I wouldn't get to excited - while western values had seeped into a handful of the large cosmopolitan cities in Iran the prevailing culture in the rural areas most of which were poor and backwards was deeply hostile to western secular values and the Shahs reforms - especially in economic terms were deeply unpopular. He needed a far more conservative program. Some middle eastern rulers have changed their nations for the better - King Hussein in Jordan. Sultan Qabos in Oman. The Assad regime in Syria had succeeded in keeping a lid on his countries internal issues - partly by playing his anti-American cards.
We may not like the Islamic revolution in Iran or the regime there but there is a very good reason the shahs government fell.
It's much the same in the United States - many of the people from the hinter land care little for the cosmopolitan values of the coastal elites.
Islamic civilisation and western civilisation are fundamentally different. Americans in particular do struggle with this notion. I knew many people of many nationalities who worked in Iraq as contractors - Brits, Aussies, South Africans and Pakistanis and most of them came back with stories of the chaos in large part caused by a lack of understanding. Freedom and democracy and all these cherished American ideas mean nothing to Arabs. Arabs respect strength. Arabs are incredibly "clannish" in their behaviour - the order of western society is very alien to them. Haranguing them or wanting to "get down to business" offends their custom. Americans live in a continental civilisation 2 oceans away from the rest of the world, Americans find Europeans strange even though most of them come from here. Islamic or Orthodox civilisation are very alien. It's geography and its history.
Over all though I would say the Islamic world has changed in the last 100+ years and in many ways not for the better and the west is not innocent in this with support for Israel and the corrupt regime in KSA and with an endless series of wars, coups, repressions and the "lines on the map" drawn by diplomats at the end of the great war and in some cases - the end of colonial rule was harmful - Egypt for example has not ruled itself domestically since the Iron age and gained independence in 1952 to a raving lunatic like Nasser. Egypt is an entirely fucked up and dysfunctional country which could become one of the worlds largest humanitarian disasters.
If you read Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E Lawrence when he was fighting the Turks the middle east seemed more cosmopolitan than it is today. There was more variation in caste and sect and while there was fighting between groups there was a big stick (the Ottomans) to put it down. The "right of guests" actually meant something and a foreigner could feel safe knowing he was above the pettiness of the Arabs and their family squabbles. Now - there are many places a westerner would not be safe.
Finally. Let those beautiful women breathe.
I miss them in bikinis:(
So is the CIA
I wouldn't get to excited - while western values had seeped into a handful of the large cosmopolitan cities in Iran the prevailing culture in the rural areas most of which were poor and backwards was deeply hostile to western secular values and the Shahs reforms - especially in economic terms were deeply unpopular. He needed a far more conservative program. Some middle eastern rulers have changed their nations for the better - King Hussein in Jordan. Sultan Qabos in Oman. The Assad regime in Syria had succeeded in keeping a lid on his countries internal issues - partly by playing his anti-American cards.
We may not like the Islamic revolution in Iran or the regime there but there is a very good reason the shahs government fell.
It's much the same in the United States - many of the people from the hinter land care little for the cosmopolitan values of the coastal elites.
Islamic civilisation and western civilisation are fundamentally different. Americans in particular do struggle with this notion. I knew many people of many nationalities who worked in Iraq as contractors - Brits, Aussies, South Africans and Pakistanis and most of them came back with stories of the chaos in large part caused by a lack of understanding. Freedom and democracy and all these cherished American ideas mean nothing to Arabs. Arabs respect strength. Arabs are incredibly "clannish" in their behaviour - the order of western society is very alien to them. Haranguing them or wanting to "get down to business" offends their custom. Americans live in a continental civilisation 2 oceans away from the rest of the world, Americans find Europeans strange even though most of them come from here. Islamic or Orthodox civilisation are very alien. It's geography and its history.
Over all though I would say the Islamic world has changed in the last 100+ years and in many ways not for the better and the west is not innocent in this with support for Israel and the corrupt regime in KSA and with an endless series of wars, coups, repressions and the "lines on the map" drawn by diplomats at the end of the great war and in some cases - the end of colonial rule was harmful - Egypt for example has not ruled itself domestically since the Iron age and gained independence in 1952 to a raving lunatic like Nasser. Egypt is an entirely fucked up and dysfunctional country which could become one of the worlds largest humanitarian disasters.
If you read Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E Lawrence when he was fighting the Turks the middle east seemed more cosmopolitan than it is today. There was more variation in caste and sect and while there was fighting between groups there was a big stick (the Ottomans) to put it down. The "right of guests" actually meant something and a foreigner could feel safe knowing he was above the pettiness of the Arabs and their family squabbles. Now - there are many places a westerner would not be safe.
Now time to shed and burn the masks...