With tears in his eyes, Dr. Ahamd Karimi-Hakkak told a silent gymnasium that, “I might have been your next terrorist.”
The founding director and professor of the University of Maryland’s Center for Persian Studies gave a look into the history of Iran, his own life experiences, and the dire need for acceptance among Americans and Iranians at a school wide assembly to wrap up summer reading on August 28.
Karimi-Hakkak commended the Fine Art department’s decision to choose “Persepolis” as the summer reading book and said it “contrasts simple pictures with the complexity of the situation [in Iran].”
Karimi-Hakkak believes Iran must come to terms with its recent massive election fraud, a “modification in the government,” through either another election or the sharing of power with multiple leaders, and that the people must move towards a “private sphere for religion, belief, and lack thereof.”
A major obstacle in this movement, as well as the movement towards democracy, lies in the Iranian culture. Karimi-Hakkak explained that Iran has a “very, very long memory,” making it difficult to forget past wrongs of democratic nations.
“The government in Middle East countries interferes in culture in ways we can’t understand [in America]. The more complex a culture, the more difficult it is to create so straight a course,” he said.
Karimi-Hakkak identified the need for more understanding between Americans and Iranians. He said that the key to ending the animosity is that both sides must “stop demonizing one another.” Americans, used to a government that strives to recognize the wishes of its citizens, struggle to conceive “how at odds a government can be with its own people. Lawful protests show how different the government is from the people.”
The concept of accepting other cultures can start on a local level. Students could consider “adopting a country” and writing to “pen pals, or Internet pals now,” Karimi-Hakkak added with a laugh.
Books such as “Persepolis” and speakers like Karimi-Hakkak work to shed light on Iran to a sheltered American public. However, Karmi-Hakkak admits that “it is a long and rocky road we need to get started on.”
Karimi-Hakkak has written articles for The Encyclopedia Britannica, The Encyclopedia Iranica, and The Encyclopedia of Translation Studies about Iran and Persian works of literature. He taught for 19 years at the University of Washington as Professor of Persian language and literature and Iranian culture and civilization. In addition, he taught at the University of Tehran, Rutgers University, Columbia University, and the University of Texas.
Kate Froehlich can be reached for comment at [email protected].