re: Iran and the narrative

I had a close friend that I first met when I was in 6th grade in 1979. His name was Amir Zafranchi, and his family had fled Iran to escape the Ayatollah and the rapidly rising regime that was replacing the Shah. Amir spoke absolutely NO English when they arrived, but one of the girls in our class spent most of the day talking to him and teaching him English while she neglected her own studies. Amir learned English pretty quickly and of course we all wanted to learn a bit of Persian (you know - the good cuss words and such) so he was one of the students all through middle school and high school that everyone knew.

I guess it was in our junior and senior years of high school that I actually became interested in what was going on over there. Amir's parents were quite open about how Iran had been very "western" in its culture and government up until the uprising and ousting of the Shah in 1979. Photos they had of their home, family, and friends through the 50s, 60s, and 70s didn't really look any different from what you would see in photos of the US in the same time period. But all that had changed overnight with Islamic law being enforced by the Ayatollah and his followers and the nation has regressed socially and politically while nearly maintaining a modern pace of technological advancement. His family believed that such of combination of social regression and technological growth would lead to some troubling times and dire circumstances for Iran and the nations in close proximity.

Amir and his family pretty much confirmed what we have been told about Iran by our government and media since the early 1980s, so I have no concern that we have been misled by our government or media regarding that nation.