Understanding Iran today requires looking beyond political factions and economic crises to a deeper struggle over identity. The central tension shaping Iran’s present is not merely political; it is civilizational. It reflects a long-standing duality within Iranian society between an Islamic political identity and a far older Iranian civilizational identity rooted in history, culture, and collective memory.
A Civilization Older Than Ideology
Iran’s civilizational identity stretches back millennia, long before modern ideological frameworks emerged. The founding of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BCE established principles of governance, tolerance, and cultural pluralism that remain embedded in Iranian historical consciousness.
Over centuries, Iranian identity was shaped through poetry, mythology, and epic literature — most notably the Shahnameh, which preserved pre-Islamic narratives of kingship and moral struggle. The legendary figure of Fereydoun, the just ruler who defeats the tyrant Zahhak, symbolizes the triumph of justice over tyranny — a narrative that continues to resonate in modern political imagination.
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