I am a 29-year old university student in Iran, graduated in social studies and like anthropology. I believe each society has its own rationales of living and their own positive and negative points in lifestyle and social relations. Judging societies only by their outward look -especially the picture depicted to us by the political media- and just by comparing to our own way of life is not a valid judgment. We have to live in societies, talk to them, and try to reach mutual understanding. We need to know how different people live and learn why and how this way of life is evolved over a long history.
When I had my recent trip to Europe for academic reasons and in an international institute in an international city, I experienced many situations that taught me how being such open to talk and listen to different groups with different beliefs and values can be easy and pleasant, relaxing you from any unnecessary disputes, and eliminating any borders. I learned although not everyone is adopting my lifestyle and believing in what I believe, similarities are often more than differences that we can build on. There are so many good similar grounds that can bring different nations and ethnics together, so much more than what we can imagine beforehand. Sometimes we can’t believe that other people are normal people like us! The only thing that we need is to put aside any presumption and judgment and really try to understand others. No doubt that we’ll learn a lot in this process. I believe this is the solution for most of the international issues today to think and look such borderless. Although the global village and online world are making us closer every day, the governments and anyone benefitting conflicts and war still insist on borders and persuade us to remain selfish valuing ‘national benefits’ on top of any other humanistic values.
On the other hand, I saw how much people are interested to know more about Iran, however, there are too little fair online contents about it in European languages. Everything is either about politics -from ‘biased’ media- or about touristic areas (museums, natural and historical landmarks, souvenirs, etc.). The best way to know more about Iran is, of course, traveling there and meeting Iranians. But I’m sure normal western people are not encouraged to do so until they get sure that is not a NO GO area! They need to make sure there’s no security threat, people are welcome, and if they can survive despite social limitations and cultural differences there! Another way is to meet the Iranians living abroad but I think that also may not give them a true picture, as there are few Iranians out there and the ones living there are not necessarily a right sample of the whole Iranian society… And I think even traveling there for a short period doesn’t give them a deep understanding of what’s the reality there.
So, I used my previous experience in writing about society and started this project to make a direct information stream about everything in Iran from the viewpoint of a normal young person, without any dependence to any special groups, trying to narrate objectively and neutrally. I’m sure what interests you, as a curious reader, is mainly the unique and special things about Iran. Not just where to go, what to eat, and where to stay. Not just similar things that you can find anywhere else. For example, if you love going to the beach in your hometown, I’m probably not going to tell you where you can find the beach in Iran! (You can just find these by asking Google!) Instead, I want to bring you to the desert, which is special for this region. Or if you go to the shopping malls in your country, I’m not going to introduce you just the malls in Iran, but I want to put you in the traditional bazaar where most people still do their shopping there, after centuries. I want to give you the chance to know what’s going on in normal life in Iran and how Iranians think and react in different situations. And of course, it is not that simple, yet you can also find differences among Iranians that would be interesting to know about!
I’ll try to write brief and useful transferring as much information as possible in less than 1500 words. That’s hard work but a must for the era of online reading! But I’m always ready to expand on the posts in private dialogues. I like to make it a two-sided communication and dialogue. I want to get sure if I’m understandable and if I’m moving on my principles. I want to get feedback from readers to get sure if I’m not trapped in absurd nationalism or ignore explaining something important that’s obvious for me -as I’m born and lived here for years and may overlook something. I also love dialogue to know your reason and arguments and make it a learning opportunity for myself, too. So, please don’t hesitate to talk to me by posting comments or sending emails.
All the rights for texts and pictures are reserved but it is allowed to be copied or reproduced by citing and referring the readers to this website. In some special conditions, I have copied the pictures from other websites, then I tried to find the main source and cite them in the picture caption; however, in some cases that the picture sources are unknown, I just refer to the website that I saved the picture from that.
Watch this TEDx Talk from Rick Steve about the worth of discovering the backpack every nation carries
