Customer Reviews

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In the preface, writer Hooman Majd is described in oxymoron as the only person in the life of this particular friend as 100 percent American and 100 percent Iranian. In quoting a Sufi poet Sanai, Majd notes: "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,/there is a field. I'll meet you there." This is precisely what he does. This is not a book that attempts to justify the atrocities of any government, but is rather an examination of a country, its views, and how it got there. Though ideologically the Islamic Republic is to have done away with class-- just as Democracy is to have ideally done away with the constrains of the same-- Hooman Majd explores the complex psyche of modern Iran, at once Muslim, Shiite and Persian, all of which Majd defines with great detail, historic significance, personal reference, wit and depth in understanding. While taking us through South Tehran, once the city's roughest neighborhood known as "Texas," onto the government's utilitarian style compound in downtown Tehran, to the privileged homes of former royalists, ambassadors, and artists in North Tehran, to Qom, the desert town and home of Ayatollahs and Shia learning. In introducing us to the complicated personalities in these homes and offices, showing us how and why they got to their particular points of political views and lifestyles, we get an empathetic analysis-- and I stress empathetic as opposed to sympathetic-- in what it means to be Iranian today, and in this climate of what appears to be world tumult, crisis, and confusion. There is a calm centeredness to THE AYATOLLAH BEGS TO DIFFER, which is the manner in which I like to receive information on any highly controversial, timely and topical subject, as opposed to the kind of shrill analyses we find in abundance. I highly recommend Hooman Majd's book for readers who prefer their political and cultural literature written with a masterful sense of balance and wisdom, rather than justification, finger-pointing, and reactionary doctrine.

Hooman Majd has done a fantastic job of describing Iranian cultural nuances to non Iranians.

I am an Iranian myself and I've never seen anyone describing the subtleties of my culture with this level of eloquence and clarity. Ta'arouf is very complex to explain and in my opinion Hooman has nailed it brilliantly. Hooman khodaast! (Hooman is god!) ... here you go, a Persian gholov (hyperbole) for you Amazon readers ;-)

Note to Mr Majd, time to write about America and American culture for Iranian people. Let's keep the dialogue going; let's disappoint the warmongers.

Not a book for the cherishers of preconceived notions, or the gaggle of aggrieved partisans who live in nostalgic reveries of the despicable Shah, Majd knows what's happening, makes his biases clear -- he is both a capital D American Democrat and an Iranian supporter of the reformist Khatami -- and happens to be a damn fine reporter. He gives the reader a tangible sense of why Iran is as it is, why the Iranians prefer to work with their imperfect Islamic Republic than seek a revolution to replace it, and how the nation's history, religion, food, poetry, and taxi drivers helped it become what it is. It's concrete and mystical, funny and beautiful, and constantly surprising -- I mean both this fantastically readable book and the country it describes.
Oh yes, and it will also tell you exactly what's really going on with that crazy president of theirs and the nuclear enrichment business.

Mr. Majd's book is, at times, funny, insightful and overall, a pleasant, if biased view of today's Iran. Despite being marketed as a different look into Iranian politics and society, there are an increasing number of books reaching Western audiences today which dispel the stereotypes of Iranian politics and society as often depicted in the media. This book makes a reasonable attempt to paint a multilayered picture of Iranian society and culture, and, to a lesser extent, its political life. Majd does an admirable job in explaining, often in amusing anecdotes, various aspects of the Iranian mentality and presenting reasonable explanations of how these idiosyncrasies came about. At only 250 pages, though, the book is more an introduction rather than a full expose of these subjects, and Majd may be criticized for spending too much time on, say, Iranian manners (ta'arof) and love of gardens and privacy at the expense of other, equally relevant matters.

Politically, Majd's deep biases are evident throughout the book, which is not surprising given that he is connected with numerous high ranking Iranian political figures, is related to, and worked for, former President Khatami and has acted as a translator for Pres Ahmadinejad. Thus, not surprisingly, the author is clearly in the pro-Islamic Republic camp, if with minor reservations (without explicitly saying so, he portrays himself as a "reformist"). In this light, the book is replete with constant denigration of the monarchy and the former Shah and his supporters, yet very little, if minor, criticism of Khomeini or the ISI. Readers, not to mention a few historians, may be somewhat surprised to hear him refer to the monarchy as a "totalitarian dictatorship" whereas he considers the IRI an "islamic democracy." One wonders if Majd would be offered the extraordinary access into Iranian political life he is if he were not so fulsome in his praise.

At one juncture, the author, seemingly to buttress his (and the regime's) credentials with Iranians of all stripes, refers to an Iranian-Jewish friend of his, who, Majd claims, seems to have no real qualms with Pres Ahmadinejad's statements regarding the Holocaust/Israel except amused dismissal of those statements, a rather dubious assertion by Majd, to say the least. He writes that he "admires" the present regime, but his admiration seems to prevent him from bothering to delve into the plight of Bahais, political prisoners, mass executions of the same, etc. in Iran. Not least, given his connections with the political elite in Iran, Majd doesn't go too far in explaining the realities and concerns of everyday Iranians, but focuses excessively on their fealty to Shiite Islam (Majd spends an disproportionate amount of time in the book speaking and socializing with clerics of various political stripes); in this regard, the book comes across as overly simplistic and not always representatives of all Iranians. In sum, Mr. Majd's book is a fun and, at times, informative read but may be taken with a grain of salt.

This is a deeply informed but disarmingly relaxed analysis of Iranian culture. It is free of Western props, wishful thinking and hopes of cajoling Iran into another Western Middle Eastern proxy in geopolitics. Thus the author's advice does not play into expected Western stereotypes or pro-Western prejudices (as did an earlier book reviewed by me about Iran called "The Iran Threat," by Alireza Jafarzadeh). This author used his own considerable political and intellectual skills, high level access, knowledge and deep insights of Iranian culture to again try to reinitialize and reset the table about Iran for Western eyes and minds. For that, I am very grateful to him.

The results, as so accurately noted in the cover leaf, are part memoir, part cultural criticism, and part travelogue. But more than this, almost everything comes as a surprise to the Western mind and eyes: the openness of the society despite the religious hold on the culture by the conservative forces (who consider themselves as the only legitimate stakeholders); the yearning for democracy (despite its many contradictions and its trigger like volatility), and both the vibrancy as well as the inherent tension and deep layers of hypocrisy inherent in the culture, itself.

The results of the author's analysis and his suggestions for a way ahead are as surprising as is the picturesque tour of Iranian culture itself: There is little room left for, or basis in, our anti-Iranian prejudices and bullying geopolitics as the sole guide for our thinking about Iran: The 1979 revolution is over, and another one is far along in the making. Yes, there is volatility and political and religious hypocrisy and uncertainty, but Iran is a huge country whose history and culture is so much older and well-formed than our own, including its yearning for a true democracy, that it is just short of an insult (as well as much beside the point) to try to think that we can simply stuff Iran into the narrow Procrustean bed of Western Middle Eastern thinking, designs, interests and policies.

Thus an important take away from the book is that so far, isolating Iran has helped neither the U.S. nor Iran. A better policy towards Iran might be simply to relax, give it the respect that its size and history suggests it deserves, and then allow Iranian politics to play itself out. Did we forget, that Iran is not the first country in the Middle East that we have failed to stop from becoming a nuclear-armed nation? And it may not be the last. Yes, in some ways this is a very scary, possibly high-risk scenario, and the uncertainty within Iran can be a very scary proposition indeed, but bullying Iran with the threat of either a U.S. or Israeli air strike is an equally high-risk scenario: And more importantly, are there any pivotal countries in the clash of geopolitics that are not scary?

What the author tells us here is that Iran will continue to plot and find its own course in the scheme of 21st Century geopolitics no matter what we (or Israel) might do (or not do). For us, it is just another case of where there are no good geopolitical options. Cajoling and bullying Iran probably is just as likely to turn out badly as doing nothing is likely to.

The saving grace for us is the fact that the population has a clear affinity towards U.S. democratic principles and freedoms, and toward the American people more generally. In there is obviously a formula with the potential for hidden magic. It is a wide open secret that in that subtext is a long-term formula for winning the Iranian population over to our side. Left to its own devices, without our heavy-handed intervention, and given enough time to work itself through the Iranian culture and body politic, Iran is as likely as not to become an enduring friend of the U.S. Even if this does not happen, at its worse it will not continue to remain our implacable enemy, as it is today and as it has been for the last thirty years. And this is an assessment based not on wishful thinking, but also on Mr. Majd's careful reading of the tea leaves that lie in the subtext of Iranian society and culture.

No matter what we do (or don't do), Iran will surely work out its own problems in its own way and in its own good time, and if we can manage to avoid doing something stupid (or allowing our junior partner from doing so), history and time are clearly on our side. Plus, we already know that it is self-delusional and self-defeating to think that Iran can be intimidated into making the Middle East safe for U.S. and U.S. allied interests. As has happened everywhere else in international relations, including in our own fight for independence and freedom as a nation, interference will only serve to embolden, galvanize and solidify the control of the radical factions.

For all its untidiness and contradictions, there is hope or us in Iran, even if there is little time for it. This is a cleanly written clearly insightful and thoroughly interesting read. Five stars

This book should be required reading especially for all levels of government officials to help them develop a better, truer understanding of the Iranian culture. Enlightening, entertaining, well written informative look at Iran, it's culture, history and everyday life. I especially like the analogy given by the author of Iran and it's government. It would be somewhat like an America completely governed by the religous right from the federal government to the state and local levels.

Exquisitely written, this book introduces the reader to the complexities of Iranian society. It is without limits for not only does it explain the political thinking behind the decision making in Iran, but it helps understand the cultural aspects of Iranian society. For someone who was born there and lived a great deal of her life in that country, I found myself eagerly turning the pages of this book and learning a great deal as I went along.

It is very difficult for westerners to understand Iran, but also very important to do so. I am recommending this book to my students, as it is an easy read (they all carry heavy workloads with their classes) and, since the author is a western brought-up Iranian, its stories (it is told mainly in anecdote) are explained well for western understanding but with credibility. I enjoyed this book and also came away with a better understanding of Iran.

I discovered something very interesting from this book: by the standards of the neighborhood, Iran is a fairly democratic state. The president is elected by popular vote and may not serve more than two consecutive terms. The legislature is elected. In both cases, reformers sometimes win the elections and take office.

Of course, the guy that really controls the country is the "Supreme Leader," but he is also elected, albeit not directly, and may be impeached! These tasks are performed by a special body elected by the people, a little like a permanent Electoral College, the body that actually elects US presidents.

The Supreme Leader can overrule any action by the President and Legislature and can disqualify anyone for running for office. Thus, the Supreme Leader really controls the country. However, by tradition, the Supreme Leader does not usually interfere with day-to-day governance, but rather weighs in fairly rarely.

By contrast, most other governments in the region are simply dictatorships, including close US ally Saudi Arabia. Exceptions are Iraq and (sometimes) Pakistan, both of which are a bit more democratic that Iran.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and was really taken with the humorous aspects of it. All the propaganda we get in the US about Iran is that it's filled with murderous ayatollahs and their underlings, when in fact it's full of ordinary people who are trying to live their lives (well, there are some murderous types there, too). I really appreciated the author's efforts to get the reader to understand the underlying religious and secular strains in modern Iran and how they affect everyone in the country. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand Iran today. It could help prevent another disasterous war in the region.