Trader’s Narrative

Now that you know the difference between Iranians and Arabs, take a look at the side of Iran the press will never show you - eventhough it is the most representative of the country. Below is a short clip of the typical male teenager in Iran. No they aren’t chanting “Death to America” or doing those mass prayers or anything crazy.

They are dancing. And not just any kind of dance but breakdancing. Notice there are only guys in the room - unrelated girls and boys can’t officially spend time together. Or they risk jail or a good thrashing. Thanks to the pro large family policies during the Iraq-Iran war implemented by Khomeini, the median age in Iran is 25 while it is about 38 in Canada or the US.

Oh and another thing, this is from the city of Qom which as the center of the clerical regime pumps out those turban wearing Mullahs. So you can imagine how conservative the people and the authorities are. But here are their sons, breakdancing on the family’s Persian rug.

If I called the shots in the US, instead of shock and awe, I would engage in a full frontal charm and cultural assault on Iran. When you really think about it, how would you rather have all these Iranian youth spending their time? Breakdancing or shooting you with a gun and blowing up cars?

If there’s one thing all Iranians (er, I mean Persians) hate, it is being lumped together with Arabs. Why? For one, we aren’t Arab. And for another, our country and civilization was taken over by the Arab (Muslim) hordes and our culture decimated in an attempt to totally erase it.

For more than a thousand years we fought to remain a distinct society while being controlled by a much larger Arab civilization. Persians are very crafty. We use every conceivable tool. For example, we rejected an imposed language by turning the words to mean the opposite. Mozakhraf in Arabic means, beautiful, guilded, ornate. In Persian it means garbage, trivial, of no value.

Our heroes to this day are people who fought against the invading Arab army. My namesake was one such hero. It says a lot about our collective character that to this day, Babak is the most common Persian name for boys - and not Mohammad.

So for the love of all that is holy, please don’t call a Persian an Arab.

Oh, and happy Canada day !!