I am in a very interesting course this semester titled
“Politics of Iran.” Why did I take this course? I took it because I know very
little about Iran. The whole place seemed like a mystery to me— it is rarely in
the news nowadays and is a non-Arab, Shi’ite majority, oil-wielding theocracy.
I honestly wondered why I knew so little, and why what I did know were only bad things.
I realized soon after taking the course that there was a very pivotal moment in
Iranian-U.S. history that changed relations between the two forever— The
Iranian Hostage Crisis, where 52 Americans were kidnapped and held in Iran for
over a year against their will. I owe my lack of knowledge of Iran to this
event. This was completely outside of the boundaries of international relations
and ever since, things have not been the same between the two countries. And this whole
concept leads me to wonder how one event can completely change a person’s
mindset and sense of trust.
It is almost the idea of planting the seed— once an idea is
in someone’s mind, it is always there, even if it is just on the backburner. We
see this same idea with 9/11 in the United States. Even though radical Islamic
groups make up about 1% of the world’s Muslim population, Americans are still
uneasy about the Islamic religion and its people more than 10 years later. And
this engrained prejudice will probably remain this way for the generations who
experienced this tragedy. It is amazing to me that I can witness how one event
changed the view of many Americans towards a generally peaceful people.
I just wonder why these generalizations happen. We are
scared of history repeating itself and we use one instance as a premise for
everything else. I do not think the media helps either— the media dictates what
we are informed and how this is presented. There are a lot of different ways
that our perspectives are influenced.
All I ask is to think about things logically. The same
people who captured Americans over 30 years ago in Tehran are not a portrayal
of a whole country. All Muslims do not hate America and are violent. Just put things into context, and
think about where this bias and mindset may come from.
A normal day outside one of Iran's bazaars
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