"Iranian official lashes out at Hollywood movie "300" for insulting Persian civilization"

An Iranian official on Sunday lashed out at the Hollywood movie "300" for insulting the Persian civilization, local Fars News Agency reported.

Javad Shamqadri, an art advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the new movie of being "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture", said the report.

Shamqadri was quoted as saying "following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture," adding "certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies."

The movie's effort wound be fruitless, because "values in Iranian culture and the Islamic Revolution are too strongly seated to be damaged by such plans", said the Iranin official.

Shamqadri, who is also a filmmaker, said that production of more domestic and artistic films which portray Iranian achievements is a proper response to movies like "300".

"300," an ancient epic about the famous Battle of Thermopylae in Greek history, set a new record at the box office in North America this weekend.

The Warner Bros. adaptation of the 480 B.C. battle took an estimated 70 million U.S. dollars in its debut weekend, according to figures released on Sunday by Los Angeles-based box office track firm Media by Numbers.

The R-rated film, based on comic book writer Frank Miller's graphic novel, tells the story that an army of 300 Spartan warriors led by their king Leonidas fought to the death to delay a massive Persian army's invasion, so that the Greeks could reorganize a counterattack.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/12/eng20070312_356565.html

Where is the Fetwah? Am I missing something here? Mullahs don't give a rat's ass about the old Persian Empire one way or another, had it been a movie on Cyrus the great, they'd say that Hollywood is undermining the greatness of Islamic culture by trying to bring out the mere nationalistic feelings among Iranians. Ahmadinejad is just hopping on the bandwagon of Persian culture to take a shot at the US, but to me, he is so transparent. He doesn't care about the pure religion/customs of Persia or those who still follow it.

From what I understand, rather than a historical epic, this is based on a historically inaccurate comic book and it is what it is, a movie. So just as a Christian could enjoy the Last temptation and a Jewish Person the Passion, I as a Persian could watch and enjoy 300 for what it is.

afs, the fatwah was a cheap joke on my part, in the style of the satirical newspaper THE ONION.

Oh, well. I'm slow today. but no doubt, many here will get their panties twisted over this. The story of those who got theirs twisted over Da Vinci Code, Borat, Last Temptation, Passion, etc... all over again.

Personally, I think Alexander was more terrible a movie on historical facts than this one can ever be, since this is admittedly historically inaccurate. Or maybe that I didn't expect Stone to make something like that...

I seriously doubt that more than 10% of the American people actually know that present day Iran used to be the center of the Persian Empire.

I see how these double names can be confusing. Persia has always been called Iran by Iranians (Persians). The fact that Latin based languages know Iran as Persia, is because they'd called Iranians by the language they were speaking, also a sect that were part of the initial founders of Iran, named Pars. Their language, being Parsi, was Latinized as Persian and so the continent including almost all the Middle East was called Persian Empire. Of course after Arab invasion of Iran, since they don't have the sound "P" the race was called Fars, instead of Pars and the Language was called Farsi, which is what's called today commonly by all. Quite an accomplishment that we still speak Persian if you ask me after not being allowed to speak our language for 200 years after Arab invasion. But the country has always been called Iran and that's how it has been referenced to in our ancient literature. I suspect it has been named after Aryans who immigrated to Iran from North and were the first founders of this country. This is not the only name that's been latinized, I mean you call him Cyrus, we call him Koorosh. You call him Xerxes, we call him Khashaayaar.

Come on, give your countrymen some credit.

Its 15%.

You're both wrong.

My aunt owns 16 Persian longhair cats. She treats them like royalty.

Her house is a Persian empire, if there ever was one.

Heh...heh

Death to the children of Israel! And to that Frank Miller guy!

Hey Yankee Fan Boy, thats MR. Frank Miller to you.

Pfft, kids have no respect anymore...

Very interesting, Afs! Thanks!
I think a lot of Westerners prefer "Persia" because it has "romantic" or "adventurous" connotations--it conjures men in turbans with curved swords, voluptuous women in veils, flying carpets, feasts of wine, peeled grapes, pickled hummingbird tongues, etc.--just like many non-Americans romanticize the "Old West" days of the US. "Iran" doesn't have a "romantic" sound to it--sounds "industrial."

Thanks Turnbull for your insightful comments as always.

I agree that Persia is somehow better sounding, more mysterious and adventurous than Iran, however if you were raised with the Persian literature, you couldn't help but love the name "Iran". All said, I do understand how Iran might be sounding so awful to an American, especially in these past three decades, even if he knows Persian. But to me "Iran" reminds me of our ancient epics. The bellow verses are not such a good translation of a poem by Ferdosi, around 300 years after Arab invasion. These are part of "The Epic of Kings" (Shah-naame), and as he concludes in the ending, he says that he has revived the Persians by spreading the seed of their language once again, what took him thirty years of his life. Prior to this piece of literature everything must had been written in Arabic.

May there be no life left in me to see the day without Iran,
May there be no life left in the bodies of all in this continent,

Better to lose our heads one by one,
Than to betray Iran to her enemies,

May she never become destroyed,
Or become the dwelling of beasts.

But if you don't mind me being picky, of those you mentioned I know for sure that turbans and curved swords belong to Arabs, and if you look into rock embossments left from pre-Arab domination, you could see that they generally were wearing rounded hats, as it is still custom in some villages. But veils for women, is a tricky issue. I'd love to go into detail about that, but I don't know if anyone is interested or not, as I feel that I've hijacked this thread enough already.

But he'll be dead soon anyways, so why would it matter?

Go ahead and hijack. I'd love to hear more.

It is said that it was Cyrus the Great who regulated some sort of dress code for women, possibly a form of veil in order to protect their chastity, and that's how this custom is spread through the Middle East 1200 years before Islam. This in fact was not to slow down women's presence in the social circles, but to actually increase the willingness of women, who were afraid of being mistreated. Form what's left of the evidence in Persepolis, women were paid in many different jobs and positions, even in high ranks of military and states, according to their profession and talent rather than their gender. Also there's been regulations for pregnancy leaves for women and extra care and pay for those with children. In general it seems that veil has been required for respectable women, but not those in prostitution business.

Definitely treatment of women by Arabs prior to Islam has been even more degrading than after Islam, as they were burying their infant girls, throwing old women out of their houses, etc., so after Islam things has gotten somehow better for them, but still a Muslim woman is treated as a half a Muslim man.

For what's worth, we don't have any special pronoun for male or female, and if you speak about the third person, there's no way you can find out the gender, as Persian is a genderless language, much like the way the old Persians were treating each other.

Cyrus the great is also well-known for his tolerance of different religions, his charter of human rights and resettlement of exiled Hebrews back to rebuild Jerusalem after concurring those lands.

very interesting! Thank you, Afi!

That is interesting Afs, but I thought you were going expand on Turnbull's "voluptuous women in veil" comment. Yeah you did, but not on the part I was interested in

So with that logic, since we are inevitably gonna die horribly from either the apocalypse or the next series of terrorist attacks, can I keep calling you such names like punk, Yankee Fan Boy, Jerk, LoudMouth, etc.?

I mean, it won't matter, right?

You're welcome Lav.

svsg, sorry dear!

Thanks for the interesting lessons, Afs!

You're welcome JG!

As long as there isn't any mention of Newt Gingrich, you bloody wank. I mean, if he was involved in a sex scandal, I think I may just die.

Whats with old white guys getting down with the funk with their secretaries/interns? Ted Kennedy, Slick Willie, and Sour Newt.

Ewwwwwwwwww

This is ridiculous, people take this sort of a thing too serious. Personally, I think Frank Miller is the man. I don't think he woke up and said, "You know what would be a great addition to my portfolio? A comic book designed to discredit the Persian Empire!"

People are just too sensitive. I mean, it's a god damn action movie. Who in the hell goes, "Well, two hours of green-screen goodness has me convinced. I should dedicate at least this month to bashing the long extinct empire of Persia!"

I agree with whoever (I think Afs did) said this is just another Da Vinci Code/Passion of the Christ/Last Temptation scenario. People are going to get worked up over absolutely nothing.

A LOT of Christians were upset with The Last Temptation of Christ and Jews were likewise upset with The Passion of the Christ. They don't understand that they are as you put it, just movies. I agree and I don't think it was the filmmakers intentions to start anytype of revolution. They were just passionate about the picture and wanted to make it. I also agree that 300 is not a knock on the Persian civilization. It's a Frank Miller comic book series that's not historically accurate (key words there).

What I am loving is the absolutely RETARDED notion that I've been reading about from Iran:

"That movie is being funded by the U.S. government to help prepare the populace for war with Iran."

Huh?

Come on folks, you think Bushie would help fund a movie that showed that ancient Greek sado-masachist fighters that was homosexual being like, you know, heroic?

Besides, if anyone actually reads Frank Miller's comics, the guy writes his stories in a very masculine-fantasy style of storytelling....which is cool, and he's great at it.

He wrote his 300 comic as a man-movie story of war and action.

Besides, this is the same Miller that defecated on Reagan in DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, and the entire Bush circus in the less-than-stellar sequel DK2.

Frank Capra Bush is not...

Why not? This appears to be just as plausible pretext as the one he he used to drag us into Iraq.

Klydon, which plausible pretext? Pick from the following choices.

(A) To disarm Iraq of its illegal/secret WMD stockpiles
(B) to free the peoples of Iraq
(C) To penetrate Democracy into the Middle-East
(D) To add a friendly buffer state with Afghanistan, against Iran
(E) All of the Above
(F) Whatever argument works best for the administration, week by week basis.

Indeed.

Besides, for better or for worse, Capra was an optimist...and had substance to make you believe it.

Again, you are so right. Frank Capra Bush is not...