Sins of omission
(In response to Benjamin Negley's Sept. 28 column "It takes two to boost Iran's public image.")
I was struck more by what Mr. Negley left out of his article than what he included. It is well known that there is a struggle in Iran for open and transparent democracy. Indeed, Iranians' hopes to establish such a democracy lead tens of thousands of Iranian citizens to nonviolently protest against rigged elections in 2009, despite the threat of politically motivated arrests (the Iranian government admitted it detained 4,000 Iranian protesters in June 2009) and government-sanctioned violence.
However, Mr. Negley equates "Iran" with "Ahmadinejad," thereby omitting any reference to the brave activists who have either died or been arrested in their struggle for freedom. Iran is not monolithic; Ahmadinejad does not speak for all Iranians.
I also question Mr. Negley's use of the word "westernize," which was surprisingly not accompanied by any definition. It is a serious and egocentric assumption that the Western world's way of life is superior to other forms of religion, politics and social organization. This assumption of the inherent superiority of the West also has colonial roots, which, in the past, motivated Americans to expand westward over tracts of land that belonged to the Native Americans who had been already living here for millennia.
The Iranian people's struggle for a true democracy is a matter of international interest, but in order to have a serious political discussion about Iran's relations to the rest of the world, Iran should be discussed as the multifaceted state that it is.
Danielle Bäck
Student
