Before I start I would like to introduce a bit of background about myself and the reason for this post. I am an Iranian-American currently studying Computer Science at University of Kentucky. My family moved to the United States when I was 7 years old and we have lived here ever since. In this respect I'm not entirely knowledgeable in regards to current Iranian events and culture, though I do have family living in Iran who explain what the situation is like there. Actually I'm hoping this post might bring other Iranian Giant Bomb users who are more familiar of Iran to help others and myself understand the current culture in Iran.
Having said that, two things in particular have inspired me to create this post. The first is the Iran page on Giant Bomb; it's too bare. The second is the relatively recent controversies of the Iran nuclear program that has put Iran in the spotlight; I'm hoping people will get to see Iran in a different light here.
*On a side note: I always find it more entertaining and valuable to see and hear information rather than read about it, so I will use mostly videos in this post.
Here is video of a secular Iran before the Islamic-Republic. This video was particularly interesting to myself when I first viewed it. My parents had always told me about Iran before the mullahs, but I had never seen raw video like this to grasp what it was like then.:
This is a documentary from BBC about the different regions of Iran; their culture and history.
I hope some of this may be interesting to someone here and perhaps a nice, brief intro to Iran. Of course Iran is a very large country with three thousand years of history and varied cultures, so this post alone doesn't even scratch the surface. Later I might add more pictures and videos, but again I would love to hear from other Iranians or anyone who has visited/lived in Iran what their experiences have been of Iran.
EDIT: I removed the video about the modern history of Iran and U.S. relationship. After hearing what people said I think it was taking the thread into too much politics. Someone mentioned that it was sensationalizing the topic, and I agree. I'm not trying to set any agendas here or anything like that. Honestly I just miss Iran and wanted to talk about its culture and history with fellow Giant Bombers.
EDIT2; More about myself and my family (please excuse the lack of detail, I was 7 when we moved to U.S.):
I was born in Tehran, the capital of Iran. My family consists of people from different regions of Iran.
My mother and her side of the family are from the south western areas. They used to moved around a lot so there wasn't one particular city or town I could point to. My mothers father was a farmer and later owned a store that he later sold because my grandmother wanted to move around. From what I hear from my mother, it is really hot in the south. In her day people would build basements into the ground so they could have somewhere cool to go in during the day. Most people there would only go outside during the evening and night time. When the Iran-Iraq war started my mothers family moved to Tehran where my mother met my father.
My father and his side of the family are from Tehran. I haven't heard too much about their history, probably because like myself they aren't too social or outgoing. Both my father and grandfather are engineers and inventors who run their own businesses. I hear more about their work than how their life was back in the day. My grandfather started or tried to start several businesses with his ideas and inventions, while my dad has started one business that is still running (he built machines to automate some parts of dress making).
When I was born my dad had already started his business and my mother was going to university where she studied psychology. Partly because of this I spent a lot of time with other family when I was very young. I fondly remember my sister and me spending a lot of time at my grandfathers house (dads side) and spending time with my grandmother, aunt, and cousin. We would play in the garden my grandfather had built and watched satellite television (a lot of Tom & Jerry). During the winter when it would snow, we would play snow-ball fights with the in courtyard of the house.
By the time I was born, my grandfather on my mothers side had moved to about an hour outside of Tehran. I spent a bit less time there because of this. We would mostly visit for vacation.
Speaking of vacation, we would a lot of times go to north of Tehran (they call it Shomal which just means north). It was past the mountains that are just north of Tehran. The drive was probably the most interesting part of these vacations since we had to go through the mountains. It was beautiful, but also very dangerous because the roads were very narrow and a lot of times there were no side rails between your car and a 100ft drop. I remember going through tunnels that had been dug into the mountain and would go for 40-60 minutes at a time to reach the end.
To be continued...
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