Thursday, October 06, 2005

Welcome to our blog


Welcome to Persians and Hollywood. My name is Oslonor and I live in California with my Persian wife. I am not Iranian myself but I am interested about Iran's history and culture. If you want to know how I look like, I found this picture on the internet which looks like me very much. So I am using this picutre.

This blog is about "How Persians are portrayed in Hollywood films". The number of visitors to this blog has been around 20.000 people from 103 countries. You can see different kind of statistics displayed on different related blogs.
We are discussing the origin of Persians and how Persians are portrayed in Hollywood as dark looking Afro-arabian terrorist. We want to define the question of ethnic groups in Iran and clear some misconceptions about Iran.
This blog is not about who is white, black or yellow or green.
"This blog is about WHY Hollywood uses an entirely different ethnic group to represent Persians. Hollywood uses Azeri Turks and even Black Africans to represent Persians. In the movie 300, Hollywood uses Africans to portray Persians. At the same time if anybody raises any objections to their methods is called racist!!!!!"
Iran has been known is the land of Aryans. But not all citizens of Iran have aryan origin. The current regime in Tehran is trying to capitalize on Iran's past history and President Ahmadinejad of Iran is presented as a typical "Persian Aryan". We like to clear these questions and point out what kind of ethnic groups live in Iran and who is running Iran today.

Iran is a multi ethnic country and the nationals or citizens of Iran are called Iranians. Iranian does not have any ethnic or racial significance as anybody could be Iranian. It is not possible to generalize about the image of an Iranian. Generally in Western mass media an Iranian is associated with the image of Azeri Turks who are a major ethnic group in Iran. President Ahmadinejad of Iran is an Azeri Turk and has a typical Azeri Turk phenotype.

Before Proceeding further we suggest that you visit the sidebar on the right on this page and view the phenotype slideshow for major ethnic groups in Iran. Also see the trailer for Oliver Stone "Alexaner" and see a real Persian, Shermin Shahrivar, Miss Europe 2005. This way the rest of blog
is placed in a real context. Also You can click on any of the pictures on this blog and see a bigger picture.

Iran and Persia are two different names: Iran has two names. Iran and Persia. These two names do not mean the same thing. Iran is the name of a country. Persia is both a country and the name of an ethnicity in Iran. Not all Iranians are Persians. Iran has many ethnic groups as its citizens. Those are Arabs, Assyrians, Jews, Turcomens and Azeris, Kurds, Baluchs and Persians.

The Persians have subdivision as Lurs, Bakhtiaris, Gilaki, Mazandranis etc. Iran points to a country but not a race. There is no "Iranian race". Iran is a state. Iran is not a nation. Persian and Kurds and Azeris, Baluch, Turcomans etc are nations. The misunderstanding about the name of Iran comes from Europe where the states are nations too, example: Germany and Germans or British and Britain. But Iran and Iranians are not the same thing. Iranian is similar to an American from any ethnic background.

The Persian aryans who migrated to Iran around 2000 BC found the country populated by different local civilizations. The Persian language was accepted by these locals through elite substition of the Persian language. These natives are considered as Persians in Iran but they have different origins.

Some natives of Iran who are Persian speakers are related to the civilization of Mesopotemia. Other Persian speakers are related to other local civilizations in different parts of Iran such as Kashan, Kerman or Jiroft or Elam. These natives of Iran lived in Iran before the migrating Persian Aryans arrived in Iran.

So Persians are divided into two groups. Ethnic Persians and Persians speakers. Ethnic persians who were the leaders and founders of the Persian Empire are completely ignored by Hollywood. Instead Hollywood always employs actors with Azeri Turks looking features and presents them to the public as Persians. Azeri Turks are major ethnic group in Iran. This blog tries to clear that misconception promoted by Hollywood and specially in Oliver Stone "Alexander". There are no light skinned or dark skinned "Iranians". There is no such people called "Iranian" in Iran. Iran is a multi-ethnic country. Iranian simply means a citizen of Iran. Iran defines a geographic location and not a race.

There are no African looking Swedes. Neither there are any Afro-Arabian, big nose, curly hair, connected eyebrows Persians. Those people are Persian speakers and not ethnic Persians.

Also in common usage, Iranian refers to an Azeri Turk. Persians identify themselves as Persians and not Iranians. That is why Azeri Turks are trying to confuse people and always write Iranian/Persian to mean those are the same people. That is not correct and Persian is not the same thing as Iranian.

Main Ethnic Division in Iran: Population 70 Million

Core Persians or ethnic Persians %10 of Iran
(Original Migrating Aryan tribes such as Persians, Parthians,Sogdians, Bactrians, Scythians) (Nordic Types)

Persian Speakers %30-%35 of Iran
(Includes Natives of Iran with native origin and civilization such as Kashan, Jiroft, elam etc) (Mainly Cro-magnid Types)

Azeri Turks Iranians %40 of Iran - ca.30 million
(Originating from Oghuz Turks mainly from 15 century A.D. in Iran)(Mainly Armenoid Types)

According to CIA Factbook: Estimates other groups are:

Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%,
Kurd 7%,
Arab 3%,
Lur 2%,
Baloch 2%,
Turkmen 2%,
other 1%

Hollywood uses Racism: The mixing up of these two names Iran/Persia and Iranian/Persian is the source of many misconceptions and Hollywood uses this confusion to downplay the heritage of Persians by focusing on the Azeri Turk Iranian part of the population of Iran and presenting it as the real Persians. It also tries to prove that "Iranian" is a mixture of Arabs and Africans and the Aryan race is a myth in Iran. None of the ethnic nationalities in Iran are mixed with Arabs or Africans according to genetic research. Persia had never had any slave trade as Arabs did and the Arab invasion of Persian in the 6 century A.D. is exaggerated to show that Iranians are actually Arabs. Arab invasion of 20.000 army had practically no genetic impact on Iran.

Azeri Turks a major ethnic group in Iran have lived in Iran mainly since 15 A.D. They were not in Persia at the time of Persian Empire around 500 BC which is 2000 years earlier, and they are ethnically related to Turks and not to Persians. Currently Azeri Turks control the government in Iran. Persians have no role or a very minor role in the Iranian government. Outside Iran many people mistake Azeri Turks for Persians as all citizens of Iran are called Iranians. But Azeri Turks are fundamentally a different ethnic group from Persians. On the other hand many Azeri Turks use even the label of Persian to associate themselves with the Persian historical heritage.

DNA Research: According to DNA research the gene marker for an Arab is Haplogroup Type EU10. None of Iranians that is Persians and Azeris do not have EU10. So Iranians are definitely not Arabs. But there some features related to Azeri appearance that looks semitic that is used by Hollywood to depict the Persians as Afro-Arabs. Azeris may have hooked noses or connecting eye brows or special hair texture.

The main difference between an Azeri and a Persians is that Azeris have oval face and Persians have long narrow faces. Also culturally Persians and Azeris are different. Persians and other natives of Persia were followers of Zoarastrians ancient religion. Azeris have never been Zoarastrian. And this is a very fundamental difference. Azeri Turks have a turkish culture from Caucasus. Persians and other natives of Iran have a central asian culture.

Persians and Azeris: Officially Persians ar %50 of the population and Azeris are %25 of the population of Iran with 70 million people. But the reality is Azeris are %35-%40 of Iran. Ethnic Persians are %10 of the population. Persian speakers are about %35 of the population. The Azeri Turk group actually controls the government in Iran and represent a majority of the population in Tehran. More than %60-%70 of Tehran are Azeri Turks and number is growing on a daily basis. Persians are a minority in Iran even Iran is identified with Persia and Iran is not a Persian country but a country run by Azeri Turks. This fact clearly deviates from the standard conceptions about Iran.

Hollywood and Racism: Hollywood always mixes up Persians with Iranians presenting these two are the same people. That is not correct. An Iranian can be a Persian but it is not necessarily a Persian. These techniques of Hollywood on how Persians are portrayed in films is a part of the bigger problem how some people with positions of power are trying to use racism to promote their own agenda in US. Persians have no problems with ordinary Azeris. And Persians are not responsible for how Azeris look like. But Persians have to explain why Hollywood is bypassing the Persians and present Azeris as the real Persians. Persians are Non-Racist people and are exactly the ideals that Hollywood claims to promote. But Hollywood by depicting Azeris as Persians in their films is promoting racism against all Iranians.

43 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:32 PM

    tset

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:11 AM

    dude there was an official census back in 1370 and the ethnic break up of Iran is:
    48% Persian
    22% Azari
    10% Kurd
    9% Lur
    4% Arab
    2% Baluch
    1% turkmen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:38 PM

    That picture you use that looks like you... yea... that is a girl.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous9:22 AM

    Thankfully, most Americans know Hollywood's portrayals of people (as groups) cannot be trusted. Fret not.

    Looks like Hollywood about to release a movie about geishas without bothering to portray geishas with much accuracy. [It does not bother me that the actresses uses are largely Chinese, because I much admire the talents of Gong Li and Ziyi Zhang--but couldn't the film makers do their homework???]

    Hollywood = Hollyweird

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:44 AM

    the important thing is to be proud and accept the realities of your own persian history and culture.

    why care what hollywood thinks or represents? the intelligent people of this world know that hollywood is hardly a by-word for accuracy. they read books and academic journals written by scholar experts for their information.

    Haven't you ever thought that Hollywood sometimes has no choice and uses the "wrong" actor because there isn't a big enough pool of actors for many ethnicities? (be they Persian, Maori, Mongol,Malay or whatever)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:08 PM

    hilter would had loved you people.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:51 PM

    at least all the actors in the geisha movie was asia does it really matter if their from a different asian country.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9:46 AM

    Your information is totally wrong. Most of persians live in isfahan, shiraz,.... Almost all of them have black hair, while you can find lighter hair people in North west, where Azari turks live. You can not find that much persian with blue eyes. But there are some people with blue eye in North west.
    If ur wife has blue eye, light hair, small nose, I can say she is turk with 99% probability and persian with 0.2% and other race 0.8%.
    Persians came Iran from India. To see this, compare persians with Pakestanis, and Keshmiris. Same dark skin, same big noses,...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Quote:
    Your information is totally wrong. Most of persians live in isfahan, shiraz,.... Almost all of them have black hair, while you can find lighter hair people in North west, where Azari turks live. You can not find that much persian with blue eyes. But there are some people with blue eye in North west.
    If ur wife has blue eye, light hair, small nose, I can say she is turk with 99% probability and persian with 0.2% and other race 0.8%.
    Persians came Iran from India. To see this, compare persians with Pakestanis, and Keshmiris. Same dark skin, same big noses,...

    Oslonor:
    This is how typical Azeris look like.
    http://oslonorpictures.blogspot.com/2005/11/azeris.html

    For Persians check the pictures on the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous3:32 AM

    Hello
    Thanks 4 ur wonderfull weblog
    I suggest you to study this book:
    "Khodavand Alamoot Hassan Sabbah"
    writer:"Paul Amir"
    Translated to persian by:"Zabeeh Allah Mansoory"
    this book really chang my life
    Good Luck my friend
    bye

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:08 AM

    Hi,
    I am Iraian Azeri. But I have blond hair and green eyes. :D
    I can send my photo if you want. I agree with you about hollywood, but this don't have any relation with Iranian Azeries.
    Please give my ragrds to your wife.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous12:33 PM

    Hi Dude!! Good job, I really appreciate the things you are doing for us (Persians). Whoever sees me (a Persian + Kurd mixed) thinks I'm European. I have no Turkic blood. Iranians are mixed genetically - of course. However you can clearly see Germanic (Nordic) traits in them. Some are Slavic too.

    I have LIVED in 23 countries so far... I can distinguish faces... In Kerman, Iran I saw some of the Germanic faces I told you.

    I have some pictures for you if you want...

    By the way there are so many redheads too..

    Anyway, KHASTE NABASHI!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous6:45 PM

    You can see real pictures of the blog leader Oslonor at:

    http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/s-oslo.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:37 PM

    Oslonor, mi shiiith on ya feis, beche kooni.
    Choooos

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous7:44 PM

    Afghans are from Mongolia,
    That is why Turkish ex President Suleyman Demirel declared:
    All from the Great wall of China to Danub belongs to Turks and Turkey.
    Look at Afghan peoples faces, all Mongolian, yellow tribe, that is Turkish.
    Afghan General Dostum when visited Turkey about eleven years ago confessed this.
    Afghans are Mongolians.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/20363431 @N00/sets/72057594116574438/sh ow/

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous9:35 PM

    Afgans are Mongolians? comun. Not all of them at least.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous2:14 PM

    Jiiiiiiish

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous4:46 PM

    Azeri Turks are TURKS. Being a Turk is a state of mind and being. We are inclusive not exclusive. Turkish is our language and we are prous of who we are. Idiot who claim Azeris are not Turks simply do not know their head from their arse.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous3:52 PM

    Dont speak of racism, division, differences,
    speak of unification, peace and love.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous5:36 PM

    What a waste of time, what a sick mind whoever created this forum and website.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous6:58 AM

    thank you of the man who concerned Iranians, and crated this blog,
    I didn't read this blog complete but gussing what is it is not hard,
    I am an Iranian, Iran is an outstading country in the history and Persian culture and civilization admired by many,
    then really there is no need for proad persians to say what they are,
    Iran simply means the land of Aryans, and to me in this phrase the meaning of Aryan as noble is more important than its racial refference
    no doubt that the base of genetic, language and culture of Iran are Persian an indo-european people,
    but they are simply a type and a branch of humen,
    hemen are humen and they always adopted, mixed, developed...etc,

    then race as a genetic matter has no meaning to me,
    if it wants to prove IQ, or beautyness, we simply can measure it and no need to refer a race,
    fortunatly the IQ of Iranian and even middle eastern people is high,
    and also iranian, if white, black, brown, or whatever they be, they are counted a beautful and warm looking people,

    also if you are either beautiful, intelligent,... or not, belonging to a race doesn't solve any problem of you
    here we feel all people who live in Iran, Iranian, and really they are equal in their attitued and manner, all speak the beautiful language of Persian and have the persian culture and a looking similar to eachother
    in this case they show 80% of IRan, not 20%
    just maybe minory of people in Iran are very different in looking, culture and language

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous2:47 AM

    Ahmadinezhad is not Azari! and i think ur just insulting Azaris! Everyone living in Iran knows that Azeris are more goodlooking than other races in Iran. ur wife is persian and ur saying this!I can understand. by the way are you an antropologist?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous5:16 PM

    Azerbaijani men are very good looking, and well hung. Most persian women do have extra marital relations with the well hung Azerbaijani men.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous1:03 AM

    Thank You to visit my blog.
    So your wife is Iranian.My husband is a westerner too (not American, yet westerner) :)
    It seems you have much anonymous comments. I am the same anyway..

    Keep visiting my blog. I have many words to say about my country of origin.. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous4:38 AM

    Europeans are NOT aryan

    one of u said that Azeris are more goodlooking than other races in Iran..... no they are not not all of them at least

    we know who we are EUROPEANS WE DONT NEED YOUR AGREEMENT SAY ANYTHING YOU WANT. I DONT CARE ABOUT YOU

    Azari people speak turkic but
    AZARI PEOPLE ARE NOT TURK.

    Afghans are Mongolians......come on its joke

    we are proud of our race and our culture THE REAL ARYAN

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous4:50 AM

    PERSIANS ARE NOT AFRO-ARAB CAN U UNDERSTAND THAT?

    WE ARE ARYAN

    I DONT HAVE ANY ANGER TO EUROPEANS

    BUT IF YOU WANT TO DENY THE TRUTH ITS BETTER TO LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN BY ME

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous6:22 AM

    Do you note that Persians and Afghans look like Italians? You can compare here with several Italian Soccer Players.

    http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=bStm-hbqYj8

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous4:03 AM

    u r just sick with all this stuff...get a life...i am sorry for u...

    everybody knows that azeris are actually turks but the original turks dont look like afro-arabs and they dont have hooked noses or connected eyebrows...

    look at just the ppl who live now in turkistan(uyghur,turkoman etc...)they have fair skin(or with some red chicks) and they have small eyes...and look at now the turkish ppl who live in anatolia or iran or azerbaijan,some of them look like persian or pakistani or arab or europanian...

    hey,if u want to go far away,we all come from Adam and Eva ok?oh,are they aryan too?!?*!? *LOL*

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous4:17 AM

    and u did showed on puropose azeris who are not much good looking or dark skined and dark haired...

    i can show u many azeris and turks who have fair hair-skin-eyes...and that shows us that all azeris are actually blond or have appereance of european?it doesnt show that and it doesnt prove anything too what u ve already showed...

    and this persian woman who showed,miss europa,she had a nose job,i know that...i think that she had hooked nose and does that mean that she is not an aryan anymore?lol

    i am a turk and there are blonds and brunette in my family and i have small nose,big eyes and fair skin...am i aryan??!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous12:48 PM

    kos keshe kos nane on axi ke zadi axe zane bacheye obneiy
    farsha poste tire ba moye tire daran mesle hendiha vali dar shomale iran azarbayjan o kordestan poste adama roshntare
    toe kos kesh ye adame oghdehiy hasti ki ru mikhay gool bezani
    man pedram farse va madaram turk
    har 2 taraf midonam che sheklian
    cheshmam mesle babam meshkie va postam mesle madare turkam roshane
    ey bad bakhte bichare chera inghadr oghdehiy shodi
    to iran har ki boore azash beporsi 95% turke va 4% shomali(ke turk ya kordan axaran) va 1 darsad ham kurd
    pas boro koneto bede lashi az in axi ke avale webloget zadi malom kardi ke che oghdehiy hasti va hata oghdehye zibayi ham dari va say mikoni ba drogh be mardom befahmoni ke gohi hasti vali nisti va age agam ham to va zaneto bebine(albate motmaenam khodt zani siah sokhte mesle hendia) kholase inke sagam ham toro nemigaad ahmadi nezhad ham farse asil az garmsare va khameneiy ke poste rooshan dare rageye turk dare
    man fekr mikonam az inke hame be zibayie turkha eteraf mikonan
    be shedat oghdehiy shodi va mikhay khodeto khali koni
    doroste to shomal o azarbayjan boor ziade vali
    axaran cheshm sabz hastan ahmaghe kos nane in cheshm abihayi ke migi koja hastan?
    hame midonan farsaye asil to shiraz hastan ke hamashon ham ba post o moye tire malom mishan kerman+shiraz=farse asil!

    ReplyDelete
  31. well . first of all the pic u have up there is a woman . are you lesbian lol heheh . anyways im sorry for people who post childish and offensive and retard comments, by the way im persian ,if you see me u cant tell if im Persian or Scandinavian unless i tell you , but i never have the courage to say if im white or aryan . i think it's a strong word, and it gives me a shiver when some one call themselves aryan. and about the ones who posted comment about azariz , well yea they are not all bad looking but not as good as pure persians ;) . and about indians or pakis , are they even human? anyways solo... good luck on your blog, i hope u dont get disappointed by these comments from turks or azeris they are so close minded and stupid, thats why persians always make joke about them lol. anyways, thanks and bye

    ReplyDelete
  32. great site...check out my friends site
    http://antiquepersianrugs.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  33. ITS AMAZING. i mean im actually pleased to see thatthe majority of these readers agree with me. the self hate, the "De-Africanization" of people never fail to leave me highly befundled and feeling sorry for them. Its amazaing how much these socalled "Aryans" try to use science to denounce Africa's place of significance in th world's history. To even SUGGEST that Iranians are WHITE and have NO African lineage is extremely bogus. Persians invaded Egypt which is UNDENIABLY an African nation-multiracial but still very African, and completely assimilated and mixed with the natives just as the Assyrians did. Africa and the middle east go hand-in hand in history. To deny this, which obviously your wife would love to do to prove her "whiteness" is kiddish and self hating. She, you and Persians as whole may dislike who you are....an try to duck and dodge but DNA, CULTURE, & HISTORY are all unescapable. For you to suggest African existence in the near/far east was solely through slavery is perpostruous, contracts were formed, bonds were made and we lived together sharing the sam polytheistic patriachial society, until these Aryans you worship so much began preaching racism and hatred, you see these Aryans were European pastrialists meaning they belonged nowhere, the were nomadic: they werent the natives plain and simple. They created the seed that would spawn centuries later into the mind of a madman like Hitler to deAfricanize the world and preach white superiority, and YOU my friend can claim from dusk to dawn to be different but you are not. Your wife, like ALL Persians has rich African blood pooring through her veins, to dishonor it is her lost.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous2:19 PM

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    In first steps it's really nice if someone supports you, so hope to meet friendly and helpful people here. Let me know if I can help you.
    Thanks in advance and good luck! :)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous4:56 PM

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    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous5:26 AM

    hi all

    I just thought it would be good to introduce myself to everyone!

    Can't wait to start some good conversations!

    -Marshall

    Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Anonymous1:49 PM

    amir :
    and africans

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous1:52 PM

    amir :
    you and your wife are two real esshhaks

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous5:16 AM

    hey


    Just saying hello while I read through the posts


    hopefully this is just what im looking for looks like i have a lot to read.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous4:18 PM

    Thanks for a lovely society.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Anonymous8:31 AM

    I am assured, that you have misled.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Anonymous11:20 PM

    Looks like you are an expert in this field, you really got some great points there, thanks.

    - Robson

    ReplyDelete
  43. Anonymous5:58 AM

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    ReplyDelete