Ridiculing and distorting Iranian history and culture is a habit common in different mediums ranging from popular culture in many countries, online forums, the scholarly community, the pseudo-scholarly community, to some forces in Iran itself. The negativity is so striking that I cannot help but wonder about the reason behind it. Do we Iranians simply "suck" at history? Is it because of envy and prejudice? Did we knock out a lot of teeth? I don't really know.
My people have suffered too much, and one would think that outsiders would somehow sympathise with Iranians and appreciate their history and contributions to humanity as much as they do to other peoples in different civilisations. But that's not the case apparently.
This is not a rant and I'm not playing the victim card to draw attention. I have lurked in many online forums and websites and read a considerable number of books and articles that tackle the subject of Iranian history. I have exposed myself to Western popular culture and to different opinions from people of different backgrounds and orientations both online and offline. I don't even live in Iran, so I'm in a position to look at the subject from the perspective of an outsider. With that having been said, I think I'm justified in claiming that the negativity surrounding Iranian history and culture is too obvious not to be noticed, and this negativity is not comparable to anything similar regarding other civilisations that seem to enjoy favourable reputations overall, at least when compared to the Iranian.
So the question is:
Why has the history of Iranian Civilisation been a victim of propaganda, distortion, and wilful ignorance?
Note: If you have an axe to grind, I'll not appreciate your participation in this thread. I've heard and seen too much nonsense not to be able to recognise the foul odour of agenda-promoters. So here's something to consider.
