Defying the Stereotype: What its name reveals about Iran

‘So-fy-ah’, ‘So-feer’, or ‘Szof-e-yah’ as my mother so incorrectly calls me. What is in a name?

A name is more than just a method of identification, it is defining, and first impressions do count. A medical student I know just delivered his first baby only to find out the little girl is to be named: ‘Heidi Princess Sparkle’, telling don’t you think?

The Babylonian Talmud’s even thought that a name could exert influence over its bearer, such is its power, and in his poem Manhatta, Walt Whitman shows that names should be illustrative of essences:

“I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city, / Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name! / Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient”

Names are even the pivotal concept around which the world’s best loved tragedy revolves: Romeo and Juliet discovered, to their detriment, the significance of a name:

“By a name / I know not how to tell thee who I am. / My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself”

This is a matter on which I am able to sympathise with Romeo, not because I am ashamed of the associations invoked by my name, but simply because of that dreaded moment when as a child in primary school, my teachers would call the register and inevitably mispronounce both of my names, drawing laughter from my peers and red faced shame from myself.

Perhaps the greatest trauma was that I was too shy to correct them and spent the following year learning to answer to a name not my own. Why could I not have a normal name like everyone else? As far as I was concerned my mother and father had failed in their parental duty to protect their child from a world of menace by giving it a suitable name.

Fortunately I got over it.

As I grew older (and hopefully wiser) it no longer mattered if people knew me by a slightly different name; it merely reflected the different perceptions that they had of me. So as they called me by a variation on the theme of Sofia, so they knew a variation on the theme of me.

In fact over the past few years the tables have turned dramatically: I have become proud of my name (all 17 syllables of it), Sofya Jana Mary Cameron Shahab Arab de Razi, its associations and the identity that it gives me. Sofya, coming from the Greek for wisdom, and Shahab the Farsi for ‘King of the Oceans’ or ‘Shooting Star’. Although for many I will never quite be a true Iranian, having elected to study English and politics, as opposed to medicine, dentistry, law or engineering.

Highlighting my Iranian heritage may seem strange given the political regime in Iran and ongoing tensions with the West, but it is important not to allow current perceptions to change the way in which the past or future is viewed.

So why is it that I am proud to be an Iranian? I am proud to be associated with one of the greatest empires of the classical world, proud of its rich culture and proud of its future potential.

Ironically this is also what makes me most angry about Iran, as it is currently incapable of realising this potential, and it is not the West, as many Iranians like to believe, that is holding them back, but Iran itself with its outdated political regime and fundamentalist religion.

Names and their associations have been an important factor in the history of Iran; in 1935 Reza Shah Pahlavi decreed that Persia was henceforth to be known as Iran. This created a new identity for Iranians and disassociated them from their past. A grave mistake, as only a few generations later many are unaware that Persian and Iranian histories are one and the same.

Consequently despite Persia being perceived as one of the most advanced empires during the classical age, even instigating the first constitution, Iran is commonly viewed as backward and dangerous.

The Persian Empire clearly demonstrated the potential for greatness that Iran holds, but because many do not see the connection between Iran and Persia, they fail to see that Iran still has great potential and are therefore unwilling to help them realise it.

For change to occur there needs to be a change in the perception of Iran and according to Time Magazine: a greater understanding of its “unique position in the world: [as] a Moslem nation but not an Arab one.”

Iran’s desire to separate itself from the Arab and Sunni world is shown in its name; as Iran is a cognate of the word Aryan. This highlights the difference in culture, beliefs and lineage from other countries of the Middle East and indicates that policies employed with regards to other nations in that region, are not necessarily applicable to Iran.

Names talk, as do labels and George W. Bush’s proclamation of Iran as part of the ‘Axis of Evil’. An antagonistic brush stroke, with potentially dangerous consequences, that fails to recognise the individual histories and cultures of the Middle East.

Iran is like a spoilt rebellious teenager, whatever the West demands of it, Iran will do the opposite, as The Economist noted: it is “a government that thrives on defiance”.

Iranians are some of the most educated and well informed people I have met and in seeking the populace’s support, through honour, integrity and respect, rather than alienating them, it may be possible to overcome the extremism that has arisen within the country.

We need to see that although Iran now goes by a different name to its Persian counterpart, these two histories are inextricably linked and that by understanding one, it is possible to gain a greater knowledge of the other. Through stability, education, modernisation and democratisation I hope that we can come to be as proud to bear the name Iran as we were to carry the name of Persia.

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