Recently a video has been in circulation, in which Golshifteh Farahani, the newly discovered Iranian young actor is interviewed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po2waRMVdmY). In this interview she is cute, and that’s as far as she goes—just being cute. What she maintains in this entire interview, ironically, has nothing to do with her career; it is about how great liars we Iranians are. At some point she also adds that people in other countries, such as China and Korea, also are “good” liars, and how people in the “democratic” countries are not! Just where these “democratic” countries are, she does not mention; but the way she makes her remark is so familiar that you can immediately tell that she means America, maybe England, and maybe some other western countries.
What immediately comes to any decent Iranian’s mind is asking her, how dare you? How dare you put your people down, only to promote yourself and open doors for yourself. This inferiority complex that many people, like Golshifteh khaanom, are suffering from is not real; it is only in their own head. In fact, the very fact that she is where she is tells any intelligent person that she herself is a great manipulator of her audience—and that makes her a great liar, to begin with: she is young, she is beautiful, she is cute, and she knows how to use the combination to manipulate her audience. (By the way, Hollywood is a sucker for this kind of merchandise.) Golshifteh khaanom, if Iranians were “great” liars, as you maintain, you could never tell that they were lying. You can tell because they are not such “great” liars—as you suggest they are.
Incidentally, this interview is in English, the language of those whose “heroes” are such masters of guile and deceit as Churchill and Lyndon Johnson—whose role in the Vietnam war may never be underestimated. This is the language of those in whose society a sales pitch is socially accepted (that is, you lie, I know that you lie, and it is still O.K. with me!): My product (Pepsi, Coke, hamburger, chicken, shoes, cosmetics, whatever the junk!) is the best in the world; come and get it, before it is sold out. This is the language of the same pharmaceutical companies who do not share any information about the harmful side effects of their products, except for that which is required by law, that does not cover all the details. And if they cannot sell their hazardous medications in the US, well, they would go ahead and sell them to the third world countries, without even giving a second thought to what sort of damage they can cause for those poor, unsuspecting people. This is the language of those whose one of the greatest lies in the history of humankind is called “Hollywood,” located in the heart of the “city of angels”! The city of corrupt criminals, corrupt film makers, and corrupt police—all alike! This is the language of those who can kill Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, without anybody being able to find out who was behind it. This is how you lie, and you cover it up—no one can tell! These operators of your great “democracy” can really lie, can’t they? They are your “great liars,” Golshifteh khaanom.
And, so, I must conclude by asking Golshifteh khaanom, “are you kidding me? How dare you?”
