Sunday, June 11, 2006

World Cup

Tagged as:

While the west may be worrying about AN’s nasty appeal to neo-Nazis worldwide and how that will be played out in Iran’s first game tonight: Iranians are just eager to celebrate a victory and have some public fun. (See Michael Slackman’s article: World Cup Tests Iranians' Ability to Have Fun in Public)

You would be hard-pressed to meet an Iranian in Iran who even knows what a nazi is (unless it’s a girl’s name, and then it is pronounced with a buzzing z rather than a ts z), let alone a neo-nazi.

For a great insight into Iran AND Iran’s sympathy with Germany, read: My Uncle Napoleon. The story takes place in a family compound in Tehran during world war 2. Nothing else provides more insight into Iran than this book. There is no analysis of Iran that even comes close to Iraj Pizishkzad’s rendition of Iranian society and culture.

Predictions: This morning’s taxi driver predicts a tie; Keivan predicts a 3-1 loss; Mohamad a 2-1 win; Niloofar thinks that it will be a 2-1 loss or a tie. "She's become Mexican," Mohamad complains. "She's not Iranian anymore." Everyone here believes that Mexico is a strong team. Iranians, however, need at least one victory in the World Cup. There is an eagerness to return to the streets for a bit of celebration.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like Keivan was right

Anonymous said...

"You would be hard-pressed to meet an Iranian in Iran who even knows what a nazi is (unless it’s a girl’s name, and then it is pronounced with a buzzing z rather than a ts z), let alone a neo-nazi."

what kind of people have u been talkin' to?!

Kamran and Tori said...

what kind of people have I been talking to? the kind of people who are not europeans, not americans, not jewish, and not intellectual. my husband did not learn anything at all about the holocaust until he moved to europe. at a recent dinner a prominent iranian filmmaker asked why iranians should be expected to know this piece of european history.

trust me, if iranians knew more about ww 2 they would not have greeted the german team (in iran) with the nazi salute. they thought they were being respectful.

ShareThis