The Land Before Time: Iran

What happens when history works in reverse? What happens when history doesn't just repeat itself, and the world doesn't just stay the same -- what happens when time reverses and history comes back from the past to manifest itself in the present? No, I'm not crazy. I'm not talking about a sci-fi movie that involves a very athletic and attractive young actor traveling through the centuries on a time machine. I am talking about real places in the world today -- places like Iran.

In Reading Lolita in Tehran, Nafisi recalls a conversation she had with her daughter at one point in the 1990s. Her daughter was complaining about school and Nafisi told her basically to get over it. But Nafisi's daughter response is curious for many reasons. She told her mother that she could never understand how she, Nafisi's daughter, felt because her mother was never punished for wearing the wrong color shoelaces when she was in school.

First off, it's a rather wise remark for a quite young person to come up with. But, more interestingly, the roles seem to be reversed. The daughter -- the younger person from the newer generation -- is expressing exasperation at the ignorance of the mother -- the older person -- in regards to growing up in an unstable, oppressive society.

Since the start of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the nation has unilaterally become a different place, a place that almost seems to be thrust backwards in time. For example, the portraits of current leaders of Iran more resemble portraits from the Iranian leaders of the 1500s and 1600s than they do the leaders of the 1970s. The nation, in many ways, has become reactionary. New out, old in.


So how does this new generation, who has grown up with the Islamic Republic of Iran, relate to their parents and grandparents, people who lived through times much more liberal, much more open, more lavish, much more free? Is it possible that they would feel more of a kinship to their ancestors from the pre-modern Iran?

Also, one last thing to think about: are there any other societies that have, in recent times, had this sort of history reversal occur? If so, I'd like to hear, because I was unable to think of any others.

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