Strawberry
fields
A strawberry grown in another land
is still a strawberry
December 14, 2004
iranian.com
It is nice to go for a walk in strawberry fields.
I love strawberries, so to me it is heaven on earth. Once, accompanied
by a little child,
I was looking at the strawberries when suddenly she asked me what
a strawberry is. I had to explain that it is this red thing with
this kind of texture, a special kind of flavor... but after I looked
at a bunch of them, I realized that I could not really describe
a shape that would fit them all. In fact, they also had very different
tastes and colors, and eventually I realized that I could not fully
define a strawberry to the child's satisfaction.
But then it hit
me. I had a very satisfying answer. It was so simple and yet so
accurate. I made a quick turn as I glanced left and right, front
and back: "Everything you see here is strawberry... everything...
up to that fence."
This satisfied the kid although I became
puzzled. How could something so seemingly familiar be so terribly
difficult
to define? Some scientists working with robots at MIT and elsewhere
have similar problems. They can easily, as can most people, determine
whether someone is a male or a female. However, it is very difficult
to teach that to a robot. You have to be very specific, and describe,
for instance, skin texture, body proportion, facial features,
voice differences, and maybe differences in bodily movements and
gestures.
When you are walking around in Tehran, you are surrounded by
people you assume are also Iranians. It is a given. The question
of people's identity does not even cross your mind. There are women
and men, young and old, tall and short, bearded and clean shaven,
thin and muscular, healthy and ill, poor and rich, honest and dishonest,
caring and unkind, all kinds of beliefs, all kinds of accents,
different skin colors: from nearly white to dark brown, from PhD
holders to illiterates, from different cities and neighborhoods....
we are strawberries in a strawberry field, called Iran.
When I posed "A
simple question" a few weeks ago, asking for the
criteria that define us Iranians, the great majority of responses
were one sided. Although a few readers came up with a very specific
definition which depended on place of birth, most others said that
one could not or should not come up with the criteria that I had
asked for. They said it is untraditional, unusual, atypical, impossible,
irrational, and as one person suggested, "dictatorial."
It
was generally implied that I was either simple-minded, confused,
or too much of an idealist. In a recent article posted in response
to my original work, the author suggested that we should take our
time in finding who we are and there is no rush in doing that [What's
the rush?]. Others have generally echoed this view saying that
identity is
a private thing and it continues to develop, and trying to define
it or test it based on X number of criteria is simply wrong.
Several
people have basically said "I am an Iranian if I feel/think
that I am an Iranian." This reminds me of reading a letter
in a popular psychology journal, where the editor had suggested
that the reader consider himself a homosexual only when he decides
it is so. Unfortunately or fortunately, the strawberries can not
decide who they are, nor do they care how we classify them.
Here is my question to the readers: Do the strawberries make
the field into a strawberry field, or does the field make these
fruits into strawberries? Does Iran create Iranians or do Iranians
create Iran? After asking an open question in the last article,
I am going to establish where I stand in regards to the above chicken/egg
problem, and hope that this would facilitate more fruitful discussions
than the type I had last time.
Here is my view: Strawberries make
strawberry fields, Iranians make Iran; in addition, I am simply
going to ignore place of birth and genetic linkage as ways of
defining our identity. This is a controversial position, and I
am aware
of it, but it is a very useful way of defining Iranians.
Three or four people emailed me talking about the problems they
were having at school and in life, because one person's father
was not Iranian, and another one's mother was also not Iranian.
The other ones were also living in a mixed family.
One young man
sent me a long email expressing his love for Iran... and everything
Iranian, and if you read that wonderful email, you could hardly
question his Iranian identity despite his parental identities.
As far as I know, we all came from Adam and Eve, and questions
about somebody's grand grandfather being an Iranian or tracing
an Iranian gene in a family is simply pointless. Why? If you
can prove that a family member, several generations back, was
born in Iran, you have not proved anything useful. What does
it mean
to be born in Iran? Nothing. Unless you think that there are
some
magical ingredients in Iranian soil! What if you were on your
way to Iran, but your plane crashed at the border on the Afghanistan
side and you gave birth just then. Is your child an Afghani?
To
continue with our analogy, a strawberry grown in another land
is still a strawberry. The land is just a land, nothing more.
Of course, you can imagine some very patriotic person saying, "I
would die for our land." And so did, at least several hundred
thousand Iranians, presumably for this
land, during the Iran-Iraq war. Answer me this: If nobody lived
in Iran, and it was called Pepsi Land, but you owned it, would
you have done the same? Was this a question of possession, of ownership
of a certain land, or did it have to do with your values and beliefs?
Regardless of the political aspects of the war, some people's courage
and heroic performance makes me think that they were not just defending
a piece of land, but certain values, be it religious or personal,
that they strongly believed in.
In summary, for me, genetics and place of birth are no more
valuable sources of information than a coin toss. You did not
have a saying
in who your parents were or where you would be born. It just happened.
And now you have a piece of paper that reminds you that you were "made
in Iran". And if you live in US long enough, then one day
you pass a test, and abracadabra, you are now an American! What
the hell?! Overnight you have shed skin and become a butterfly!
A new piece of paper is given to you establishing your new identity,
even though you were not exactly born here.
This is of course a
melting pot and you will not do too well if you want to keep
your Iranian paper with you in US, and eventually, you will
become a
full American, whatever that is. These papers and superficial
legal identities are meaningless in this discussion.
 Nevertheless, these legal processes
and papers exist and they define our identity as far as law is
concerned. This topic presents
an opportunity for me to respond to some of the readers who suggested
that defining people's identities based on some criteria is "dictatorial" and
one's identity is private and personal.
As you can see, it is not
up to me or you to decide that, as the government has already decided
to define you. And their definitions usually override your personal
and private definition. "You are not a freedom fighter.. .you
are a terrorist as far as we are concerned." "You are
Iranian...which really means you could be a terrorist." "You
are a homosexual which really means you are a pervert and a sinner."
Why do some people have a real negative view of Iran? Because
everybody who was born in Iran is an Iranian, and once you meet
that minimum criterion you are free to do whatever you want to
do and still be viewed as representing Iran... you could screw
up international relations... you could hurt our national pride...
or worse, you could simply not care about Iran... It is that "one
bad apple" example.
A reader might ask: So does that mean
that all thieves and shoplifters in Iran are not Iranian? No.
Certain things we do can be judged in religious terms or moral
terms or
ethical terms. For instance, honesty is not a virtue that only
Iranians should strive towards. This is universal. The criteria
should be something specific to Iran, something that sets us
apart from the rest of the world, something that reflects the gist
of
being Iranian.
I would like to remind the reader that much is at stake here.
Unless you prefer to be a "closet-Iranian", your identity
does have consequences both for yourself and for other Iranians.
We are a big family and what we do affects each other and also
how we are regarded by other "families". We have to define
our Iranian identity clearly both for us Iranians but also for
the world to see. It is irrational to assume that we are all naturally
headed in the right direction, and that somehow everything is going
to turn out fine in the end.
With so many of us having left the
homeland, and with numerous problems at home, from political
issues to unemployment, drugs, etc, it is imperative that we are
reminded
that we must set standards and live up to them if we are ever
to go back home and rebuild our nation. I could not care less who
comes to power in Iran in the future. Politics is not my game.
I only expect every candidate to be put to the same challenging
tests that we all agree upon.
The values of our countrymen here
and at home come first. Anyone not meeting these standards
should not even be considered. I do not want to jump out of the
frying
pan and right into the fire (az chaaleh be chaah). I will put
up with the current system until someone comes along who can clearly
and cogently show his superior system.
There is no pathology report for one's identity! In other words,
what I am suggesting is no more "true" than someone else's
suggestion. However, one view may be more useful than the other
and we should adopt the more useful one. There are aspects of one's
identity that can and should remain private but there are other
aspects that simply can not remain private.
How else can we stick
together if the only thing we share is that piece of paper with
the word "Iran" printed on it? How can we ensure that
we are still true to our values as defined and implied in our classic
poetry and stories, in our rich culture and history, and in the
minds of patriotic Iranians, the ones with a clear heart and the
ones with a clear mind? After all, what does patriotism mean in
absence of a real identity? When no real identity exists, patriotism
becomes a tool in the hands of government, a way to manipulate
people into doing the unthinkable simply by questioning their love
for their country.
Originally strawberries may be best defined by their location,
but once weeds grow in the field and once other fruits grow there
as well, you better be able to distinguish strawberries from the
rest.
Dear strawberries, I mean, readers: I encourage you to reply
to this article:o)
Please send your letters and if longer, articles
to the site, as this is more efficient than me having to respond
to similar emails over and over again.
 Also, there are many readers
who make unique and valuable contributions, and it is nice to
form a group discussion rather than a one-sided-calling-ME-nonIranian-well-WE-will-show-him
attitude:o)
Otherwise, I will respond to emails after the Christmas
break.... hmmm, I guess I am an American now!
By the way, do
not take
the strawberry analogy very seriously :o)
.................... Bye
Bye Spam!
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