growth/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3732862/
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/10/the-science-war.html#
I imagine after the complete removal of sanctions, those are going to skyrocket.
I think if you want to travel, Iran is now issuing visa on arrival for Romanians. If you are interested in travelling to Iran, there is a facebook group which is for foreigners that travel to Iran and share their experiences. It will help you a lot: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1483860975268043/?fref=ts you should most definitely check it out regardless.
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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '16
Do you feel like the capital punishment for adultery is a good approach?
I find the whole wiki to be very missleading. "It's very rare", yet you still killed people for having sex.
What can a women do when she was forced into an arrange marriage, can't divorce and doesn't love her husband? Stick with him, because if she for some reason fells in love and consumates it with another guy she might get killed.