Two female students pose for a selfie on graduation day at the University of Tehran<\/p>\n
Two conceptual fallacies lie at the heart of the illegal American<\/a>–Israeli<\/a>\u00a0assault <\/a>on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first is the idea<\/a> that Iran is a barbaric country, stuck in the Middle Ages, and incapable of fitting in with the modern world. As Trump put it<\/a> when asked why striking Iranian bridges and power plants would not be a war crime. He replied<\/a>: “They\u2019re animals.”<\/p>\n The second mistake concerns the belief<\/a> that the United States represents western civilisation.<\/p>\n In this article we subject these basic assumptions to scrutiny by examining the intellectual accomplishments and capacity of leading figures on both sides.<\/p>\n We show that Iran\u2019s leadership is far more sophisticated, intelligent, literate and accomplished than Trump\u2019s United States<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with a comparison between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>, Iran\u2019s former supreme leader who was assassinated<\/a> by the United States in the early hours of the war, and US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Khamenei was a Marja<\/em><\/a> – an expert in Islamic jurisprudence in Twelver Shi\u2019a Islam<\/a>. The nearest British comparison might be king\u2019s counsel or a high court judge.<\/p>\n The late supreme leader was also a superb linguist, fluent not just in his native Persian but also Arabic<\/a>, Azeri and Turkish. He also knew a fair amount of English.<\/p>\n He was an enthusiast of Persian poetry but also read widely across western literature: Jane Austen<\/a>, Leo Tolstoy<\/a>, Dante Alighieri<\/a>, John Steinbeck <\/a>and Harriet Beecher Stowe<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an interview he gave to Iran\u2019s state-run television network in 2004, he stated:”In my opinion, Victor Hugo\u2019s Les Miserables is the best novel that has been written.” Pretty good judgment.<\/p>\n The contrast between Khamenei and the man who ordered his assassination is telling. Tony Schwartz, who ghostwrote Trump: The Art of the Deal<\/em>, speculated<\/a> that Trump had never read a single book in his adult life.<\/p>\n In Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House<\/em>, Trump\u2019s biographer, Michael Wolff, stated<\/a>: \u201cSome believed [during his first term in office] that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-\u00adliterate.\u201d<\/p>\n The comparison between\u00a0Dr Ali Larijani<\/a>, Iran\u2019s assassinated secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and his closest US counterpart, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is very telling.\u00a0Hegseth did study at Princeton, one of the most celebrated universities. But his academic record simply does not match up to Larijan<\/p>\n Larijani obtained his PhD on Kantian mathematics and subsequently wrote three books on Kant.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Israeli journalist Gid’on Lev<\/a>\u00a0on Larijani: “Even while serving in government over decades, he has never abandoned what appears to be his greatest passion: philosophy.”<\/p>\n Lev<\/a>\u00a0called\u00a0him<\/a>\u00a0“a brilliant thinker who combines, in an unusual way, a life of contemplation with a life of action – no small feat. In his writings, Larijani tries to defend the basic premises of his extreme religious worldview using the rules of western philosophy, and he often advances arguments that are genuinely thought-provoking.”<\/p>\n The comparison between Larijani and the former Fox News presenter, drunkard<\/a> and bigot Pete Hegseth <\/a>is simply embarrassing.<\/p>\n Dr Abbas Araghchi<\/a>, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, got his PhD in political thought from the University of Kent. His doctoral thesis examines the intersection of western-style liberal democracy and Islamic governance. Intellectually he operates on a higher plane than his US counterpart,\u00a0Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a>, who is a denier<\/a> of man-made climate change.<\/p>\n We now turn to an examination of the delinquent crop of White House or Trumpian publicists: Karoline Leavitt<\/a>, Stephen Miller<\/a> and\u00a0Senator Lindsey Graham<\/a>.<\/p>\n The nearest to an Iranian equivalent is Seyed Mohammad Marandi<\/a>. Marandi, who one of us has known for nearly two decades, completed his doctorate<\/a> on the poet Byron at the University of Birmingham, and now teaches English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran.<\/p>\n Unlike so many of the trivial people who flourish at the Trump White House, Professor Marandi has real-life experience, serving his country in the terrible Iran-Iraq War<\/a>, during which he survived<\/a> two chemical weapons attacks.<\/p>\n He has consistently offered far more coherent and accurate <\/a>analysis of the likely course of the war on Iran than Trump’s spokespeople.<\/p>\n The high intellectual calibre of the Iranian political leadership is a reflection on the Iranian education system.<\/p>\n Educational standards were dreadful under the US-backed Shah. Since the Islamic revolution they have improved prodigiously. For example, the percentage of female STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) graduates exceeds<\/a> the United States, according to figures from Unesco<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Islamic Revolution in Iran led to a huge increase in women in higher education<\/a>. Before the Islamic Revolution, most Iranian women and men were illiterate, whereas now, the vast majority can read and write.<\/p>\n According to<\/a>\u00a0national census data, in 1966, only 17.42 percent of the Iranian female population was literate, and 39.19 percent of the male population was literate. In 1976, these\u00a0figures<\/a>\u00a0were 47.49 percent for men and 35.48 percent for women.<\/p>\n By contrast,\u00a0in 1986 – post-revolution – the women\u2019s literacy rate had\u00a0climbed<\/a>\u00a0to 52.1 percent. The second post-revolutionary national census in 1996\u00a0showed<\/a>\u00a0that 74.2 percent of the Iranian female population over the age of six were literate, and this figure was 74.7 percent for men.<\/p>\n The 2006 census\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that 80.3 percent of the total female population over the age of six was literate; the corresponding figure for the male population was 88.7 percent. In 2022, UNESCO\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0Iran’s female literacy rate at 99 percent among ages 15-24.<\/p>\n Norman Finkelstein<\/a> taught John Stuart Mill at the Imam Sadiq University in Iran, in 2014. He said<\/a>: “It was a very satisfying teaching experience\u2026 The religious scholars were definitely very smart, and very serious.<\/p>\n “It was kind of Plato\u2019s Republic, and this is the guardian Philosopher Kings, and you had a sense that these people took ideas very seriously, and you can have a good conversation with them.”<\/p>\n Finkelstein recalled a conversation with a student who did not have a mobile phone: “I asked ‘why don’t you own a cell phone?\u2019, and he says, \u2018why do you need a cell phone? All it enables you to do is to talk to people horizontally all around you, whereas if you read a book you can have a direct connection to God.’ And I thought that was pretty impressive. I don’t hear young people saying things like that. It was [\u2026] a special moment.”<\/p>\n Of course, there are\u00a0massive human rights violations\u00a0<\/a>in Iran, but it\u2019s not the haven of backwardness that the US loves to depict.<\/p>\n Trump has called<\/a> Iran “a nation of terror and hate”, and has said<\/a>: “You’re talking about a country that’s been evil for 47 years.”<\/p>\n Asked about reports that the US had bombed a desalination plant in Iran, he responded<\/a>: \u201cThey [the Iranians] are among the most evil people ever on earth.”<\/p>\n In US and Israeli discourse, Iran is a monolithically evil country that represents the antithesis of civilisation.<\/p>\n We suggest that this flawed analysis helps to explain why the United States has been out-thought, outmanoevred <\/a>and outclassed<\/a> by the Iranians ever since the US and Israel launched their barbaric assault <\/a>five weeks ago.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Peter Oborne’s new book, Complicit: Britain’s Role in the Destruction of Gaza, was recently published by Or Books. Oborne won best commentary\/blogging in both 2022 and 2017, and was also named freelancer of the year in 2016 at the Drum Online Media Awards for articles he wrote for Middle East Eye. He was also named as British Press Awards Columnist of the Year in 2013. He resigned as chief political columnist of the Daily Telegraph in 2015. His latest book is The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, published in May by Simon & Schuster. His previous books include The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying, Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran and The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism.<\/em><\/p>\n Irfan Chowdhury is a freelance writer and PhD student at the University of Brighton. His PhD is titled: \u2018How systematic were the British Army’s war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2009? An investigation into Britain’s abuse of underage Iraqi boys’.His articles have been published in Declassified UK, Middle East Monitor, Bella Caledonia, Iraq Now, Mondoweiss, Roar News, Peace News, Liberated Texts, and Norman Finkelstein\u2019s website.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\nStark contrast<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Intellectual colossus<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Flawed analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n