social life in Iran Parvaneh Mokarian Presented by Ladies and gentlemen, thanks very much for attending this talk. My name is … and I will give a short presentation about the social life in Iran, today. You may wonder why I decided to talk about this subject? Well, I came to the UK about 2 and a half years ago. When people realised I am from Iran, they asked me some funny questions like where did you study, women can not go to university in Iran, can they? Can women drive? Do you have right to vote? Can women speak with men or can you go out without a man? At first I was very surprised to hear these things, but after a while when I had a chance to watch TV and read the newspapers, I could understand where those questions came from! Perhaps even if I ask you now to describe Iran (next slide),

These images will come to your mind: land of ayatollahs’ These images will come to your mind: land of ayatollahs’?(click) nuclear facilities and bomb; Axis of evil? (click), women in black veil (click), fanatic Muslims burning other countries flag (click), Persian carpet (click), shah of Iran (click), Isfahan (click), ancient Persia? Do you have any image of daily life in Iran? Have you ever thought these stereotype image of Iran may not reflect the real Iran? Today I am going to show you the other side of Iran that you have never seen before. I like to start by giving some information about the typical age of people in Iran.

Multi voiced and diverse Population: About 70m Sex ratio (male/female)= 1.04 Median age: 25 years old Multi voiced and diverse Young and dynamic society Iran has a population of about 70 million. (click) 70 percent of population are under 30 years old, the ratio of male to women, 1.04. demographically, It means that for every 104 men there are 100 women. (click) It is more interesting to know that half of the population are under 25 years old, yes 50% under 25!!!! It is a very young society. So, what do you expect from a young and dynamic society? To me it seems they should be multi voiced and diverse So if Iran is so diverse why you usually don’t see or hear about this diversity and interesting cultural life, and instead have a stereotype image of it? …

Well, it comes down to our government Well, it comes down to our government. I shall mention that the most media’s reports and programs about Iranian culture shown either in the west or in Iran is based on the Iranian governments desired view of society. In this fake society, most people freely decide to follow government’s policy. But, in reality, this portrayal which gives a picture of identical and monotonic society is not the true image of Iran. (Click) There are huge conflicts between life style the government persuades public to have and the one people actually have. The most obvious discrimination is against women whom are forced to cover their body and hair by wearing Hijab (Islamic dress code). Well, people have to obey the law but not quite in a way that government wants. The government says we are an Islamic state and everyone must cover up, but the resistance of young girls is a big problem for them. And government is not happy with this young ladies’ appearance and is very concern that nobody be aware of them. Basically foreign journalist and academics had little or no access to Iran the last two decades. Governors are reluctant to let journalist go to Iran and make any program based on their visits which conflicts government display of the country and the real people. Even inside Iran people like them, this ladies, people like me, we don’t have any face in our state run media. Clerics believe that this young people, just normal people, are persuading vice in the society and they have to stop them to appear like this and misconduct the rest of the society. How?? www.kavehgolestan.com

Fostering virtue and suppressing vice Wearing Shave or not? Type of music Social behaviour Private life, parties and celebrations Opposite sex Control HOW? Morality police Vigilant groups called Basij, Sepah etc. We have a government that likes to dictate people what to do in every aspects of their life under Islamic principle of “fostering virtue and supressing vice” (amre be maroof va nahy az monkar). They want to control every thing. They want to determine what you wear either in public or private places, whether you shave or not, the type of music you listen, they way you behave particularly with opposite sex, the way you celebrate your wedding or any other happy moment, they interfere with everything. How do they enforce this “controlling system”. Well, we have morality police and other vigilant group, like Basij

Morality police and Basij Morality policewoman And Basijis. Familiar? You usually see this people demonstrating against west. But believe me they are not representative of Iranian people, they presents fundamentalists and also are paid to crack down on public.

In this image you see a morality police asks an Iranian young lady to adjust her headscarf's position. And here another one is waiting to restrain this young couples after kissing. Well, I must say this couple are very brave to kiss each other in a public place, I would never do that ;)

The only thing this lady wants is go to Azadi stadium and watch a football match. But as you see here (click), this basiji is kicking here. This is 8th of march 2006, where women were beaten by police in spite of having a very peaceful demonstration reminding the government their basic right is abused by law. In this picture, a group of ladies are trapped and a basiji is threatening to slap them. So far, I’ve tried to show you briefly how government try to control people and what do they expect from people, but the society is becoming extremely fearless and do what they wish to do. I made two automovies about daily and social life in Iran. I would like to mention that not all of Iranian have this sort of life style. I just want to show you Iran is a very diverse country and I present some part of this diversity that you usually don’t see or hear about it. The first one shows people in public places, going for picnic, friendly gathering and celebrations in restaurant and café shops, mountain climbing etc. In the second movie you will see people in private places. After watching the movies, I won’t make any conclusion and let you be the judge.

Social life in public places Put your automovie here and run it by click.

Social life in private places Put your automovie here and run it by click.