HOW CAN ONE BE PERSIAN? ‘Manane Satrapi ‘We are se—seuck, really—somewhere between Scheheraade's famed One Thousand and One Nigh andthe bearded terrorist ‘ith his manic wife disguised a rove By way offttery, we ae cold that we are Pesians and thitPaia was a great empie, ‘Otherwise, we are Iranians. The Persians ae in Momtesute's ‘writings, in Delacroix’s patie, and they smoke opium with Victor Hugo. As forthe Iranians, ay take Americans hetages, ‘hey detonate bombs, and they're pised atthe West They were Aiscovered after the 1979 revolution ‘To begin with lee it be remembered that Persia is the Greck terminology for Ian. The Greeks tote this mate for our coun try because, when Greece became + power atin, Iran was ruled by the Achaemenids, who were “Persians” since they dwveled inthe region of Pers. Bt Ira, for che las four thou sand years and forall anian, has says been Irn. And it was acually Reza Shah, che isha fhe, who in 1935 requeted ‘ha every European refer to our country by its el name— Ian, eft my country forthe fist ime in 1984, never wo een up ‘to now twenty-one yearslatersincethen, prejudices and clichés about Ian have never filed to astonish me. Tecan be quite funny sometimes—like in 1995, when Twas 4 sudent in Suasbourg and a gin my class ran to me and ssid, “Come here, I want to show you something you've never seen before!" I followed her, of ccuse, candidly enthusiastic and generous as she was. When weaved inthe sehoolyand sheexclimed, “Loot!” Hooked — didartse anything Since it was February and the emiperatre was prewy low, I cast 2 quick lance around everything there was seebefore hurrying back inside (Nothing! At least nothing wnat She understood. “Look! fe soowed! Ie 50. beautifel— snow!” She stressed the word swow "so that could fll rasp what twas, “Have you ever ‘told her that isn was a high-aktude platesu in the western re of Asa, and thi snowed there quite lot inthe winter ‘ime. Tako wanted w explain dhe we had ers thirty miles Som Tehran, but igure it wasnt necessary to remind her how pathetic her two inches of hal meted swow were. ao figured ‘she'd probably seen Nor withour My Daughter with ll hee gil {fiends and her enti family andit was'ther fue ifshe thought lean was nothing bt 2 big desert. “But—Iran's notin Asia” she sid. “Iran's in the Eas added in deeply canfident tone. “The East. That wor, | think, ithe key to all myths, ‘Where isi thislegendary Eat of out fantasies and dreamsand Inatreds? If youl admit that che eat i ound, then you've a- ‘ways ext or west ofsomeone ele. And even if you won't go by ‘hese silly Tooking-lss games, even ifyou with to base your ob- servations on Greenwich, then why aren't Australia and New Zealand a pare oft, "00? So the Eat x not really» geographical fet. And maybe the term "Eastern counties" has more to do ‘with aeigious dfivicion—maye what we really mean is that ‘hey're Muslim countries. In that case, is Bosnia an Eastern ‘country? Burthen gain, ven Bosnia weie hat fare et what in the wood does the expresion "Muslim counties” he‘ean, anyway? This notion would ake us fom Bosnia to So- ‘mala, and from Morocco all the way to Indonesia—and such countries are to be found on thee continents Europe, Africa, and Asi. Is that to sy chat Saudi Arabia snd Malays share the same calare? ‘Talking about "Muslim counties” mean in the end, that the ‘one and only fictor defining the culate of given society i re ligion, Thatisonefcrr, indeed — bur tiscetanly not the only ‘one. Talking about "Muslim countries” also meas shrinking dozens of counties down to one singe sbrtrctconcept..s0 38 to bewer clit them. Now, ofcourse, should it be suddenly discovered that thee ‘counties are a diferent from one another as Peru and Leland ‘or France and the United States of America (which, by the way, ae four Christian countsey), it would become rather tricky 0 plan exhibitions of Mosim attis—thote events that throw to fether a Turk an Traian, and» Syrian, notwithtanding te act that chose thre speak thre diferent languages ofthre diferent ‘oFigins to begin with, “Muslim countries” means as lite as “Christian counties” ‘But thats not the worst, The worst is how “Maslin is defined. What is2 Muslin? Unfortunately, the West equates hin ‘or her with Bin Laden, eha i, with the mos radial ofall ‘wretched ideas ‘The West tur the Musi into an enemy. ‘And Iran isa Muslim county. ‘Thanks to people like the filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami the weiter Anat Naf and the Nobel Laureate for Peace Shirin Ehud, che image of ran hasbeen easformed abit. But how? From Iranian movies, t Irs been inferred that Ian was 2 picturesque country where children ran around lookingforthe house of thee fiend.” When Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Prize, the one derail that was immediately noted was. ‘hat she dda’ wear the veil—which was wsedin France san ar, sument to hastily pas the law banning the vil Iran has extremist, for sre Ian has Scheherazade wll ‘ot stand foremost, an hasan actual identity, an atl history—and above all, actual people like uuanesiien ay