Iran: Cultural Values, Self images and Negotiation Behavior

Iran: Cultural Values, Self-images and Negotiating Behaviorclass, one which lacks the traditional political clout of the bazaar; he is seen as lesssophisticated than the bazaari and less well connected. 97Trust is essential to the bazaar culture, an economic structure which was notoriginally based on written contracts, and in which large sums of money pass handswithout formal assurances. Personal security is preferred to collateral security. Oralcommitments made in the bazaar before witnesses are usually kept, as breaking suchcommitments would have a crippling effect on the system and on the personalreputation of the merchant who reneges. In the bazaar a person’s previous history,behavior in public, manner of speaking, and religious convictions are all criteria usedto judge his trustworthiness. This is reflected in the fact that Persian has a wide rangeof words to signify various levels of trust between people. 98FamiliesRegional origins, family economic status, and family lineage play an importantrole in the determination of an individual's social identity. The extended family with anetwork of personal ties provides the mechanism for social mobility, businesssuccess, political acceptance, and protection from the arbitrariness of the regime.Official biographies of prominent Iranians will frequently go into detail about theperson's genealogy and his ancestor's achievements. Implicitly, a person is assumed tocontinue the tradition of his forefathers and remain true to them. Favors are not on aperson-to-person basis but on a “(family or friend)-circle-to-(family or friend)-circle"basis. 99An extension of a person’s family identity is his family’s geographic origin. This isexpressed in the custom, grown more prevalent since the revolution, of taking anadditional surname indicating the city or region of origin (for example, Isfahani,Mashhadi, Khouzestani, or Rafsanjani). 100 This custom is maintained even amongIranians who were born abroad (for example, expatriate Iranians born in Najaf, Iraq),who add the city of their forefathers to their name.Social circlesIranian social-political circles external to the family are embodied in the institutionof dovreh (circle), the practice of party-baazi (protectionism), and ravaabet97 It is of interest that since the Revolution a number of meydanis have achieved high social rankthrough their service in the IRGC and other arms of the regime. One of the most prominent examples isof the former head of the IRGC and of the Bonyad Mostazifan, Mohsen Rezai.98 These words include: e‘temaad, etminaan, and e‘teqaad. E‘temaad has wider use in businesstransactions than the other two. When someone has e‘temaad in someone else, he can trust him with hismoney and family, and he is sure that his friend will not leave him alone in a moment of need.Etminaan serves in phrases such as “peace of mind” and “to rest assured,” or in cases in which onegovernment has requested assurances from another. E‘teqaad means profound trust or belief, withreligious connotations. Conviction in God, for example is affirmed using e‘teqaad.99 This characteristic of Iranian society has been extensively treated by sociologists and lay observers.See Benham 101-103; Zonis 154; Millspaugh, etc.100 This is a relatively new custom. Khomeini gave it impetus when he himself added the nameKhomeini to his original name – Rouhallah Moussavi. This custom is not to be confuses with thetradition of one's adding the name of a holy city (Karbalah, Najaf, Mashhad) at the beginning of one'sname as a religious title, similar to the title "Haji" (one who made the Haj to Mecca) to indicate that theperson had made a pilgrimage (ziyarah) to that city.24