Iranians have increasingly become a mainstay in
Hollywood, but they aren’t exactly pleased with the attention. From the
portrayal of the beloved Persian emperor Cyrus the Great as a blood-thirsty
charlatan in the movie “300” to the shallow Iranian-American characters in
Bravo’s modern-day “Shahs of Sunset,” many Iranians have had enough with the
backwards depictions of their country and culture.
As an Iranian Jew who left the country during the
Islamic Revolution, there is another film I will be watching for when I tune
into the Academy Awards on Sunday.
When the movie “Argo” came into theaters, I felt
compelled to see it but dreaded stepping into the theater for two reasons: I
was terrified of confronting my own painful memories of the Iranian Revolution,
but more importantly, I didn’t want to sit through another negative portrayal
of Iranians in the media.
It turns out I was correct on both fronts.
“Argo” was so good that it made me squirm in my seat.
The largely accurate account of events — based on declassified government
documents and firsthand accounts from people involved — stirred long-repressed
memories of my anguished flight from Tehran.
However factual, “Argo” also aroused a sense of anger
in me, not for anything it got wrong (and there were some sensationalist
fabrications), but for what it was: yet another apparent indictment of the
Iranian people as thuggish, fanatical and stupid. In dramatically recreating
this story, one that most Iranians consider a stain on Iran’s place in the
international community, “Argo” is only the latest in a string of movies and
television shows that paint all Iranians in a negative light.
American policymakers and the American public need to
understand that Iranians themselves have been held hostage by the current
regime, which has trampled their social freedom, imperiled economic
opportunities and tarnished Iran’s glorious history.
Following the release of “Argo,” Farsi language blogs
were saturated by many young Iranians — and Iranian Americans — who questioned
the wisdom of yet another negative depiction of Iranians in the media. More
than 30 years after a revolution that their parents’ generation activated, they
want the world to know that they were not born at the time of the hostage
crisis, did not take part in the revolution and do not condone the inexcusable
actions of the current regime.
They know all too well that revolutions are not pretty
and are rarely known for bringing Chanel-clad, Proust-loving people out onto
the streets. Angry mobs are a staple of any country undergoing unprecedented
transformation — we witness it today in Egypt, Libya and Syria. In 1979, Iran
was one of them.
They have also learned first-hand that revolutions
rarely finish how they start. This is especially true for the Iranian
Revolution, when, seemingly overnight, students, women, clerics, the bazaaris
and many of the upper-class came together to dethrone the Shah, only to be violently
suppressed by a fearsome cleric who looked like he landed from another era,
declaring any modicum of modernity as un-Islamic and a Moharebeh —
a crime against God and punishable by death.
Despite more than 30 years of hard-line rule, many of
the Iranian people have remained staunchly pro-American, in stark contrast to
most of the other countries in the Middle East. It is worth remembering that
Iranians poured into streets to hold a candlelight vigil on Sept. 11, 2001.
Arabs in neighboring countries also gathered in the streets and squares, but
they were celebrating.
Unless the American administration can find a way to
empower and engage Iranian civil society, the Islamic regime will grow
stronger. Though the Iranian government remains beyond reach, the Iranian
people are not, and we shouldn’t continue to alienate them.
And that is precisely what happens when Hollywood
serves up its usual fare.
“Argo” makes the viewer wonder why America hasn’t
bombed the country whose men look like they haven’t showered in weeks, are
prone to angry outbursts and want nothing more than America’s destruction.
Without acknowledging the suffering of the Iranians themselves or giving credit
to those who perished in the struggle for democracy and the protection of
democratic ideals, the film offers another wholesale rebuff of the Iranian
people.
And this time, the stakes are too high to give
Hollywood another pass.
Moinian is a native Iranian
who immigrated to the United States with her family after the country’s
revolution. She recently co-produced the PBS movie “The Iranian Americans” and
is a previous consultant at the Council on Foreign Relations.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/argo-hollywood-insult-aimed-iran-article-1.1271000?localLinksEnabled=false#commentpostform
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