IRAN/PERSIA

Socio-Cultural Competence SS08

Presented by Daniel Snider Sye Macey Katharina Stttinger

OVERVIEW
Facts

& Figures History Islam in Iran Values Intercultural Dimensions

ACTIVITY 1
Can you find out which Persian inventions these symbols stand for?

THANK YOU PERSIA

Goats Bricks Wine Tar (lute) Peaches Backgammon Zororastrianism

Taxes Courier Post Spinach Ice Cream Algebra Trigonometry Polo

Green = Islam

Script : God is Great

White = Peace

4crescents + 1 word + 1 shaddah = 5 pillars of Islam

Red = Bravery

$ GDP Per capita

USA 13.5 trillion 43,444

Austria Mexico Greece 297.5 1.149 412.5 billion trillion billion 36,000 12,775 34,814

ACTIVITY 2
How high would you estimate the Iranian GDP? How high would you estimate the income per capita?

FACTS & FIGURES

Capital: Tehran Official Language: Persian Population: 71.208.000 GDP: $853.6 billion Per Capita: $12.300

FACTS & FIGURES

3 1

ACTIVITY 3
Can you match the following religions to the corresponding portion of the pie chart? Shia Muslim Sunni Muslim Other (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian)

FACTS & FIGURES

*Other = Jewish Christian Zoroastrian

ISLAM IN IRAN

Only official Shiite state of all Muslim countries Shia Islam vs Sunny Islam: Dispute: Who should become Mohammeds successor?
Shia Muslims: followed Mohammeds daughter Fatimah Zara and his son-in-law Ali Sunni Muslims: followed Caliph Abu Bakr

IRANIANS/PERSIANS/MUSLIMS/ARABS?

Bernard Lewis: "Iran was indeed Islamized, but it was not Arabized. Persians remained Persians. [] In a sense, Iranian Islam is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to as Islam-i Ajam. It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that was brought to new areas and new peoples: to the Turks, first in Central Asia and then in the Middle East in the country which came to be called Turkey, and of course to India. The Ottoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls of Vienna...[1]"

HISTORY

1500 BC

Persian king Cyrus Ahaemenid Empire

Alexander the Great Sasanian dynasty

331-330 BC

224- 640

HISTORY
Arab Muslim rule Islamic conquest

641

1501-1722

Safavid dynasty Shiite Islam Qajar dynasty Russians vs the British

1794-1925

ACTIVITY 4
What important event took place in 1979? Can you name the current president of Iran?

Can you name the current supreme leader of Iran?

HISTORY

1925

Reza Shah Pahlavi Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

Ayatollah Khomeini 1979 Islamic theocracy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

2005

IRANIAN VALUES

Family values

Family as the basis of all social structures Priority of Family before business Importance of Privacy Nepotism

Public vs Private Identity

zaher vs batin Inner circle includes family and friends and can be extended to business partners

Taarof Politeness
Protest compliments Always first decline offers before you finally accept

120 100
80

Austria 60 40 20 0 Power Distance Uncertainty Avoidance Individuality USA Mexico Greece

ACTIVITY 5
Where would you place Iran on the scales of the following intercultural dimensions? Power Distancy Individuality Uncertainty avoidance

INTERCULTURAL DIMENSIONS