Part 1
The Dalkey Book Festival asked a simple question: who are the Iranians? An afternoon spent on the Revolutionary Guards, Israel and regional power left little room for the people themselves.
Some countries disappear long before they cease to exist. Their cities remain crowded, their people remain alive and their history remains intact, yet somewhere between politics, ideology and international narratives, the nation itself begins to fade from view. This chapter explores how Iran, one of the world's most discussed countries, has become a place spoken about endlessly while its people are heard less and less.
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At a panel meant to explain Iran, Iranians were spoken about rather than listened to. Their politics were mocked and their longing for freedom treated as borrowed from abroad, as if a century of struggle had never happened.
The event was called Understanding Iran, yet as the discussion unfolded, Iran increasingly became the backdrop rather than the subject. Israel was analysed. Palestine was analysed. Regional conflicts were analysed. Meanwhile, the voices of ordinary Iranians faded into the background. This chapter asks a simple question: was Iran invited to the conversation, or merely used as a stage for other narratives?
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A panel promised to explain Iran. By the end of the afternoon, the discussion had turned to Israel, Palestine and Western policy, and the Iranians who live under the Islamic Republic had quietly disappeared from it.
For decades, the Islamic Republic has mastered a remarkable political achievement: persuading much of the world to discuss its enemies more often than its victims. While international attention focuses on regional conflicts, ordinary Iranians continue to bear the costs of repression, economic decline and political exclusion. This chapter examines how Iran disappears behind the narratives constructed around it—and who benefits when that happens.
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The Islamic Republic has embassies, media and diplomats. The pensioner, the prisoner's mother and the exile have only their testimony. Why does the world keep listening to the jailor?
The deeper question raised by this series is not whether Iran is misunderstood. The deeper question is who benefits from that misunderstanding. As ordinary Iranians struggle to make their voices heard above the noise of geopolitics, ideology and competing narratives, a simple question remains unanswered: who has the right to speak for a nation they do not have to live in?
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