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From: sadeghi@oxy.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.misc,news.groups
Subject: Re: SOC.CULTURE.IRANIAN
Message-ID: <63181@tiger.oxy.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 89 01:22:08 GMT
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA  90041
Lines: 41


>The following message was forwarded from NEWS.GROUPS for further
>discussions.
>
>Is Iranian culture that much different from that of neighboring Islamic
>states? If not, why not start with a soc.culture.mideast or
>soc.culture.islam? If you are going to allow Iraqi or Saudi contributions
>anyway, this would be an obvious change. If not, why not?

	   Iranian culture is surely much different from the
	   neighboring Arab states.   As a matter of fact, many
	   Iranains get upset when they are mistakenly referred to as
	   Arabs.  Not that we have anything against our Arab
	   borthers and sisters; it is just that we are not Arabs and
	   would not like to be lumped with them (just likes the
	   English probably would not like to be called French!).

	   To mention a few differences:  language, literature,
	   religious sect, calendar, new year, social customs, ...

	   For the discussion of Arab cultures soc.culture.arabic
	   exists.

	   As there are more commonalities between Iran and
	   Afghanistan, I think soc.culture.iranian would definitely
	   be nice place for the discussion of Afghani cultural
	   issues. Especially since no newsgroups exists for this
	   purpose.

	   Pakistan is another neighbor of Iran, but
	   soc.culture.indian covers Pakistan.

	   And for the discussion of Turkish culture,
	   soc.culture.turkish exists.

	   If we are going to create a "soc.culture.mideast," then
	   we should dismantle all these other newsgroups.  But I
	   don't think that would be feasible.

	   Sincerely,
	   Behnam Sadeghi