We are a group of Marin Academy seniors enrolled in the Middle East Studies class, Fall, 2007. We'd like to begin a dialogue with Iranian young people and learn about life in Iran. To open the discussion, we'd like to know what young people in Iran do for fun.
5 comments:
Hi Guys,
Here are a couple of clips from my film that might give you a sense of young people in Iran.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bOQLRyraQ50
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9BPfJnHLoWc
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Jason
Jason,
Thank you for posting those clips, I hope we can watch more of your documentary in class. I was wondering about something in the first clip with the group of young men. As a class we're trying to get a better understanding of what young people in Iran really think of the US. When you referred to the US as "the Great Satan," you got some knowing laughs in response. Did you find that when you told people your ethnicity, you were treated differently by those you were interviewing? The response in that clip seems pretty low-key, as if they knew what they were supposed to say and said it, but didn't necessarily mean it. Was this true of most young people you met?
Thanks,
-Chloe
Chloe,
Great question. Well, I think that most young Iranians I met have a real fascination with the US. So when I said I was from the "Great Satan" it was meant in a very tongue and cheek kind of way. I had had so many similar conversations before that moment that I knew what kind of response I would get. The is a very real disconnect between what the government stances and propaganda represent and how the people actually feel. I can't think of a single instance when anyone in Iran made negative comments about American people. Sometimes (but not often) Iranians will talk about how bad they think the government in the US is and express real surprise and how little the American people seem to know about Iran (and other countries for that matter,) but ultimately their is a respect and admiration for our popular culture and our personal freedoms.
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