Occidentalism in Iran: Representations of the West in the Iranian Media by Ehsan Bakhshandeh

Author:Ehsan Bakhshandeh [Bakhshandeh, Ehsan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Journalism, Language Arts & Disciplines, Media Studies, Political Freedom, Social Science, Political Science, Middle East, Islamic Studies, History, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, General
ISBN: 9780857739124
Google: NqCLDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 27757085
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2015-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE WEST IN IRANIAN NEWSPAPERS

There is rarely a case in which the print media have not played a crucial role since 1837, when the first newspaper was published in Iran. The Iranian press has been always involved in major developments throughout its existence: the 1905 Constitutional Revolution, the 1953 coup and the 1979 Islamic Revolution, to name just a few.

The first example of the role played by the Iranian print media in politics dates back to the 1910s when the Iranian press was used for political purposes by British and Iranian officials to persuade public opinion that the Anglo–Iranian Agreement of 1919 was in Iran's interests.

According to Katouzian,1 a translated version of a letter by Sir Percy Cox (the interim British envoy to Tehran responsible for negotiating the Anglo–Iranian Agreement of 1919) to Vosooq (the then head of the Iranian government) was published in the Iranian press to restore public confidence in the agreement. Cox wrote in his letter that:

[The] essential objects of this agreement … are the complete internal and external independence of the Persian State, the preparation of means of strengthening the power of the Persian Government to enable them to maintain internal order and guard against frontier dangers; and finally to devise means for the development and progress the country. In no way has it been the aim of the British Government by this agreement to limit the independence and authority of Persia, on the contrary, it is their desire that this ancient kingdom that has so long been in jeopardy and discord should be made capable of preserving its independence, and (having regard to the important geographical position of Persia) that the mutual interests of the two States should be better respected and safeguarded.2

This letter was translated into Persian and published in the country's newspapers to persuade the public that the 1919 Agreement was not aimed at turning Iran into a British protectorate. But according to Katouzian, ‘it did not work’ in favour of the English.3

The Anglo–Iranian Agreement of 1919 attracted opposition expressed in the form of pamphlets in Iran.4 For example, a long pamphlet entitled ‘Ebtal al-Batel’ (‘Annulling the Invalid’) by Abdollah Mostofi – a high-ranking Ministry of Finance official – addressed Vosouq:

You may have imagined that Iran has other things too, which you have not given as a gift to the British … Do not worry. The present level of service which you have rendered to the British has made them the owners of everything in Iran, and you can rest assured that – as a satirical magazine in Paris has put it – you have sold this country to the British for fifty centimes.5

Elsewhere in the pamphlet, Mostofi accused Vosouq of taking ‘British money’ to spend on ‘propagandists and producers of false public opinion’.

In his analysis of political cartoons in two newspapers in the 1940s, Amin explains how the Iranian press engaged themselves in politics and tried to influence the decision making of the state.6

These traces suggest that, despite

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