Jeanne Carstensen has an absolute must-read Salon interview with Hooman Majd, a leading Iranian intellectual who grew up “mainly in the United States,” and who, in Carstensen’s words, is “the consummate insider and outsider.”
“A friend once told me that I was the only person he knew who was both 100 percent American and 100 percent Iranian,” writes Hooman Majd in his book on Iranian culture, “The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran.”
The consummate insider and outsider, Majd served as the English-language translator for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s now infamous 2006 speech at the United Nations, and also wrote about the experience for the New York Observer.
The son of an Iranian diplomat under the shah, and grandson of a powerful ayatollah, Majd grew up mainly in the United States where he worked for many years in the entertainment industry before launching his career as a journalist and author. Although openly linked with the reformists — he wore green Iranian slippers on Bill Maher’s program last week and has also translated for former President Mohammed Khatami (to whom he is related by marriage) — Majd’s views on Iran are distinguished by their nuance and fierce independence. Indeed, in his status as a sophisticated global citizen and Iranian American sympathetic to the core ideals of the Islamic Republic, he embodies the paradox of contemporary Iran that is the subject of his book.
Majd was in Iran in April for a recent Newsweek cover story about his journey from his ancestral home of Yazd through the Iranian heartland to the sprawling capital city of Tehran. He returned again in May during the run-up to the elections and has since been in daily contact with friends and family about the crisis in the country from his home in New York City.
Salon spoke to Majd (who has been a regular contributor to these pages) by phone about whether or not the Ahmadinejad victory was rigged (yes), what reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi really wants (Islamic democracy), and why the neocons are Ahmadinejad’s best friend.
That’s the introduction. The Q&A interview follows. Read it all.
Added: “The Three Stooges of Ahmadinejad” are at it again.
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