Iran: Shockingly Normal

Walid Houri 

Iran has been an object of curiosity and exoticism for centuries – and since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's exceptional presence in the Western psyche shifted from the land of Orientalist fantasies to become one of oppression, backwardness and – of course – terrorism.

Iran re-emerged as the superstar of world politics when the “Iranian Nuclear Program” became “international public opinion’s” number one concern. It is hard, if not impossible to talk about Iran without having a set of preconceived prejudices and ideas – whether positive or negative – arising at every moment.

We arrived in Iran from Amsterdam with a backpack of prejudices and a suitcase of curiosity. Day after day the backpack was getting emptier and astonishment was replacing curiosity. One could write about Iran's oppressive regime, and about the conservative social regulations, as is usually the case in the media. However, to refrain from seeing and presenting the other realities of Iran simply contributes to the general misconceptions and misunderstandings about this country. Perhaps what is most striking about Iran is its normality. If one had no prior knowledge about this country through the media, it would simply seem like just another place in the “developed” world.

What is less striking but equally astonishing is the organization, precision, and extremely well maintained infrastructure of this country. As someone who grew up in Lebanon, where national ambition is to one day have electricity 24 hours a day and perhaps enough water to have a shower in summer, and if you are ambitious, a highway with only one large hole per kilometer, Iran was a dream come true. Having decided to take the scenic road through the Zagros Mountains rather than taking the highway, we were constantly warned by locals – and the map – about the quality of this “very small mountain road”. Despite all these warnings we embarked on this 9-hour drive on what turned out to be a smooth, perfectly lit, impeccable road that was nowhere narrower than two lanes.

The signs of the country's development – and the credit that one has to give to the revolution and the country's consecutive governments – are not limited to its roads, metros, trains, buses (all with schedules that are actually respected), electricity, water, and communications. What is perhaps most significant are the people themselves. Iranians have perhaps the best education standards in the region, and certainly Iranian women are the most educated, economically active and socially powerful in the region. In fact, according to UNESCO, Iran has the highest female to male ratio of enrolled primary school pupils in the world.

Furthermore, amid a regime that is accused of being undemocratic – and perhaps rightly so under the present government – it was surprising to see how outspoken people were in public about their opposition to the regime, especially about the present government. What I found fascinating is the fact that Iran has opposition forces, and political groups, and currents, rather than subversive underground organizations, or social and communitarian enmities. Politics in Iran are political. As opposed to Lebanon, which presents itself as a democratic country but where the people do not act as citizens but as clan members lacking the basic political and social skills necessary for the proper function of a democracy (perhaps one of the rather violent expressions of Lebanon's sad political state is the recent lynching of a murder suspect by a horde of villagers), Iranian youth seem to believe in their role as citizens – as voters  – to change their government.

People in Iran make demands of their state, and if the government in power does not meet these demands, they will choose the one that does – or take to the streets in demonstrations. Despite the limitations imposed by the Islamic regime on several social and political levels, it is refreshing to see that there is a society in the Middle East where the state is – or is expected to be – in the service of its people, exactly because its people are aware that this is the role of a state. In other words, social change in Iran will happen – and is happening according to many – because Iranians will make it happen.

Walid el Houri is a Lebanese PhD student at the University of Amsterdam. His work deals with media and strategies of resistance in the Arab World.