Spektrum Iran

Between Cultural Conflict and Cultural Dialogue: On Foreign Cultural Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the West – or on Iran’s Image since 1979

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

Mehrdad Saeedi

Freelance language and regional researcher with a focus on the Persian-speaking area. Studied German and Iranian Studies at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Potsdam and received a doctorate in Central Asian Studies at the HU Berlin

https://doi.org/10.22034/spektrum.2020.190287
Abstract
The subject of the present article is the foreign cultural policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the Western world consisting of commonwealth countries with equal value bases. Although the author’s main focus in selecting instances to study Iran’s cultural interaction and confrontation with the West is not on a specific Western country, in all instances he has a glimpse of the Federal Republic of Germany due to the extent and antiquity of the country’s relations with Iran before and after the Islamic Revolution. The aim of this article is to examine the political events that have not only been of historical importance, but also, from the viewpoint of cultural policy, played a significant role in shaping the more or less negative image of contemporary Iran in the Western world and its media empire. The author has attempted to neutrally portray Iran’s official attitudes and stances toward controversial political-cultural events with the West to a Western and specifically German-speaking audience. The analytical framework of this article is formed by the events after the Islamic Revolution of Iran as the most historic moment in the contemporary history of Iran under the influence of the colonial powers and the turning point of the return to Islamic identity of this country.


Keywords

Foreign cultural policy
cultural clash/conflict
intercultural dialogue
country image
Islamic Republic of Iran
Federal Republic of Germany
Western world

Subjects

Spektrum Iran
Volume 33, Issue 2
November 2020
Pages 149-163

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