Welcome

Welcome to The other Iran !

I do not want to deny that the Iranian government is a clerical dictatorship. No, I would even sign this statement, but this fact does not say too much about Iran and Iranians itself. Let’s not forget that in 2009 only in Tehran 2 million Iranians went to the streets to protest peacefully against the regime. The protesters looked modern, they were no bearded militants, and they were peaceful.

By focusing on Iran’s regime, the people of Iran are implicitly dehumanized, which makes it easy to make the case for a military attack on Iran with lots of civilian casualties.

This blog wants to focus on the Iranian people, their lives, their activities, their successes. Most “experts” talking about Iran have never been here, have never had contact to Iranians.

The posts in this blog will be short excerpts of articles on Iran. Each post will include a link to the original site where the post can be verified. The posts will not contain any comment from me, yet there will be a comment section for each post.

I hope by reading this blog you realize that Iranians are like other folks, they like to enjoy their lives, they do sports, create art and are open to other cultures. They are far from brain washed religious maniacs.

Please use the share buttons below the posts, if you find something interesting or surprising on this blog. More people should have a wider horizon when it comes to Iran.

25 thoughts on “Welcome”

  1. lizandlifestyle

    I really love your blog! My boyfriend is from Iran and its nice to learn about his culture and home. Anyway, I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award 🙂

    Reply ↓
    1. socialinform Post author

      Hi Liz,

      great to hear that you like my blog. I realized that you are a very loyal follower of this blog. Your boyfried is very lucky having someone with so much interest in his culture. I know this because my wife (who is also not an Iranian) is the same. She especially loves the food 😉

      Thank you for the nomination, getting such an award would make me very happy because then I know that I could (with the help of the readers) bring these articles to a big audience and do something for my fellow Iranians that as I feel are very misunderstood.

      Currently the view numbers are not good enough to have chances gaining such a great award, but they are slowly but continiously getting better as more and more readers use the share buttons to share to facebook & co.

      Thank you!
      socialinform

      Reply ↓
  3. Dave Doyle

    Enjoyed reading your blog. We in the west know nothing about the Iranian people. I say west, as i’m Irish, but i live quite close, as i live in Bulgaria now. It is about time people stopped listening to whatever propaganda our different governments put out for consumption, and realise that people all over the world are the same, with the same hopes and aspirations we all have. Will be happy to follow your blog. Iran has such a rich and diverse culture, there is much to enjoy.
    Dave.

    Reply ↓
    1. socialinform Post author

      Hello Dave,

      I am happy that you are enjoying this blog.
      What you are saying is exactly what I am thinking.
      We are biologically the same. It is just natural that we have the same hopes. Who would not want freedom and happiness.
      As an Iranian I came to Europe several decades ago. I had not once the feeling people here would be so different to the people in Iran.
      When we read or watch news, the idea never even comes to our mind that people in Iran or let’s say North Korea are interested in sports, music, arts or that they like to laugh, sing and dance. Most people’s imagination hardly goes over “ah, yes a bunch of fanatics”. Often I have to read in political forums how people discuss how Iran should be bombed back to stone age.
      We just let ourselves get confused by politics and media, so that we often do not realize how similar we all are.
      That is why I especially like to post travel reports by westerners who go to Iran and see for themselves. Travelling through the world or living in a country different than your birth country (like in your case) opens someones horizons enormously.

      Thank you for encouraging me with your great comment.

      Reply ↓
  4. George

    I am really enjoying your blog, thank you. It is giving me some great ideas for things to see as I am hoping to visit soon.

    Reply ↓
  5. Jessica Walsh

    I decided to check out your site after you commented on mine, and I’m glad I did.

    Iran has become yet another “dirty word” in the west, wherein people equate it with the worst of the worst, often without even knowing what it’s all about. It’s a shame because the little contact I’ve had with Iran and Iranians has been nothing but good. Thus I’m looking forward to following your blog and seeing Iran the way it was meant to be.

    Reply ↓
    1. socialinform Post author

      Hi Jessica, thank you for your great comment. This is the feedback that motivates me to continue doing research and publishing new articles.

      When I came to Europe years ago, and I started to read the news I was shocked, what bad opinion people had about Iran and Iranians, when most Iranians have actually only interest and admiration for the west. Watching the media it seemed that everyday there is an angry demonstration in Iran, when this is only the case once a year, on the anniversary of the “revolution”. And everyone knows that this demonstrations are organized, people are collected from everywhere given food and presents to do the show, otherwise people in Iran rarely risk their health to demonstrate against something.

      I also realized that a lot of people do not distinct between government and people, they just use the collective term Iran, even though they should know that as in democracies it can be that 49% oppose the current administration, in dictatorships the percentage of unhappy people can be much higher. So generalizing in fact means not understanding what a dictatorship is.

      Also people generalize over country borders, Germany and Netherlands are neighbors, but both the Germans and the Dutch would insist that they are totally different. Same with US Americans and Mexicans. But when it comes to the middle east then Iran, Iraq, … everything is the same for a lot of people.

      If people would not just read again and again the same headlines and would invest some time to do some research on Iran, they would be “shocked” to find out:

      Iran is not only desert and hot:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/winter/
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/nature/

      In Iran women are not fully veiled and they can drive (It is Saudi Arabia, where they re not allowed to drive).
      It is hard for women, and there is a long way until women have the full rights that they deserve, but even now they are extremely successful in all kinds of fields:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/women/
      Before 1979 they could at least dress as they liked:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/sixties-and-seventies/
      I am sure this will be again the case in the near future. The Iranian society is open enough as these not so old pictures show.

      Also Iran is host to the biggest Jewish community in the Middle east outside of Israel:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/jews/
      The reason we never hear in the media about these people is that they actually can live in peace in Iran.

      There are also Iranian Christians, and they are loved (the captain of the Iranian national football team, or famous musicians) and respected:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/christians/

      Foreign tourists have generally a great time in Iran:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/foreigners-in-iran/

      Iranians do NOT hate the US:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/usa/

      And last but not least Iranians are just regular people, who love art, music, sports, cinema and much more:
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/music/
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/sports/
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/cinema/
      https://theotheriran.com/tag/art/

      As an Iranian who feels misunderstood my only hope are open minded people like you, who do their own research instead of only consuming what they are told to, and the hope that people like you will educate others by sharing their knowledge with them.

      Reply ↓
  6. golinla

    “This blog wants to focus on the Iranian people, their lives, their activities, their successes. Most “experts” talking about Iran have never been here, have never had contact to Iranians.” Bravo! I look forward to reading your blog!

    Reply ↓
  7. Caroline at Poppyposts

    Great blog! I too write about my experiences in Iran under “Persian Posts”. I love Iran, the people are so friendly the food is delicious and the sites are awesome. My husband is Iranian and we are lucky enough to have a house over there where we stay on our holidays. I hate coming back home to the UK!! Keep up the good work 🙂

    Reply ↓
    1. socialinform Post author

      Hi Caroline. Thank you very much for the nice words. I liked your blog also a lot!
      I wish you a very good time there and lots of great food… I am getting hungry … 🙂

      Reply ↓
  8. Kat

    Hi, I’m glad you came across my blog post on Iran photos because now I come across yours! I love your blog – I smile each time I scroll down to each post because some of them reminded me of what I saw and observed especially the daily going-ons with Iranians. Halfway through my trip, I came to a conclusion that Iran is so badly viewed by the West, a big and bad misconception..people don’t realise that Iranians are just like any other people in the rest of the world. Keep this blog going, and I hope that more and more folks out there will come across your blog and learn about your country. Cheers.

    Reply ↓
    1. socialinform Post author

      Hi Kat, thank you very much for your motivating words. It makes me very happy to hear that my posts made you smile, and that you had a nice time in Iran. This is really the kind of feedback that inspires me to continue blogging.

      Reply ↓
  9. hackernewbie

    Wao!! This is one of the best and realistic insight I have had, about so many aspects about the beautiful country of yours.

    I have always believed that people in general, are never bad. I started to get interested about Iran & the Iranian people roughly couple of years back and I am hApPy to say that every time I read about this beautiful county and its people, I feel like packing my bags and heading there.

    I am sure I will, soon!!

    All the best for the wonderful blog you have, keep going.

    –
    Cheers!
    Rajiv

    Reply ↓
    1. socialinform Post author

      Wow! Thank you for the great feedback Rajiv. This is exactly what I am trying to achieve: post about all kinds of people’s success stories, about interesting social activites, about music, sports, arts, traditions, … or just beautiful places. By this I try to show many different aspects of the lives of Iranians, who are often reduced to a government, that is often the last thing they want to be represented with.
      I hope you can head there soon and that you will have a very nice time.
      Cheers,
      Amir

      Reply ↓
      1. hackernewbie

        Thanks Amir!
        Nothing interests me more than getting to peek into the daily lives of general people.

        That’s what actually shows us the reality in its most honest form!

        I hope to wisit your beautiful country and meet its lovely people soon :-).

        Keep doing the great job you are doing, keep sharing more and more glimpses of the day to day activities of people like us :-).

        Cheers!
        Rajiv

      2. socialinform Post author

        Thanks again comments like these motivate me to keep the rate of publishing one post a day. I have enough good material but it requires sometimes a lot of discipline to post after coming back from work.

        So thanks for motivating me!
        Amir

  10. mirageworldofwomen

    Hello Socialinform,
    Thank you for following my blog and more importantly, leading me to yours. This is a beautiful reflection of a country of amazing people. I will surely go through all your posts. Thank you.
    Some Governments in their quest for power and control limit people’s rights but they cannot suppress human spirit. We all have similar stories in different environments. My attempt on https://mirageworldofwomen.wordpress.com is to showcase just this and celebrate the spirit of women from around the world.
    Do keep visiting.

    A pleasure to connect with you!

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s