Iranian Civilisation

 Thu 11:05 am +00:00, 26 Mar 2026  1

posted by pete fairhurst 2

 

Source: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/03/thierry-meyssan/iran-can-a-civilization-be-destroyed-in-the-name-of-democracy/

Contrary to what our media would have us believe, the Islamic Republic of Iran is no more a totalitarian regime than our own. Iran is a far older civilization than the West. Its people possess qualities we lack. Not only should we not be proud of eradicating them, but we should listen to their voices.

We are witnessing, astonished, a new kind of war, without understanding it. Several phenomena are converging, clouding our understanding:

On the one hand, we remain fascinated by the military superiority of the West, which made our countries masters of the world for five centuries. We cannot accept that barefoot people could be more civilized than we are. Yet, the Iranians have no use for our comfort and luxury. They are nonetheless a nation of engineers, far more scientifically educated than we are.

Their civilization is characterized first and foremost by an iron will, the likes of which we cannot fathom. In Iranian museums, one sees works of art that artists have dedicated their entire lives to creating. This does not exist in our culture, where we believe creation and concentration are incompatible. They only think of time in the long term, never in terms of the present day. The second characteristic of their civilization is more common: they organize their lives around their perception of spiritual realities. This is how our societies were organized at the end of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, but no longer today. We consider this progress; they do not. These two characteristics lead them to value awareness rather than fleeting pleasures.

Of course, they have the same flaws as we do. For example, there are just as many drug addicts in Iran as in the West. But in the West, we find it commonplace and don’t react when politicians are cocaine addicts. This seems inconceivable to Iranians.

We are so self-absorbed that we are ignorant of Iranian culture. Iran has been a great civilization since the first millennium BC, long before Pericles’ Athens, at a time when we were merely scattered tribes. Our ignorance is quite understandable: during our studies, we only learned about this culture in connection with the Persian Wars. We have a vague knowledge of the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis. That’s all. We are rightly proud of the Greek victory, due to their unity and cunning. And that’s where we’ve stopped.

Iranian civilization is itself profoundly influenced by Chinese civilization. Chinese statues can be seen at the palace of Persepolis (5th century BC). Above all, Iranian civilization gave birth to Arab civilization. The great Arab mathematicians, astronomers, physicians, and poets of the Arabic language were not Arabs, but Persians. Some Iranians, moreover, have always maintained a superior view of the Arabs.

In the 16th century, Iran was a Sunni Muslim empire. But the Safavid dynasty wanted to give it a distinct identity from its rival, the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, they decided to convert their population to Shia Islam. The reign of Ismail I was marked by a religious war to impose Shiism by force. To establish it, Ismail I relied on the Shia ulema of southern Lebanon. The relationship between Hezbollah and Iran is not what one might think: even today, Iranian theology students come to Lebanon to study. When I was hosted by Hezbollah in one of its residences, my roommates were mostly Iranian ulema.

The difference between Sunnis and Shiites is explained by a succession dispute, but they are two different worlds. Each region of Islam has its own culture. African Islam is not like Chinese Islam. Iranian mosques are built on lower ground, with few open windows. Inside, in semi-darkness, the walls are covered with shards of mirrors. Everyone is invited to meditate, to reflect on themselves.

We no longer understand the ties that bind Arab Shiites to Iran. All have been transformed by the message of Imam Ruhollah Khomeini. Some did not follow his institutional “successor” when he redefined the Velayat-e faqih , that is, the role of the wise in governing. Contrary to a widespread assumption , men like Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual father of Hezbollah, never followed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his quest for power.

Revolutionary Iran exerted a powerful fascination not only on Shiites worldwide, but also on other Muslims and non-Muslims. Its message asserted that it was possible, in the long run, to liberate humanity from colonialism and, immediately, to live justly amidst a sea of ​​injustice, sacrificing one’s own life to this ideal. Iran trained Shiites who wished to follow Khomeini’s example. Under the presidencies of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, Iran sought to defend itself by relying on its foreign admirers. This was the era of proxies, as the Anglo-Saxons call them. But this period ended with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, above all, with General Qassem Soleimani. For the past fifteen years or so, Iran has had no proxies, despite what Western propaganda may claim. Each group became independent, even though it was armed by Iran.

Today, the Lebanese Hezbollah, for example, is not fighting against Israel out of solidarity with Iran, but because Israel occupies part of Lebanon, in violation of the ceasefire agreement of November 26, 2024.

We tolerate the assassination of Iranian leaders as a necessary evil. We consider this country totalitarian and are convinced that it oppresses women. This is a way of interpreting part of what we see, not understanding the whole picture.

Without a doubt, Iran is governed by a generation that doesn’t understand its youth. We interpret this generational problem as discrimination against women and believe that the regime prevents them from holding positions of responsibility. However, Iran suffered greatly from the war imposed by Iraq. It lost a large portion of its men. As in Europe after the First World War, it had no choice but to be predominantly administered by women. Today, women are present at all levels of society. Admittedly, they are not in charge of religious affairs or the armed forces; in our country, only a few exceptions achieve such positions.

Similarly, we are shocked by the mandatory wearing of the veil and are unaware that it is accompanied by the mandatory wearing of beards for men. We are unaware that many politicians—notably Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—have tried to shift public opinion and mistakenly believe that the veil defines this regime. We fail to see that the wearing of black uniforms by women, which makes them resemble Christian nuns, is not at all a sign of submission—on the contrary—but a sign of conformity. Iranian government offices are teeming with women in black, just as ours are run by men in suits and ties.

We are unaware of the high intellectual level of Iranians. For example, Ali Larijani, far from being solely focused on crushing his people, as our media portrays him, was a philosopher and a specialist in Immanuel Kant. He was interested in determining the criteria that lead us to accept a proposition, whether based on logic or intuition. We would be very honored to have European leaders of this caliber.

Finally, a word about violence in Iran. Throughout its history, this culture has been bloody. All human rights organizations asserted in the 1960s that the Shah’s Iran was the most repressive regime on the planet. But Iranians have always opposed collective punishment. The Islamic Republic, too, has made extensive use of the death penalty, but it has never punished families or groups of individuals.

Contrary to a persistent misconception, Iran does not hang homosexuals. It does, however, hang, without a second thought, criminals who rape children. Popular culture certainly continues to equate gays with pedophiles, as was the case in Europe some thirty years ago. I can attest to the contemptuous gaze some Iranians cast upon those among them who are homosexual, but also to the fact that they are no less numerous than in our country and that while they neither flaunt their sexuality nor hide it, they do not do so either. The current Supreme Leader, Mujtaba Khamenei, is himself openly gay. The stupidity lies neither with the Islamic Republic nor with its opposition. When I was at President Ahmadinejad’s side, it was the so-called progressives (pro-US) who waged a campaign against me over my homosexuality, not Ahmadinejad.

Iranians are like other people. While they may appear puritanical in public, they are free in private, leading those who don’t understand them to call them a nation of hypocrites. In reality, they simply don’t share our definition of freedom and propriety.

When Ayatollah Khomeini, reacting to Iraqi chemical weapons, declared that Iran morally forbade itself from using weapons of mass destruction, he had no difficulty having his fatwa accepted . Yet the war lasted another year, precisely because of the imbalance Iran had imposed upon itself in relation to Iraq. It is therefore absurd to accuse the Iranians of concealing a military nuclear program. Besides the fact that the concept of taqiyya (dissimulation) has nothing to do with Shiism, it is to fail to recognize an essential aspect of Iranian culture: individual responsibility. Iran rejects all forms of collective punishment.

I will conclude by emphasizing that, while I have never feared the political or military authorities in Iran, I have always protected myself from the judiciary. The judges, who apply their interpretation of Sharia law, often struck me as fanatical. I had the opportunity to visit and discuss matters with the highest-ranking officials in this area. I was left with the impression of people who condemned defendants without perceiving that they, too, were human beings.

In conclusion, I would like to tell you why I am so attached to this country: I found many sincere people here, capable of the best. I know they weren’t all like that and that others were only concerned with money, but those didn’t bother me. They were so much like Westerners.