Iranians & Guns
By David Yeagley
6-9-2002
Iranian people don’t like guns. Iranians are the most patient, kind, and genteel people in the world. They’ve tolerated the most oppressive, incompetent Islamic leaders of any country.
Michael A. Ledeen’s recent piece on Iran (Wall Street Journal, June 6) suggested that a new revolution is brewing in the people. “It is hard to imagine that the Iranian people require enormous support to rid themselves of their meddlesome priests,” and with a simple nudge from the west, they will overthrow the mullahs [Islamic clerics].
But when one considers the noble character of this ancient race, one has to wonder how such an “overthrow” will come about. Their natural dignity and patience, and their deep sense of respect seem to make them willing to endure abuse, and also make them tardy toward social change.
The true Iranian character may be hard for Americans to see, since America’s impression of Iranians is still based on the 1979 media coverage of the hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran. Wildly agitated students shouted “Death to America!” as they stormed the U.S. embassy and took Americans hostage. Americans today, both government leaders and the public, can’t get passed that image. Iran is in the “Axis of Evil,” according to Bush.
Even though today 44.9% of the people recently polled in Tehran want a fundamental change in the Iranian government, (and 20% of the total population of Iran lives in Tehran), this doesn’t mean Iranian people are violent, and want another revolution. We can’t judge Iranian people by the 1979 media impression.
Shahrokh Ahkami laments that impression intensely. The New Jersey obstetrician, and editor and publisher of Persian Heritage Magazine, expressed his shock in an editorial (Spring 2002), after seeing Larry King and Bill Maher (on CNN) talk about Iran today. Maher called Iran the enemy of America and said Iran should be flattened.
Ahkami astutely observes that American-Iranian media itself consistently condemns the present regime of Iran, but it completely avoids the issue of America’s real attitude about Iranians. “After twenty-three years of emotional torture, we [American-Iranians] still have been unable to separate ourselves from the government [of Iran].” Ahkami notes the American government always distinguishes between Castro and the Cuban people, or Saddam Hussain and the Iraqi people, or the Taliban and the Afghanis. Yet the Iranian people are not distinguished from their “evil” government.
I know Dr. Ahkami, and I know Iranian people. I have numerous Iranian friends here in America, and I’ve been to Iran, and associated with wealthy and poor, educated and ignorant. Not only should the people be distinguished from their Islamic government, but they should be distinguished from other people in the world.
Iranians are from distant time. They are Persians, the children of emperors. The poorest among them is still royal in heart. When I was in Tehran, a young man served me breakfast in the dilapidated Islamic office center where I spent a couple of nights. He didn’t know a word of English, but he knew how to treat me like an emperor. He was an emperor at heart. All he had to serve me was water, eggs, and Iranian bread, but he served with nobility.
There is a kindness, a love, and a profound patience in Iranian people. I saw it in Tehran, in Masshad, in Neshabur, and out in Torbat-e Heydarieh, and in farm villages. It’s as if their soul is from another place, and here they’re merely observing and patiently enduring the present world. They are beneficent spirits, every one.
Except the Islamic leaders. They act contrary to their genetic programming. Islam is foreign to Iran, and has caused the leaders to become confused and tyrannical. The government is brutal, and the people have no defense against it.
There is no right of arms possession by civilians mentioned in either Iran’s 1906 constitution, under Muzaffar ed-Din Shah, or the 1979 constitution under Ayatollah Khomeini. The right is not protected, and therefore completely denied. So how can the people have a “revolution?”
The people don’t want guns, anyway. Guns are unkind. Guns are not for gentlemen. I’ve tried to explain to my Iranian friends, “Guns are what won freedom for America!” They see the logic, but they don’t feel the passion. They’re too high class in heart. They’d rather have tea.
So, I expect we’ll have to wait even longer for Iranian people to manifest their true character through a new government. If there is a revolution, it won’t be a violent one.
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