Misc

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The fact that Mr.Rick Steves made some obvious mistakes throughout his explanation is not something difficult to see!
However we dont have to expect everything as detailed and as correct for the first visits to Iran!
The fact that we are here to see this clip and we are surprised by it show that such clips are rare!
IRANIAN Dignity is like a paper filled with black lines and labeled wrongfully by some countries and ADs and that takes some time to be clean again.Many of the ERASERs may cause black spot, but Still they are cleaning major black lines.

Well Done Rick!

To sickofiri

My opinion of Iran and of Iranians before and after watching this lecture is unchanged.

Until a few years ago I knew nothing about Iran / Persia apart from tales of Dariush and Xerxes that I learned in high school history classes, but now I have a very positive attitude and admiration because I have met Iranians and taken the time to learn, by speaking, reading and listening.

I am also aware enough to see the negative aspects of the IRI, and am informed enough to realize that probably the great majority of Iranians don't support the regime that they live under.

Positive and admiring... I hope that my opinion meets with your approval.

Rick Steves has done

Rick Steves has done a wonderful job for a first time traveler to Iran!

If you listen to him he repeatedly says he is not an expert on the subject(obviously no details) and he says it as he saw it on his short trip.
What he is mainly discussing are the People and the Sites with very little tinge of politics involved.
He criticises America for her role as an "Empire" and and all that goes with that role.
He finds the people friendly and family oriented and he Likes these people. He is treated very nicely and he finds that quite the opposite of what he had expected... so he is impressed.
Quite obviously he is not bringing up a lot of issues that do not pertain to travelling.
He is not discussing politics and the regime of the country.
He is looking at the 'people' as an outsider who had not had much knowledge of Iran prior to this trip and prior to studying about it.
He has done a terrific job.
He is trying to show the faces of the people to the American people and the world, who are exactly like you and me... family... children... friends... home ...and life.
Thank you Rick.

His portrait of Iran is not a positive one.

Just because he says Iranians are human, too. We are too grateful to hear what else he says. He explains how bad things are in Iran, and how it is being justified by the government to the masses.

Mr. Steves is a peaceful man

my be he is. But what about the once great, but since 1978/79 permanently getting more and more thick, satan? Irak? Afghanistan? Guantanamo?متاسفانه ما ملت خارجی پرست بودیم
و هنوز هم هستیم

سالها دلطلپجامجمازمامپکرد
انچیخود داشثزپئگانه
ثمنامپکرد

Unconscionable commentary by

Unconscionable commentary by Mr Rick Steves.

Ms. Rusta, Bebeen Cheh Fetneh ee Endaakhti? Happy now?

My Gosh, here was a beautiful piece that I enjoyed and sent it to friends. Then I see all these comments responding to this negative resentful and unhappy person! Give us a break!

Mr. Steves is a peaceful man in a climate that is full of hate and negative PR against our people! poor guy came to correct our image and Rusta got mad! Her big ego got hurt!

He went there for only 2 weeks!!! You have lived here for 20-30 years, how much do you know about the westerners after all these years? Isn't always easier to criticize than compliment? 

It is a travel channel as he said, not a political debate! Please! Sounds like you are one of those guys whom he mentioned! After all he did a good job advertizing bahai! What's your problem? Speaking the truth?

Thank you Mr. Steve! You learned about Iranians in Iran something we always thought the west should know! After all you were telling a story about the iraians in Iran, not in the west! Wonderful job! I proudly showed them to my American children and I am going to order a copu for their future! God bless you!

Rick Steves sheds light on Iran

متاسفانه ما ملت خارجی پرست بودیم و هنوز هم هستیم.
این آقا رفته بهش خوش گذشته..کسی بهش گیر نداده خوب معلومه برای اینکه بتوانه فیلم را از کشور خارج کنه...یک مقداری سوالهای ساده و بیخطر کرده...وقتی پاشو از ایران بیاره بیرون اونوقته که دهنشو وا میکنه و میگه که چقدر ملت در فقر و اوضای سختی بسر میبردند...شما مردم را با دولت مقایسه نکنید..میخواهید چی بگن؟؟ که آره اینجا دولت مردم را برای سادهترین میخواهید از گرونی و نادانی دولت صحبت کنند؟؟ کافیه به صورتهای مردم نگاهی بکنید...از اوضاع خبردار میشوید. موضوعات میره زندون و با پول هنگفت از اونها به جیب میزنه؟؟ نباید یادمان بره که دولت ایران یک دولت تروریست میباشد.

Steve and John

Steve and John, I like to kindly ask your opinion of Iranians before watching Rick Steves's clips?

Dear Everybody

Holy cow!  Some people harbour huge resentments about some things.  Rick Steves is a travel writer/broadcaster, not a politician nor an opinion-leader.  What a surprise that he showed us photographs of mosques and the bazaar and veiled women.  He's also an American citizen who has been forcefed propaganda by his government and thus doesn't know everything about Iran.

What he did show to his audience was full of praise and respect, but perhaps that was insufficient for some of us.  Too bad; I still enjoyed it and felt that I learned a bit more about what has become one of my passions: your country of birth, its culture and its people.  Maybe you should all wish that more non-Iranians would see things such as Steves' lecture and be prompted to investigate further by themselves and then form their own opinions independently of their government.

Dear Farah and Luciferous

The intention behind Rick Steve's film was not to show Iranians who we are!! Neither those Iranians who applaud his work and similar work, consider it an education for self-identity, to find out who they are! His work, despite its shortcomings, is laudable because it challenges the dominant and pervasive communication portraying Iran and Iranians as backward, hostile, dangerous, uncultured, black and white. It is this latter propaganda which has not only demonised Iran in the eyes of Western audiences, particularly, in the US, for purposes of war and hegemony, but unfortunately, fits within the concept you are talking about, that is, it has fed into the vacuum of identity of the Iranians in diaspora who take their cues about Iran and Iranian identity from the Fox News and the rest of the American mainstream media. As you know, that demonisation and black propaganda has overwhelming dominance, Rick Steves' film is a drop in the ocean of black propaganda which have filled the airways for the last 30 years.

Dear Farah

Dear Farah,

It's not correct to mix and match here. I believe the objective of Steves was not to satisfy your political views or the Iranian problems; religious or social. His attempt was to explain to the American audience that Iran is a country with people and those people are... As he explains in his show and this program.

Therefore we need to look at the scope at which this program falls in to. Assume that he wants to let the American audience know that Iranian people are warm, passionate and friendly. They have a deep culture and they are concerned about the threats that they are facing. Where in this scope the idea of Political prisoners fit in to? or is it proper to mention that?

In a travel show to Egypt, is it proper to criticize the Islamic or political wrong doings of that system? That's not the scope, not that it's right or wrong, but it won't fall in to the scope of the objective.

Let's do this, divide the issues to several folds. We are intelligent enough to be able to multi task. Give us this credit.

1-We have a responsibility to fix the Iranian political problem. That's our problem, the Iranian people.

2-We have a responsibility to try to better the life of the people inside the country.

3-We have a responsibility to present the best of our culture and mannerism to the outside world.

And the list can go on, but this is enough to make my point. In the above parts, each can stand by itself and become more powerful by the completion of the other. The scope of this program was number three in the list.

By demonizing Iran, the people will get the load not the system. If there is a war, everyone will be affected. Number two tells us that it is better to support a program and provide active participation in every aspects of the local laws to make sure that Iran and Iranians are in a better situation tomorrow than they were today. Some have chosen the wrong path and supported the sanctions, which has hurt the people for a long time and it's not getting better. No sanctions, on Iraq, Iran or North Korea will ever work against the power of the system. That's a fact and easy to check. On the contrary the opposite is true. The flow of capital cascades down and helps the people, which then get a chance to breath and think beyond the hassles of daily bread!

If you choose to enter the country and start a revolution, as you stand in the front line, you may or may not succeed, and that's another way to approach this problem. You may set an example. For the time being we can work with what we got. If we plan to work properly, the people of Iran will be empowered by time and they will handle the rest. I trust them. After all they are living there not I.

To empower the people, we need peace, lifting the sanctions, and encouraging the communications of cultures and people. They provide funds to local businesses, allows people to work and develop sense of belonging to the world affairs and so on.

Mr. Steves has tried to do one of the tasks that lays on our shoulders, and that is humane, passionate and kind. He certainly did not need to do so but took a the task because he felt, as many do, the media is unfair to the Iranian people. The key word is people. Demonize, then bomb. The approach of bringing the ideas of torture or political prisoners won't sit well with the majority of the Western audiences, and they will support bombing the evil nation! He wanted to stop that trend.

I thank him and wish him health and happiness and happy Sizdeh Bedar to you and your family.

Do we need a foreigner tell us who we are?

Of course we do. We are "IRANIAN"s. But Iranians are different. They do not click on "IRANIAN" and likewise sites. They have their own sites in which only truth and logics find place. Years ago these - most politly said - foreigners had the might in Iran to decide how Iranians have to dress and what they have to eat and drink. Many hundred of years they made intensiv scientifical studies to find out what and how and why Iranians - and not only iranians but also chinese and indians, africans australians and the true americans who lived natively in america - are as they are in order to force the nation behave different in all dimensions of life. so they were then be able to expliot easier, to pick till nothing more comes out. They did so as if they knew better about hafez, Saadi, ferdowsi and iranians food-, clothing-, language-culture and literature. There were times as they knew better about mines, natural sources and geography of Iran than the iranians themselves. Thanks God those satanic days are over. They will not be back in the next several hundred years. The true Iranians, those honourable beeings made their fatherland free of parasits and are enjoying their achievements since 1978/79. They do not need to lissen to subjects which are presented in "IRANIAN". But we and specially those of us who deserted instead of staying and helping to save the land. yes we need in fact these sticky and strange creatures to tell us what we are, who and how we are and why we are. i am happy for those who do not the explanations and would also not give even one PAPPAZY to them and live their own life.

Do we need a foreigner tell us who we are?

 Sometimes, I wished if my detractors were a little less self-righteous and a little more self conscious.  It looks that some of my critics are so deeply fixed in their rigid mindsets and so firmly stuck to their preset views of their opponents that it is hard for them to think that not all the critics of the Islamic regime are hard-line monarchists, Mossad spies, or Republican voters and so on. The likes of Xerxes, first make false assumptions about those whom they disapprove and then on the basis of those false assumptions keep barking at them!! Well, I have got some news for them:  Xerxes – let me tell you how I am planning to get there. Not by listening to an American Travel writer who has been to my country for a few weeks and thinks that he has seen it all and met all its typical people and understood their mentality. I really feel sorry for you guys who are so much in awe of foreigners of the calibre of this man Davoudi – Read before write and before ridiculing your expatriates accent – aren’t you supposed to be an Iran and Iranians lover?!!! Shabnam jan: Guantanamo bay is in Cuba !

FR

Steve and John

I am surprised you didn't invite Sarzamine to clarify or elaborate more on his remarks if for no reason other than isolating what's really the cause for his discourse! Shouldn't that be the routine before one renders a conclusion effecting the faith of some 70 million people?

Steve Fink

"With all due respect I don't believe that your people are ready for democracy yet. Just my humble observation".

Did you get that observation from the comments by Sarzamineman and other commentators on this website and based your immodest conclusion on these?! Or did you get it from the programme itself? In any case, is it not dangerously hasty to form opinion on an entire nation based on either of these or even the combination of two?! If however your 'conclusion' was formed independently of the above, please inform us because it is very offensive and challenges the spirit of the programme you seem to have liked. On the other hand, you may not have meant what you wrote down and just made an unfortunate thoughtless comment.

Please, with all due respect, let us be respectful towards each other and not generalise. I felt that although the programme had shortcomings in terms of its simplification of complex issues which Steve himself acknowledged would be the case because of his unfamiliarity, but its basic intention and message was one of RESPECT, TOLERANCE, PEACE, JUSTICE & HUMILITY.

Thanks Mr steves

Sarzamine Man
What is your suggestion for Bahai under current regime? To stay and get killed? Which part of Rick Steves documentary is humiliation of Iranian? Thanks to Rick Steves for his work. He did a very fine job.

I'm also confused by the criticism

I agree with you Steve Fink.  I watched the whole program and found it fascinating and 100% positive in its treatment and depiction of Iran, its culture and its people.

In fact, if you watch the Q&A portion you will hear Steves basically condemning his own government's policies and explaining logically and coherently his opinion on how terrorists are created and why they act.  Some of his comments were mildly uninformed, but he was the first to admit (several times) that he is not an expert, and when he asked the Iranian-Americans in the audience to correct any errors, not one offered a correction.

Sometimes I read a comment and wonder whether the person writing it has actually read the article or watched the video, or whether some people always react in a knee-jerk fashion just because that's the way they are.

Sarzamine Man

My Iranian buddy just gave me this link and I watched it. After reading the comments, I am confused about what you stand for.

So you are saying Steves is a joke because:
-Iranians are nice people
-They are family oriented
-They hold strong family love for their kids
-They are proud people
-They are just like any American
-They are diverse
-We should not demonize them

From your comment I gather that you don't agree with any of the above. That's what I got from the entire program. My friend had told me that one of the biggest obstacle for Iranians to Unite is their lack of coherence communications. They tend to disagree with one another even if the other person is not saying anything wrong.
With all due respect I don't believe that your people are ready for democracy yet. Just my humble observation.

Hmmmm

No wonder no one take this guy seriously, he is a total joke, he has not yet realized what really people like and want in this planet and what people want is not different in Iran than U.S, it is more universal, it is unfortunate that nowadays any low minded people go to Iran and make clips to humiliate Iranian and we always welcome them to do so, no wonder, we are the only nation in this planet that almost every tribe and nations could easily come and invade us, rob us and impose whatever they wanted on us and we always welcomed them, so Steve clip and XerXes reaction of it is no exception, let see, Mr Steve saying hey this is Shia land and if you are Bahai, hey either become moslem or get the hell out of Iran, would portray Iranian as a good nation ?? This will definitely get the clap from IranDokht and XerXes, but do you think a open minded, intellectual individual would clap for this statement as well ?? do you think, Sattar Khan, Mosadeg, Khayam, Rumi, Saadi, Bironi or Ferdosi would clap hand for this guy for such a statement ?? Of course not, I mean how can you do that. I suggest to Mr Steve that if he went to Iran to observe Iranian living, people and culture, that is fine, but in what ground do you dare to insult us regarding this very trivial matter, did you put Iranian in an election to see what they want or if they like to kick Bahai out ?? if you are just basing your statement based on what a guy sare koche had to say, then zip it up, either apologize for what you have said or I would never want to see you in my country.

[Iran] sys NO to [islamic] regime

Iran has newer bin taken over by islam-if nat it wood have bin like egypt be for islam [gyptian] now non as arab! country - to no Iran you have to no IRAN.

Well she can't complain too

Well she can't complain too much in the US about the US laws and its inhumane behavior of the government all over the world, because they kick her behind and call her a stupid foreigner. I wonder if people care for human life or just pick and choose? I wonder if anyone cares about the lives that is being lost daily because of great countries that they love so much?

Funny no one says let's go to Iran and help, or put our money together and build something. They do just sit and moan and complain and don't even want Iran to have a good image, tourism, and other things so the people will prosper. No. They say:
Mr. Esteeve deed yu visit Evin Perison ven yu ver der?
Pleaz pleaz don tell us to go visit dat awful place. aah makes me mad. Now I lost my appetite. Jaaveed Shah Javeed Shah.

Whatever Iran is, the people and life in there are more human than those superior beings who see themselves entitled to want Iranians suffer inside because they don't live there anyways. How selfish and horrible. Those who get mad about Iranian having a good image and be understood, are the enemies of the people of Iran. I pray that they never set foot in Iran.

Farah Jan

Do you live in the US? If yes I wonder if you have ever visited the Guantanamo bay area. I heard it's lovely. Nothing less is expected from a modern and democratic country. Forget the backward Iran.

And Farah Rusta

How are you planning to get there? Which country in the region is there? Would Shah be there?
Be realistic. Iranians outside dream that Iran "used" to be a democratic country, or even go further and think it was a Western country with exactly the same values, and suddenly it changed.
Name one book that agrees with your logic here then I will shut up forever.
The fact that it's good and nice to have a democracy, but no one here wonders how to reach it. As if we just need to get women dress with mini skirt and there you go we are democratic. No it's not like that. Women hejab and political prisoners are all horrible but you and your mentality have no solution to offer. You reject Iran and Iranians as if you are superior because you are not there. Indifferent about their daily sufferings that goes beyond prisoners. You don't live there, you don't care about the simple things.
What he does is noble, against all the misunderstandings, he tells the world that Iranians are similar to the rest of the world and want to live. Their government issues are their own to solve and we must not pick a fight with these noble people.

No one asks anyone to visit Iran, but its a pity that I have to bring such simple points every time.
Some have mentioned before to look at Turkey and their democracy in the region!
Well I tell you what. Turkey is not free either. Perhaps again we need to go back to freedom 101 and explain social and political freedoms, norms and values. Dress code is an important indicator but not the ultimate, and should be considered based on everything being equal.
If there are communists books available in Turkey is because there is no Soviet unions, In Iran there are books about Shah and socialism too, while at some point, during the Shah or after Shah it was illegal. Reason isthe level of threats.
The countries that see threat become dictatorial, be it Israel, US or Turkey. And that was the major point in this episode that sadly you missed.
You say I won't visit a country as such or as such. the reason that we have an actively anti movement system that "shows" its harsh ways "more" than our neighbors is simply because we have a politically and socially active population. If our neighbors had it too, and if the west chose to demonize them, they would be demonized also.
He said it best in this film, that he could grab the picture from the prayers and make it as scary or as normal as possible. It's that simple.

What upsets me is not the fact that they are people who dislike the system. It's great to dislike dictatorship. What bothers me is how distant and unfamiliar, unattached many have become to their own people and their struggle for freedom. How they have no clue about Iran today. They just want the result and don't give a damn about anything else.

Do you like those who beg? Or do you admire those who work hard and try to make it with honor. Which one do we fall in? As I have said many times, no great nation has ever became great because they sat on their butts and nag and complain and beg others to come and fix it for them.
You think we don't have any windows to become free from all this? That's because you are not willing to read, and realize where we were, are where we are headed. Many Iranians inside seem more clear. They know that they don't care for this system, but they have pride, and are willing to work hard to change the system to what is Iranian, powerful, advance and hold the Iranian values. They have learned from the revolution that things are not as simple as they appear. Have you learned that lesson? That there are no quick ways? You got to give to get something, what it is, what price it is, how many generations it takes?
Boy, I fell like I can go on and on and with all this there still will be a lot of misunderstandings.

Did he meet the sister of Omid Mirsayyafi?

Definitely not. Omid and thousands of others who have lost their lives and will continue to lose their lives in the hands of the regime's executioners WERE AND ARE HUMANS TOO.

The Iranians who regularly visit Iran are not interested to protest against the death of Omid and thousands of others - they need to keep returning to Iran - and back to the US!  

No, thank you Mr Steves, I WANT to see and enjoy a different Iran than the one you enjoyed traveling around. an Iran in which Omid and his like minded people can write and say what they wrote and said without being arrested, tortured and killed.Such an Iran will not be reached at by sitting with Omild's murderers around a table.

FR

You gotto to respect yourself

Its a pity those who derive their value from the approval of a genocidal people. The Iranian people fought Iraq under sever odds bravely, they were the good guys in Afghanistan (long before US discovered Northern Alliance, Iran helped them). The Americans put the Talibans and the drug dealers in power, you should be proud of your heritage. Good for this guy, but you should be certain and you do not need a confirmation.

Travel guru calls Iran the most misunderstood

country he has ever visited
HAS HE ALSO BEEN IN GUANTANAMO? IRAK? AFGHANIASTAN? GAZA?
After his visit in there areas he would be sure: American Imperialism ist most misunderstood by euro - americans. Otherwise these nations had done something to stop the wild rubbery the countries of this world.
Iranians, those honorable 7ty millions, who live in Iran do need any clown to speak positiv about them and to shed light. after the great satan lays since long in his death bed and is snupping his last drops of air all these ingrations does not make them even to smile. Greeting

Bless his heart!!!

I wish there were more people like Rick Steves out there...

Thank you!

IRANdokht

PS: The link works, but the embedded video doesn't play. Don't pause because it won't play unless you refresh the page.

PPS: Firouzeh Dumas is wonderful, I wish her success in her mission to open the communications between the people of Iran and USA

Agree with XerXes

The biggest threat to Iran is not the west or the mullahs but the iranian exiles living ourside. They have zero knowledge of the transformation that Iran has undergone these past 30 years. They project in their mind the Iran that they WANT to see rather than the Iran as it currently is.

They need to wake up and realise that reaproachment with the mullahs, however bitter is the only way forward for Iran at this stage.

Broken Link

Here is think is the correct link:

//fora.tv/2009/01/26/Rick_Steves_A_Perspective_on_Iran#chapter_02