- Being able to read, write and speak one of the most ancient languages in its oldest available forms.
Very rarely (if ever) you'll find a piece from hundreds of years ago that is easily understandable to average people. If you show people a piece of Latin text from 700 years ago, most of them would not have a clue, but Iranians have the luxury of reading Shahnameh and completely understanding it without referring to dictionaries or other books.
- The food. Enough said
That's pretty much it. Everything else about being Iranian is either insignificant or a pain in the ass.
The biggest pain about being Iranian is having roots in an extremely sick culture drowned in dishonesty, superstition and lack of confidence/anger/depression/stress. We're also self-jailed people in that we can rarely disconnect ourselves from our parents enough to blossom in a new life. Most of us live a lifetime of guilt due to the wrong cultural belief that children owe their parents for the rest of their lives and must do everything they can to pay their parents back for all the love and care they were provided. We live in this lie our whole life.
Very rarely (if ever) you'll find a piece from hundreds of years ago that is easily understandable to average people. If you show people a piece of Latin text from 700 years ago, most of them would not have a clue, but Iranians have the luxury of reading Shahnameh and completely understanding it without referring to dictionaries or other books.
- The food. Enough said
That's pretty much it. Everything else about being Iranian is either insignificant or a pain in the ass.
The biggest pain about being Iranian is having roots in an extremely sick culture drowned in dishonesty, superstition and lack of confidence/anger/depression/stress. We're also self-jailed people in that we can rarely disconnect ourselves from our parents enough to blossom in a new life. Most of us live a lifetime of guilt due to the wrong cultural belief that children owe their parents for the rest of their lives and must do everything they can to pay their parents back for all the love and care they were provided. We live in this lie our whole life.
- Being able to read, write and speak one of the most ancient languages in its oldest available forms.
Very rarely (if ever) you'll find a piece from hundreds of years ago that is easily understandable to average people. If you show people a piece of Latin text from 700 years ago, most of them would not have a clue, but Iranians have the luxury of reading Shahnameh and completely understanding it without referring to dictionaries or other books.
- The food. Enough said
That's pretty much it. Everything else about being Iranian is either insignificant or a pain in the ass.
The biggest pain about being Iranian is having roots in an extremely sick culture drowned in dishonesty, superstition and lack of confidence/anger/depression/stress. We're also self-jailed people in that we can rarely disconnect ourselves from our parents enough to blossom in a new life. Most of us live a lifetime of guilt due to the wrong cultural belief that children owe their parents for the rest of their lives and must do everything they can to pay their parents back for all the love and care they were provided. We live in this lie our whole life.
Very rarely (if ever) you'll find a piece from hundreds of years ago that is easily understandable to average people. If you show people a piece of Latin text from 700 years ago, most of them would not have a clue, but Iranians have the luxury of reading Shahnameh and completely understanding it without referring to dictionaries or other books.
- The food. Enough said
That's pretty much it. Everything else about being Iranian is either insignificant or a pain in the ass.
The biggest pain about being Iranian is having roots in an extremely sick culture drowned in dishonesty, superstition and lack of confidence/anger/depression/stress. We're also self-jailed people in that we can rarely disconnect ourselves from our parents enough to blossom in a new life. Most of us live a lifetime of guilt due to the wrong cultural belief that children owe their parents for the rest of their lives and must do everything they can to pay their parents back for all the love and care they were provided. We live in this lie our whole life.
it's either insignificant, a more social phenomena existing in other cultures too or a pain in the ass.
One thing I don't particularly like about Iranians in general is that we boast about having a +(4000-5000) year old history, but we sometimes act like neanderthals. If we had really learned from that history and those experiences, our country would look much different and as individuals we would also act differently.
I used to think the same, but having grown up here, I simply realized it's the type of "friendships" in the Iranian culture that are quite different.
In general, we're parented to think we "owe" and are "fortunate to be born". That not only defines our lifestyles, but it also gets reflected in our relationships with childhood friends. Most of us have this mild but significant negative feeling about having lost touch with our childhood classmates and neighbors, that's why we try to hold on to close friends for as long as possible even if they present a level of complacency and sometimes danger to our adult life. Most Iranians even those who are in Iran experience feelings similar to soldiers who are homesick.
Iranian parenting (regardless of the garbage religious aspects of it) is among the most damaging parenting routines I've witnessed. Unhealthy parent/child relationships that only get richer in codependency are highly prevalent in our society. We're raised and encouraged to feel guilty by our mothers. Iranian mothers are horrible in bringing up independent, confident children. Iranian fathers are little boys that never detached from their wrong childhood learnings and end up destroying the lives of their own children by injecting even more guilt, shame and baseless beliefs into their head.
Iranians are highly co-dependent people. Their mental survival state is one of the most fragile I've witnessed among many nationalities. Without their parents, Iranians in general feel dead.
Very alarming and a major cause of Iran's lack of progress.
In general, we're parented to think we "owe" and are "fortunate to be born". That not only defines our lifestyles, but it also gets reflected in our relationships with childhood friends. Most of us have this mild but significant negative feeling about having lost touch with our childhood classmates and neighbors, that's why we try to hold on to close friends for as long as possible even if they present a level of complacency and sometimes danger to our adult life. Most Iranians even those who are in Iran experience feelings similar to soldiers who are homesick.
Iranian parenting (regardless of the garbage religious aspects of it) is among the most damaging parenting routines I've witnessed. Unhealthy parent/child relationships that only get richer in codependency are highly prevalent in our society. We're raised and encouraged to feel guilty by our mothers. Iranian mothers are horrible in bringing up independent, confident children. Iranian fathers are little boys that never detached from their wrong childhood learnings and end up destroying the lives of their own children by injecting even more guilt, shame and baseless beliefs into their head.
Iranians are highly co-dependent people. Their mental survival state is one of the most fragile I've witnessed among many nationalities. Without their parents, Iranians in general feel dead.
Very alarming and a major cause of Iran's lack of progress.
I agree with Zob Ahan and BT.
FRIENDS VS.PERSIAN FRIENDS
FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Are the reason you have food.
FRIENDS: Will say "hello."
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a kiss.
FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Call your parents Mom and Dad
FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Cry with you.
FRIENDS: Will eat at your dinner table and Leave.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking, laughing and just being together.
FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.
FRIENDS: know a few things about you.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Could write a book about you
FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds' ass that left you.
FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"
FRIENDS: Are for a while.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Are for life.
FRIENDS VS.PERSIAN FRIENDS
FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Are the reason you have food.
FRIENDS: Will say "hello."
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a kiss.
FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Call your parents Mom and Dad
FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Cry with you.
FRIENDS: Will eat at your dinner table and Leave.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking, laughing and just being together.
FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.
FRIENDS: know a few things about you.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Could write a book about you
FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds' ass that left you.
FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"
FRIENDS: Are for a while.
PERSIAN FRIENDS: Are for life.
Even if these long lasting friendships are the result of guilt (Which I disagree and that is up for a long discussion) you can't deny that they are beautiful. When I go with friends of 30+ years on a road trip you should see the look on the face of the americans in my office. They are dumbfounded and jealous. Some of them might have a drinking buddy but that is it. I remember I bailed out an american friend out of jail. When he came out he couldn't believe I did that as he never had a true friend. They just don't know the meaning.
I think we are becoming self hating people because of what this gov't has put us through. Beleve me it ain't that bad to be Iranian.
I think we are becoming self hating people because of what this gov't has put us through. Beleve me it ain't that bad to be Iranian.
I wouldn't call myself self hating. I went on a multi-year research voyage to find out what kind of advantages and disadvantages my upbringing could pose to a child that I may father in the future. The voyage led to very interesting findings and feelings. I'm content with my background, but far from proud. And by Iranian standards I would say I was raised in a fairly normal/liberal family. Yet the wounds are visible and not something to be proud of.
Your friendships are tools you use for mental survival. The more devout/dependent you feel about a friendship, the more fragile you are. There's a fine balance and most long-term friendships are far from balanced. They're mostly codependent relationships covering thick layers of resentment and self-hate. Of course, the positive feelings that such codependent relationships offer are also much more powerful/satisfying that those offered by balanced/less codependent ones. Similar to how romance with borderline or bipolar individuals offers incredible moments of lust, passion and sexual explosions among all the destructive times.
Your friendships are tools you use for mental survival. The more devout/dependent you feel about a friendship, the more fragile you are. There's a fine balance and most long-term friendships are far from balanced. They're mostly codependent relationships covering thick layers of resentment and self-hate. Of course, the positive feelings that such codependent relationships offer are also much more powerful/satisfying that those offered by balanced/less codependent ones. Similar to how romance with borderline or bipolar individuals offers incredible moments of lust, passion and sexual explosions among all the destructive times.
There are LOTS of things I like about being Irooni... our food and sweets, our language and literature, our music from the 70's , the diversity of our people and culture, our long history and the influence we've had on both Eastern and Western cultures and on the world in general, the fact that you can have -20° temperature and snow in Hamedan and it's sunny and 30° in Abadan (which is pretty much unheard of anywhere else in the world, particularly for a country the size of Iran), I like our mehmoon-navazi, I like how you can meet Iranians for the first time and feel like you've known them all your life, I love the fact the we hold some of the best "sosis" parties in the world I love Nowrouz and charshanbeh-soori and Yalda and Tiregan and sizdah-bedar, and I love being Iranian, because everyone in the world knows that NOBODY FUCKING PARTIES LIKE IRANINANS!!!
And since this was supposed to be a "positive" thread, I was not going to mention anything negative, but the one thing I HATE about being Iranian is how we always victimize ourselves. We blame everyone and everything from the fucking Macedonians to the Arabs and Mongols and the Russians and the British and the Americans to the way our families raised us and how our mom and dad weren't the GREAT FANTASY parents that they were supposed to be and any little fucked up thing in our life and the life of our country is the result of all these things that other people did or didn't do to us or for us! And when you victimize yourself so much, you'll eventually become a victim in a notoriously obvious self-fulfilling prophecy.
And all I have to say about that is people who feel that way should just fucking get over it and get on with life - and if you don't see all these AMAZING things about Iranians, then get a new set of friends, because frankly I have seen NO shortage of GREAT Iranians around me, everywhere that I have looked.
, the diversity of our people and culture, our long history and the influence we've had on both Eastern and Western cultures and on the world in general, the fact that you can have -20° temperature and snow in Hamedan and it's sunny and 30° in Abadan (which is pretty much unheard of anywhere else in the world, particularly for a country the size of Iran), I like our mehmoon-navazi, I like how you can meet Iranians for the first time and feel like you've known them all your life, I love the fact the we hold some of the best "sosis" parties in the world I love Nowrouz and charshanbeh-soori and Yalda and Tiregan and sizdah-bedar, and I love being Iranian, because everyone in the world knows that NOBODY FUCKING PARTIES LIKE IRANINANS!!! And since this was supposed to be a "positive" thread, I was not going to mention anything negative, but the one thing I HATE about being Iranian is how we always victimize ourselves. We blame everyone and everything from the fucking Macedonians to the Arabs and Mongols and the Russians and the British and the Americans to the way our families raised us and how our mom and dad weren't the GREAT FANTASY parents that they were supposed to be and any little fucked up thing in our life and the life of our country is the result of all these things that other people did or didn't do to us or for us! And when you victimize yourself so much, you'll eventually become a victim in a notoriously obvious self-fulfilling prophecy.
And all I have to say about that is people who feel that way should just fucking get over it and get on with life - and if you don't see all these AMAZING things about Iranians, then get a new set of friends, because frankly I have seen NO shortage of GREAT Iranians around me, everywhere that I have looked.
There are alot of negative and pessimistic Iranians in Iran and around the world in general. I think it is the lack of exercise we get in a week. But I got to tell you everything in my opinion is fantastic about being Iranian. Of course like all the other people we have challenges but we can beat those challenges and we can have and share happiness to other Iranians and people around the world. Life is beautiful, for the people who are negative pessimists are most likely looking in the wrong place and need to change their view point as a whole!!!....
- Being able to read, write and speak one of the most ancient languages in its oldest available forms.
Very rarely (if ever) you'll find a piece from hundreds of years ago that is easily understandable to average people. If you show people a piece of Latin text from 700 years ago, most of them would not have a clue, but Iranians have the luxury of reading Shahnameh and completely understanding it without referring to dictionaries or other books.
- The food. Enough said
That's pretty much it. Everything else about being Iranian is either insignificant or a pain in the ass.
The biggest pain about being Iranian is having roots in an extremely sick culture drowned in dishonesty, superstition and lack of confidence/anger/depression/stress. We're also self-jailed people in that we can rarely disconnect ourselves from our parents enough to blossom in a new life. Most of us live a lifetime of guilt due to the wrong cultural belief that children owe their parents for the rest of their lives and must do everything they can to pay their parents back for all the love and care they were provided. We live in this lie our whole life.
Very rarely (if ever) you'll find a piece from hundreds of years ago that is easily understandable to average people. If you show people a piece of Latin text from 700 years ago, most of them would not have a clue, but Iranians have the luxury of reading Shahnameh and completely understanding it without referring to dictionaries or other books.
- The food. Enough said
That's pretty much it. Everything else about being Iranian is either insignificant or a pain in the ass.
The biggest pain about being Iranian is having roots in an extremely sick culture drowned in dishonesty, superstition and lack of confidence/anger/depression/stress. We're also self-jailed people in that we can rarely disconnect ourselves from our parents enough to blossom in a new life. Most of us live a lifetime of guilt due to the wrong cultural belief that children owe their parents for the rest of their lives and must do everything they can to pay their parents back for all the love and care they were provided. We live in this lie our whole life.
It's only two things for me which both have been mentioned above.
First, it's the language. Our language defines a lot of how we are. While many languages are made to facilitate communications, ours is built as a tease. Unlike most other languages, it is a virtue in Persian to be vague, indirect, open to interpretation, or even misunderstood. A lot of our cultural characteristics go back to this linguistic tendency to hide the true meaning and to imply. This is why we are not straightforward people, why we are not as honest as a society, why we don't always do or mean what we say, or say what we mean, why we consider cheating acceptable, why we personalize ethics, etc. But it's also why we can read between the lines, we understand nuance, can understand poetry like no other culture does, can cherish sadness, be imaginative or perceptive, etc.
The second thing is friends. In the west, friends are functional, they serve a purpose, and have a certain place in your life as Payandeh Iran beautifully wrote in his post. You have a friend that you go to dinner with, one to play cards with, one to play gulf, etc. In Iran you do all those things with the same friend and they occupy all your life, and so when they're not there, your whole life feels empty or full of shit depending on your perspective.
Oh, and another thing to like is that Iran has FOUR seasons!
First, it's the language. Our language defines a lot of how we are. While many languages are made to facilitate communications, ours is built as a tease. Unlike most other languages, it is a virtue in Persian to be vague, indirect, open to interpretation, or even misunderstood. A lot of our cultural characteristics go back to this linguistic tendency to hide the true meaning and to imply. This is why we are not straightforward people, why we are not as honest as a society, why we don't always do or mean what we say, or say what we mean, why we consider cheating acceptable, why we personalize ethics, etc. But it's also why we can read between the lines, we understand nuance, can understand poetry like no other culture does, can cherish sadness, be imaginative or perceptive, etc.
The second thing is friends. In the west, friends are functional, they serve a purpose, and have a certain place in your life as Payandeh Iran beautifully wrote in his post. You have a friend that you go to dinner with, one to play cards with, one to play gulf, etc. In Iran you do all those things with the same friend and they occupy all your life, and so when they're not there, your whole life feels empty or full of shit depending on your perspective.
Oh, and another thing to like is that Iran has FOUR seasons!