Diaspora Iranians, especially those born abroad, are often far more supportive of the current Iranian regime. Some may not even speak Persian, which is quite common among second- and third-generation Iranian Americans. Additionally, dispora Iranian of Jewish descent are not always on good terms with the rest of the diaspora (Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Armenians, Zoroastrians, and even Baha’is) except for those who are royalists (pro-Pahlavi dynasty). Interestingly, every Iranian I’ve met who held strong antisemitic views was from the diaspora.
Within Iran, especially among the younger generation, there is little fondness for the current regime, even though it was their grandparents who participated in the revolution. Diaspora Iranians (except the political exiles (*) and those who lost their citizenship, mostly Jews) can easily travel to Iran. Diaspora males who haven’t completed their military service can obtain a waiver and travel to Iran once per year.
It’s also worth noting that the only group of Iranians who are against a nuclear Iran are diaspora Iranian Jews. All others including Iranian Jews within Iran are generally supportive.
The President of the Storting (Speaker of the Norwegian Parliament) is an Iranian exile who fled the country with his family and has been very critical of the Iranian regime. He seems to have softened his stance since the election of Pezeshkian, who happens to share the same Azeri-Iranian background. Nevertheless, despite his animosity toward the Iranian regime, he turned down Israel’s invitation in the aftermath of the October 2023 events.
(*) Here, I’m not referring to the MKO members, who are despised by virtually all Iranians and whose opinions nobody cares about.
Something is weird. You are the first Iranian I know to call the language Persian. Very few, if anyone, here would understand, but I’ll call you out, you’re so distant from Iran that you’re practically a foreigner. EVERY single Iranian I know, calls it Farsi. I mean Iranians in Iran. Lived there, definitely longer than you.
The rubbish stories about the “new generation” not liking the regime as supposedly the “old generation” likes them just proves the point that you’re clueless. The Zoroastrians and Bahis bit is pathetic…
Just curious, you should know where this photo is taken and, more importantly you should know what’s written on the side of tank right? (don’t bother googling it, I took that photo myself and its unlikely to be anywhere public and online)
Incredible rubbish. OFAC deals with you only if you’re dealing with sanctioned goods with a sanctioned country. The problem with US citizens is much less from the US as much as from Iran. There’s no “exit” control from the US to visit Iran whatsoever. Btw, just so you know, an Egyptian, for example, NEEDS clearance to go to Iran from Egypt. And even if they still want to go, they are still being told, “we’ll watch you” (not because they do, but just to reduce the willingness to go to Iran)
I read it as ‘Serena’, which appears to be an Iranian girls name. The article below is about a lady called Serena Amini and as you can see its the same spelling (p.s. I don’t speak Farsi but as you know its the same Arabic script)
Soldiers affectionally naming their hardware with girls names seems to be pretty universal.
The writing is on the side of the tank. Iranians know. Its a monument. Long story short, these are Iraqi tanks that were part of the Iraqi invasion in the beginning of the war when Saddam thought that he’ll get the support of the local Sunni and some of the Kurds. The road is called the Karbala highway and the tanks were stopped with a massive loss of Iranians. Some of the tanks are left there as a constant reminder of the war and the writing on the side is “we didn’t attack first, we were just defending ourselves”
This discussion about Persian language is interesting, but it might be more appropriate to start a new thread dedicated to Oriental languages so we can focus on that topic. Maybe the moderator could move these messages there to keep the forum organized?
Serena is not a typical Persian name. The correct Persian name is actually Sorna. In the case of Serna Amini, Serna is simply a phonetic variation of Sorna. In Persian, the spelling doesn’t change whether it’s Sorna, Serna, or Serena—the same letters are used. To emphasize the correct pronunciation of a word, we can use diacritics in Persian, but these are usually reserved for uncommon words or foreign names. For instance, ‘France’ in Persian is written as Fransh (فرانسه), but phonetically, it is read as Faransé (with the first “a” pronounced like a French “a” and the second “a” pronounced like a German “a”). Short vowels, such as the French “a”, are omitted, while long vowels, such as the German “a”, are not omitted.
Dude, I’m writing in English, and in English, the correct and historically preferred term for the language is Persian. While Farsi is the native word for the language in Persian itself within Iran, and yes, it’s also used in English sometimes, t’s not the standard or traditional term in English. It’s like how we say Swedish instead of svenska when speaking English. If I followed your logic, I’d also have to say Torki instead of Azerbaijani; Kordi instead of Kurdish; Arabi instead of Arabic; Armani instead of Armenian… But that’s not how English works.
By the way, being a multiethnic country, in Iran, we often ask questions like, “Are you a Fars?” (Are you a Persian?), “Are you a Tork?” (Are you an Iranian Azerbaijani?)… When you say “Torki” (Turkish) in Iran, people assume you’re referring to the Azerbaijani language spoken in Iran or the Republic of Azerbaijan. To specify the Turkish language spoken in Turkey, you have to say “Torke Estanboli” (Istanbulite Turkish), because the modern Turkish language spoken in Turkey is based on the dialect of Istanbul. So, context matters.
And to refer to somewone who is Turkish (citizen of Turkey), you have to say “Torke Torkiye” (Turk of Turkey).
Also, it’s worth noting that every citizen of the Rep. of Azerbaijan knows that in neighboring Iran, their language is called Turkish (Türk dili). It was Stalin who changed the name of their language from Turkish to Azerbaijani for political reasons. He also changed Romanian to Moldovan (in Moldova) which was reverted back to Romanian after the independence of Moldova.
Thanks, I was confused because in Arabic it would be written as “سيرينا” but when you put “سرنا" in a Persian-English translator it comes out as Serena.
I’m English and have always and only heard the language referred to as Farsi.
I don’t know much at all about the language, but when you said Persian it first made me think that you must be referring to a broader group of languages of which Farsi is a specific variety, or possibly vice-versa. It’s clear from what you say that this is not the case, but I just use it as an example to demonstrate how at least this English speaker is more familiar with the term Farsi that you seem to think is generally the case.
She is simply of Iranian descent, but not Iranian. The story about how Iranians supposedly ask each other “are you Fars” is laughable. In my over a decade of travelling and living in Iran not even once was this question asked. The question they ask is “where are you from” which broadly indicates whether one is Azeri, Kurdish, Arab or Fars. Maybe “are you Fars” is what diaspora Iranians ask each other, but not in Iran. But we digress…
English is lingua franca nowadays, but not all English speakers are well, let’s say “English”.
No, the common ignoramus doesn’t necessarily know about Farsi (because their countries didn’t really have historical connections with this part of the world), but knows about Persia. “Persian”, however improper, makes more sense depending on one’s cultural background. I mean they wouldn’t know/notice is not entirely “correct”.
It’s interesting to hear how the term “Farsi” is more familiar to you as an English speaker. To clarify, both “Farsi” and “Persian” are correct and widely used, and it’s really up to you which one you prefer. Personally, I’m perfectly fine with either term, as well as the less widely used “Parsi” which is the original name of the language before the Muslim conquest of Persia.
That said, I would gently correct someone if they used terms like “Iranian”, “Irani”, or “Irooni” to refer to the language, as those aren’t accurate, just as you wouldn’t refer to French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese or Catalan as “Romance” when speaking about the specific languages.
One advantage of using “Farsi” is that if you ever travel to Iran, someone who doesn’t speak a word of English will most likely not understand the word “Persian”. In everyday conversation there, “Farsi” is the term people use , so it’s more practical in that context.
For a bit of historical context, “Pars” (which refers to Persia) is still used in many Iranian brand names, while “Fars” is the name of an Iranian province with Shiraz as its capital. Fars province is considered the heartland of Persian culture or regional contect.
As for the debate over “Farsi” vs. “Persian”, this whole discussion started when Gaburgo mentioned that he found it unusual for me to refer to the language as “Persian”. He shared that, in his experience, most Iranians in Iran call it “Farsi” and even suggested that using “Persian” might indicate a disconnect from Iran. While I respect his perspective, I think it’s important to note that both terms are valid, and usage often depends on personal preference.
As the famous Pars Khodro (car manufacturer) which produced a model, affectionately known as “the flying coffin” amongst Iranians. Or was that by SAIPA?
But its interesting that it was Reza Shah who changed the name to “Iran” in order to show to the world that while Persia was often a victim of foreign control, Iran will be independent. Ironically, it fell into the hands of the despicable mullahs.
btw, just in case I am misunderstood, I carry a huge amount of love, respect and nothing but warmth for Iran, its people, deep culture, poetry, language (after reading translated poetry I tried learning Farsi, to no avail) and…oh…the food!
I wonder whether the preferred name for the language, as well as the people, might also have changed over time for political reasons. My thought was that Persian, as the name for the language, could also have been deemed a throwback, but perhaps at various points in history has shifted more or less in and out of favour.
BTW I was there in 1976 and 77, just before the unrest that sparked the Islamic revolution. Can’t say I recall much about it, it was all very foreign to a 16 y-o.
My uni was full of Iranian students in the 70s when M.R.S. Pahlavi sent anyone vaguely able to do hard sciences to foreign educational institutions. I worked my way through uni teaching them English because their skills were not good. They called their language either Persian or Farsi in equal measure, AIR.
The thing is, most people assume Iran is a coherent nation or Farsi-speaking Persians, when in reality, the “Persians” are probably less than 50%. The Azeri (the Turkic speaking “minority” primarily in the North West) are over 20%, the Kurds are probably around 15%, the Arabs, the Balochi and the Mazani are probably around 5% each. This is an extremely diverse country and this is why people who argue about bringing the regime down do not realize that if Iran is without a central gravitational power pulling all together, Iraq will look like kindergarten kids playing on a sandpit.
I used to meet quite a few relatively senior government experts who had done their biology or chemistry masters or PhDs in Europe or the US before the revolution. These guys train and educate the “new” generation and even today, the level of expertise in Iran when it comes to technical questions, is unparalleled in the region.
