Beneath the "Iranian Threat" Lie Neglected Voices

By Navid Zarrinnal

An Iranian-American student visits the grave
 of Mohammad Mossadeq; Ahmadabad, Iran. 

Today, perceptions on Iranian life, society, and politics are shaped through the security concerns of the US's state and military apparatus. These security concerns are conceived of and expressed through fear-inducing phrases─ the most popular one now being the "Iranian threat." Dominant public discourses, from those in political speeches to the mass media, provide the American public with narratives that are also preoccupied with the "Iranian threat." Paying almost exclusive attention to the "Iranian threat" has made it difficult for most Americans to conceive of Iran in terms other than those denoting a threat to their country and the world. Even during public events on Iranian cinema, questions on the "Iranian threat" accompany the Q & A section.  

These dominant discourses do an astonishing job of oversimplifying complex realities. In their obsession with the "Iranian threat," they exclude a number of realities formed by the experiences of over seventy million people from diverse backgrounds, and provide a simplistic image of Iran in the public mind. Additionally, these discourses are quite effective in dehumanizing Iranians. When phrases like the "Iranian threat" dominate public discourses, Iranians are viewed with suspicion and distrust, as the threatening "other," and are effectively deprived of the humanity they share with Americans.

A systematic inclusion of Iranian voices in the public discourse can help reveal the complexity of Iran, and more importantly, humanize Iranians. Iranian voices express a rich and dynamic struggle for human dignity─ a struggle characterized by a sustained opposition to absolutism (estebdaad) imposed through both internal and external forces. In their century-long struggle against absolutism, Iranians of diverse backgrounds have come together to create a constitutional government (dowlat-e mashrute) deprived of excessive and arbitrary powers. They have persisted in this struggle despite failures resulting from actions of power-hungry monarchs, the CIA, and a number of powerful Shi'ite clerics. Today, this struggle continues and is vividly evidenced in the social movement known as the Green Movement─ a movement that officially began after the disputed 2009 presidential elections. Green Movement participants are demanding a range of reforms, including a government that rules within its constitutional limits, individual liberties, and greater gender equality. Beneath dehumanizing discourses obsessed with the "Iranian threat" then lie non-threatening Iranian voices potently demanding the ideals of peace, liberty, and equality sought by all humans across the globe.  

Iranian voices, though excluded from dominant discourses, are very real. Iranians speak on sociopolitical issues with intense courage and determination. Even when their voices are crushed, whether via CIA coups or by internal authorities, Iranians persist in voicing their concerns and continuing their struggles, often at great cost to their personal safety. The following passage provides one example of these neglected voices. Following a fresh set of US sanctions on Iran, Reza─ an Iranian citizen, contractor, and father of three children─ concerned with the future of his country expresses his thoughts on a number of sociopolitical wrongs inside and outside of Iran, all of which infect the Iranian population:

I do not know about the distant past, but compared to the past thirty years, today, people feel unprecedented levels of alienation from and opposition to politicians, military officials, intellectuals, and their own classes. The opposition between them is stronger than ever. A dozen people, let alone a couple hundred, can manipulate a nation's fate. No peace, voices are not heard, the press is defunct, institutions are dead, and the civil society is depressed—the collection of these is a prescription for death and darkness. The dissidents and those wanting to reform the nation are put into prisons and we do not engage in dialogue with one another. What is happening to us? Despite differences, now is the time to make peace between conflicting voices.We live in a time where as the world's resources are being plundered, we [Iranians] have come to symbolize savagery and aggression. These are our houses, resources, culture, and dignity that are being plundered. They take from our children's sustenance and give it to China and Russia, and after a circumambulation, this sustenance settles in the pockets of Western capitalists. Whenever plunder awakens us─ yes plunder─ they resort to the violence of war. They begin by murdering voices that are demanding reform and an end to the plunder. Aggression suffocates these voices and takes the place of dialogue.
We must speak through peace, critique, reflection, and a multiplicity of voices. Oh people! I kiss your hands! Speak out!

Not intending to undertake a careful analysis, Reza expresses some of his thoughts in a disjointed manner. He is distraught by both internal and external wrongs. The former stems from widespread social distrust and an emphasis on violence over dialogue to address national dissent and conflict. The latter is rooted in the implicit irony that, as economically and militarily powerful countries like the United States commit acts of violence and plunder the earth's resources, Iranians have come to symbolize savagery on the world stage, evidencing Reza's awareness that the public discourse─ in the United States and elsewhere─ has come to depict Iran as a savage nation threatening the US and the world. In his concluding remarks, Reza prescribes the need for the principle of peaceful engagement and dialogue which can weaken, if not eliminate, the internal and external wrongs he is concerned with.

Our discourses can continue to view the world from the security concerns of the US's state and military apparatus, instilling more fear in the hearts of Americans, or they can begin to include reasoned voices from Iran like Reza's, helping Americans look at their relations with Iran through their common human needs and aspirations, not through fear and a purported urgency to war.