CITIZEN DIPLOMACY IN IRAN
By Ellen Francis Poisson
National Catholic Reporter
Issue Date: September 22, 2006
Peace group finds a culture that belies many American presumptions
The crisis over the development of Iran’s nuclear capability is
complex. Although the evidence suggests that Iran does not currently
have a nuclear weapons program, the Western media subtly imply that
Iran’s intentions are aggressive — and nuclear. In general, the news
media in the United States seem to relish painting a negative picture
of Iran, when the reality is more nuanced.
It was against this background of hostility between the United States
and Iran that the Fellowship of Reconciliation sent an international,
interfaith delegation of 18 to Iran last December. Because I speak
Farsi and had lived in Iran in the 1960s and ’70s, before the Iranian
Revolution, I was asked to be one of the co-leaders. I was also
a co-leader of a second Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation
of 23 this past May. The purpose of both delegations was to have
direct dialogue with Iranians, to present a friendly and respectful
American face, and to continue to learn, talk and write about Iran
when we returned home. All of this reflects the mission of the
Fellowship of Reconciliation. An international, interfaith peace and
justice organization founded on the eve of World War I, the fellowship
sponsored peace delegations to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, to
Vietnam during the 1960s, and to Iraq before the present conflict. It’s
hard to say how much of a difference such citizen delegations make,
but they are designed to change the world one person at a time.
>>From one trip to the other, I noticed a difference in the
interactions our delegations had with Iranians. In December, Iranians
were quick to engage with us, but the talk was casual and curious. In
May there was a heightened urgency to the conversations, and the
Iranians we met asked what we thought the United States would do,
whether the U.S. government might attack Iran, why shouldn’t Iran
have nuclear energy, and why did we think Iran wants to develop
nuclear weapons.
Our delegation in May arrived just days after President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad sent his letter to President Bush requesting a meeting,
and there was some misconception that our little citizen delegation
was some sort of a response to that letter. We were quick to dispel
this notion, and found it even a bit funny since our trips had been
planned many months in advance and we were definitely not emissaries
of the U.S. government. Nonetheless, our May delegation attracted a
great deal of media attention within Iran, both positive and negative,
and we had interviews with BBC, CNN, Reuters and The Associated Press,
as well as a number of Iranian news agencies.
There were many surprises in store for the members of our delegations,
and some misconceptions about Iran were corrected. For example:
Iranians hate Americans.
Without exception, the Iranians we met were extremely hospitable to
us. Everywhere we went, we were told, "We love Americans. Please
tell all your friends to come to Iran. Only — we don’t like your
government."
The last night that we were in Tehran, during the May delegation,
we went to dinner in a large, traditional restaurant with live
music. During the evening the announcer said in Farsi, "We welcome
our friends from America who are here on a mission of peace." When
he said this, there was loud and sustained applause.
Iran is a Third-World country.
The members of our delegations were amazed at the evidence of a high
level of development: sophisticated road systems, cell phones, safe
drinking water from the taps, advanced medical care, comprehensive
elementary education and a high level of literacy, higher education
including doctoral studies and original scientific research, many
high-rise buildings in Tehran, up-to-date and locally manufactured
vehicles. After seeing all this, one delegate said right out, "This
is not a Third-World country." I noticed some significant changes
from the 1960s and ’70s; perhaps the most noticeable was the high
level of air pollution in Teheran.
Women are oppressed and forced to wear black covering.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, it’s true that women in Iran
have been required, by law, to wear the hijab or modest covering
in public. This means that women (including non-Muslim Iranians
and foreigners) must cover arms and legs, wear modest, long tops,
and also cover at least part of their hair. In most cities of Iran,
however, women wear light scarves that cover some of their hair,
but they also wear light or even bright colors and not only black,
and some wear clothing that is quite tight-fitting. As one Iranian
woman said, "We are very romantic," and Iranian women find ways to
make the veil alluring and lovely.
Many Iranian women would prefer to choose whether or not to wear
the veil. I was helping one of our delegates with her scarf on
the street one day, and some women passing by exclaimed, "Oh! You
are fixing your hijab!" We chatted a while and I said, "We are not
accustomed to wearing the hijab." An Iranian woman answered quietly,
"No, we aren’t either."
When we were in the holy city of Qom, we were advised to cover all of
our hair, and we wore borrowed chadors when we went to the courtyard
of the Shrine of Hadrat-e Fatima Ma’sooma, the daughter of one of the
twelve Imams of Shiism. The chador is a large semicircle of cloth,
worn with the center on the crown of the head and held under the
chin. Getting ourselves properly covered in these chadors drew a
crowd of women to help us and caused considerable amusement.
Women are involved in education and public life, and make up
approximately 60 percent of college students.
This number is even more impressive than it sounds because entrance
to a university is extremely competitive and only about 10 percent
of the applicants are accepted.
Religious minorities are oppressed and persecuted.
We visited the Vank Armenian Cathedral in Esfahan, a Jewish synagogue
in Tehran, and a Zoroastrian temple in Esfahan. We learned that these
religious minorities have complete freedom of worship, and religious
schools for Armenian and Jewish children are paid for by the Iranian
government. The Jewish representative to the Majlis (Parliament),
Mr. Morris Motamed, told us that there is, by law, no discrimination
in employment. Religious minorities serve in the armed forces, and
each has representation in the Majlis.
There are some difficulties for religious minorities, but we did see
thriving communities and active places of worship. To the amazement of
the Jews in our delegations, we saw Jewish Iranian men walking down
the street in Tehran wearing yarmulkes. We saw the houses of worship
clearly marked from the street as church, synagogue or temple. One
of the Armenian clergy told us that during the Iranian Revolution
there had been a riot in Esfahan, but when the mob came to the doors
of the cathedral, someone said, "No, this is the Armenian church,"
and they passed by without touching anything.
There is freedom of worship, but conversion from Islam to any other
religion is prohibited, and the indigenous religious minorities do
not proselytize Muslims. The Baha’is are considered apostates because
Baha’ism was an offshoot from Islam and Baha’is accept another prophet
who came after the Prophet Muhammad.
Iranians are all highly religious.
The members of our delegations were amazed to learn that Iran is
a highly secular society, with relatively low attendance at Friday
prayer services. A low percentage of Iranians follow Muslim practices
such as the daily ritual prayers, fasting during Ramadan, going on
the haj to Mecca. The young people in Iran are generally even less
observant than their elders.
The United States can promote reform by providing assistance to
dissidents.
Many Iranians do want a loosening of social and political
restraints. Approximately 70 percent of Iran’s population of 70 million
are under the age of 30, and many of them desire political and social
reform. Some social restrictions are gradually lifting: We saw young
couples walking and talking together, dating, holding hands.
However, all the Iranians we met said that they want reform to come
about from within: "We do want reform, but we don’t need U.S. help. We
want to do it ourselves." Iranians still have a deep resentment
against the United States for the CIA-led coup in 1953, in which
Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was removed from office and the
shah was returned to power. External efforts to support dissidents
will be counterproductive, increase distrust, and will be certain to
result in increased repression within Iran.
One Iranian asked me directly whether the Fellowship of Reconciliation
had received any funding from the U.S. government.
Iranians want to bomb Israel. President Ahmadinejad’s words on Israel
"Nobody believed that we would one day witness the collapse of the
Eastern Imperialism [i.e. the U.S.S.R.], and said that it was an iron
regime. But in our short lifetime we have witnessed how this regime
collapsed in such a way that we must look for it in libraries. …
"Imam [Khomeini] said that Saddam [Hussein] must go, and that he
would be eliminated in a way that was unprecedented. And what do you
see today? …
"Imam [Khomeini] said, ‘This regime that is occupying [Jerusalem]
must be eliminated from the pages of history.’ …
"The issue of Palestine is by no means over, and will end only when
all of Palestine will have a government belonging to the Palestinian
people. The refugees must return to their homes, and there must be
a government that has come to power by the will of the [Palestinian]
people."
Translation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech provided
by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) and dated Oct. 28,
2005.
Iranians are quick to point out that Iran has not been a military
aggressor in modern times and that Ayatollah Khomeini had declared
nuclear weapons un-Islamic. In a sense, this is a stronger prohibition
on developing, owning or using nuclear weapons than signing any
international treaty.
Iranians do not have animosity toward Jewish people, but rather toward
aggressive Zionism and injustice to the Palestinian people. It seems
to me that some of the political rhetoric against Israel and in support
of the Palestinians is a reaction against the friendship with Israel of
the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and also against the U.S. support
of Israel at the expense of support for the Palestinians. The president
of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has not actually said the famous words,
"wipe Israel off the map." What he did say was that as the Soviet
Union fell from power and as Saddam Hussein fell from power, so some
day the present government of Israel may also fall from power. (See
box to the right.)
Problems in Iran
I think that the Fellowship of Reconciliation-Iran delegates
are not naïve about the problems that exist in Iran today: There
is some discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities,
especially Baha’is; social and political oppression does exist;
there are restrictions on women; there is drug abuse, unemployment
and poverty. Iran does want to conduct nuclear research, at least
for peaceful purposes, as the government consistently declares,
and this would give Iran the start-up technology to develop nuclear
weapons. There is concern about Iran’s support of Hezbollah and about
the potential for future violence between Israel and neighboring
countries.
But military intervention is not a viable or acceptable answer,
and even sanctions may be ineffective or counterproductive. As talks
between Iran and the Western powers continue, I pray that every avenue
for a peaceful resolution will be pursued with patience and mutual
respect. I feel this particularly strongly because I have family
in Iran, whom I was blessed to visit on these two trips. Though my
Iranian husband and I divorced in the late 1970s, his family and I
had been close and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to see
them again after so many years.
On both trips to Iran, we visited Esfahan and the village of Natanz,
both of which are close to nuclear facilities. In the beautiful,
historic city of Esfahan, we realized that we were at what could
someday be another "Ground Zero." The families we saw walking together,
the laughing children, the historic sites and breathtaking mosques
would all be destroyed if the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear
plants. I was reminded of a photo of a demonstration in California,
in which an Iranian-American child held up a sign saying, "Don’t bomb
my grandma."
The Fellowship of Reconciliation delegations also traveled to
Shiraz. There we visited the tomb of the Persian poet Saadi, whose
words grace the entrance to the United Nations:
Human beings are all members of one body.
They are created from the same essence.
When one member is in pain, The others cannot rest.
If you do not care about the pain of others, You do not deserve to
be called a human being.
The Rev. Dr. Ellen Francis Poisson is a priest and a nun in the
Episcopal church. She lives in a convent of the Order of St. Helena
in New York City. She can be reached at [email protected].
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