HUMAN 1C Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Ashraf Pahlavi, Shahrokh Meskoob, Cyrus Cylinder
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Jessica Mangold
HumCore
Professor Rahimieh
Week 7 Lecture 2
5/16/18
Iran’s Imperial Past and the Creation of a Modern Nation
Introduction
- looking at image -> from Persepolis
- woman is wearing chador
- image puts together ancient Iran + woman from modern times
- becoming modern involved changing Iranian fashion
- Cyrus the Great allegedly brought human rights into consciousness
- cylinder taken to be declaration of human rights
*concept of human rights is relatively modern + hard to say that cylinder is same
as declaration of human rights
Outline of Today’s Lecture
- How was the memory of the Persian Empire interwoven with becoming modern?
- How was being modern defined?
- How were women configured in this notion of being modern?
October 14, 1971
- Mohammad Reza Shah’s twin sister presented a replica of the Cyrus cylinder to UN
headquarters (Ashraf Pahlavi)
- sister presenting -> image of Iran as progressive
- allow women to have official presence + duties
- Ashraf Pahlavi held variety of offices
- was presented as an “ancient declaration of human rights”
- Iran was celebrated as propagator of human rights in ancient times
*part of staging of Iranian identity for the rest of the world
- display history of ancient Iran as progressive
- show modern Iran in process of remaking itself
Shift in Iranian Identity
- celebration of Iran’s pre-Islamic past placed greater distance between Iran + its Islamic
legacy
- Iran’s embrace of Islam in the 7th century was singled out as the reason for the nation
lagging behind the West
- opinion of different scholars + intellectuals
*bizarre conceptualization of history -> embracing Islam was source of crisis
Shahrokh Meskoob
- representative intellectual of the time
- writer, journalist, + public intellectual
- wrote a book -> Iranian Nationality and the Persian Language
- arrival of Islam in Iran represented as “alien” + destructive to Iranian psyche
- said Iranians were struggling psychologically for two centuries
- singles out Islam + Arabs for issues in Iran
- military, cultural, + linguistic defeat
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Image puts together ancient iran + woman from modern times. Cyrus the great allegedly brought human rights into consciousness. Cylinder taken to be declaration of human rights. *concept of human rights is relatively modern + hard to say that cylinder is same as declaration of human rights. Sister presenting -> image of iran as progressive. Allow women to have official presence + duties. Mohammad reza shah"s twin sister presented a replica of the cyrus cylinder to un headquarters (ashraf pahlavi) Was presented as an ancient declaration of human rights . Iran was celebrated as propagator of human rights in ancient times. *part of staging of iranian identity for the rest of the world. Display history of ancient iran as progressive. Show modern iran in process of remaking itself. Iran"s imperial past and the creation of a modern nation. Celebration of iran"s pre-islamic past placed greater distance between iran + its islamic legacy.
