Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March/April 2022, pp. 59-60
Waging Peace
THE NATIONAL Iranian American Council (NIAC) held a webinar on Jan. 18 to discuss a recent report published by the organization titled, “Othering Iran: How Dehumanization of Iranians Undermines Rights at Home.”
Panelists noted that Iranians tend to be depicted in several damaging but also sometimes contradictory ways.
Historian John Ghazvinian, director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania, noted the enduring portrayal of Iranians as conniving and untrustworthy. This Orientalist depiction, seen in popular films and books (such as The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isfahan), characterizes Iranians as “unctuous, slippery, unreliable carpet traders,” he noted. Yet, this portrayal is often coupled with depictions of Iranians as mystical, intriguing and exotic. Such fabricated portrayals exemplify the completely “alien” ways Orientalist thinking depicts Iranians and others in the Middle East, Ghazvinian said.
These mythical representations are not limited to popular media, NIAC senior research fellow Assal Rad said. As just one example, she noted that in 2013 Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman told Congress that “deception is a part of [Iran's] DNA.” Sherman later expressed regret over the statement in 2018.
Such remarks show how stereotypes about Iranians impact not just the culture, but also U.S. foreign policy. “Dehumanizing Iranians, demonizing the entire country of Iran, its people…has affected our own community, our loved ones in Iran and U.S. policy,” Rad said. “In the world of foreign policy we don’t as much discuss the role of prejudice or bias,” she added, arguing that the relationship between bigotry and policy ought to be examined to a greater extent.
Neda Maghbouleh, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto, expressed concern at the extreme ways Iranians are often depicted in the West. On the one hand is the post-1979 Islamic Revolution conception of Iranians as terrorists with a radical religious agenda. This presents Iranians as an “other” that can’t be trusted to assimilate or accept Western values, she said.
On the other extreme, some cultural outlets have propagated hyper-Westernized images of Iranians, she noted, spreading the idea that proper assimilation requires indulging the culture. The former reality television show “Shahs of Sunset” is the ultimate example of this, Maghbouleh said, as it followed a group of Iranian-Americans who were ensconced in the dramatic world of “money, sex and booze.”
Niaz Kasravi, director of the Avalon Institute for Applied Research, noted the tendency of some Iranian-Americans to rebuff stereotypes by noting positive aspects of their community, such as their high level of education. This strategy of depicting the community as the “model” minority group is ultimately dangerous, she argued, because it implies that discrimination is legitimate unless a group can conjure up data to rebuff prejudicial thinking.
Moderator Yara Elmjouie, a video producer with AJ+, concluded the discussion on a positive note, celebrating the recent trend of Iranian-American actors being cast in roles that have nothing to do with their heritage. These performers simply being asked to play everyday Americans introduces a uniting “human element” to the screen, he said. “We are human beings, ordinary folks just like everyone else, slotting ourselves within the diverse tapestry of American society.”
The full report, written by Rad, can be found at: <niacouncil.org/news/othering-iran>.
—Dale Sprusansky
