Iran: Cultural Values, Self images and Negotiation Behavior

Self-Images and StereotypesChivalry and SpiritualityIranians today tend to characterize themselves as highly spiritual (rohani), incontrast to the materialistic West and Arab world. 68 Iranians see themselves as kind(mehraban), modest (foroutan), sensitive (motavaze’), empathic and warm-blooded(hassas, del-suz, khun-garm), 69 socially committed, open-handed (dast-o del-baaz),and loyal and constant (vafadaar). 70 These qualities are intimately linked with thepre-Islamic ethos of chivalry (javanmardi), which incorporates such qualities astrustworthiness, truthfulness, and honesty in business, integrity, a clear sense ofpurpose and identity, perseverance, personal courage, and purity. The javanmardam(chivalrous individual) is portrayed as an individualist par excellence, insofar as heobeys his inner compass and has no fear of standing alone against what he sees aswrong. He acts on his principles even at the peril of loosing his own property, anddefends the weak without regard for the risk to his self. 71 This ethos is held in suchhigh regard that the Imam ‘Ali himself is seen as the model of javanmardi. 72 Aninteresting anecdote which emphasizes this ideal is that of Mossadeq, who, defeatedand dying, heard a colleague say “how terrible it all turned out,” and answered him,“Yes, but at the same time, how marvelous it all turned out.” It is said that Mossadeqsaw himself playing out the roles of the Iranian paradigms of javanmardi: the battlinghero Rostam, the son of Zaal, the noble general Ali, the Lion of Allah and, at the sametime, the Imam Hussein, Prince of Martyrs. 73This model gave birth in Iran to two parallel paradigms. The most evident is that ofIranian mysticism as expressed in the Sufi movements and the dervish personality.The Iranian concept of spirituality is not of ascetism; Shiite Sufism is not ascetic ormonastic and, as pointed out above, the great Persian poets promoted enjoyment oflife coupled with awareness of its vicissitudes and the need not to fall captive to thevanities of this world. The dervish (darvish) in modern Iranian social typology is aspiritual man who realizes the vanities of material life, enjoys them, but does notallow his self to become enslaved to them. He allows himself to ignore social andhierarchical conventions (such as tœ'arof) and makes his spiritual well-beingcontingent on his material success. He is not a hermit or an ascetic in the Western orEast Asian sense. He may be completely involved in business or politics but perceivedby his colleagues as a dervish type. 74 In many movies as well as in best-selling novelsand magazines, there is an expressed aversion to anything ideological, and an68 Bateson 262.69 This is especially true about the younger generation. Dr. E. Pardo points out that in many movies, inmagazines, as well as in at least one best-selling novel , there is an expressed disgust of anythingideological, and a great interest in dealing with local problems and societal ills. There is a search forpacifism and a kind of existentialism – they want to live in the “here and now” with love, compassion,good food and music, and heal their wounds from an overly ideological period. The demand by thegovernment to sacrifice youth for nothing in the minefields of the war, and executions by therevolutionaries are open wounds. This fact, which is evident to the ruling clerics, stands in directcontradiction to the image of Iran which serves as the basis for their political strategies.70 Bateson 262.71 For a definition of javanmardam seeArasteh 26. For the Suffi link to the ancient Iranian concept, seethe site of the Nimutallahi Suffi order: .72 Bateson 263. The identification of the Imam ‘Ali as the “King of Javanmardi” appears frequently indiscussions of Iranian culture on the Usenet.73 Mottahadi 133.74 See Bateson 264–265.17