Iran’s early generation of Europe-educated Roshanfekran believed they could import Tajaddud (modernity) by copying the European Renaissance playbook—namely, by returning to Iran’s ancient pre-Islamic heritage and discarding 1,400 years of Islamic history. This mindset is the real root of the self-hating, deeply Islamophobic inferiority complex seen in some of them and in parts of the generations that followed.
There are many insightful critiques of their confused ideas about identity and progress, but one of the best comes from Jalal Al-e Ahmad. He noted—paraphrasing loosely—that these people return to their “Persian roots” (toxic bastan-gerā’ī) only to become better objects in Western museums, not to build an independent, rigorous identity capable of reviving Iran’s historical subjectivity and serving as a foundation for genuine renewal. No—what they really want is to remain objects. They delight when Westerners praise them as antique exhibits, like children whispering to one another, “Sit tight, the teacher is watching!”The Validation Complex and the Recolonization of Identity Revival
Iran’s early generation of Europe-educated Roshanfekran believed they could import Tajaddud (modernity) by copying the European Renaissance playbook—namely, by returning to Iran’s ancient pre-Islamic heritage and discarding 1,400 years of Islamic history. This mindset is the real root of the self-hating, deeply Islamophobic inferiority complex seen in some of them and in parts of the generations that followed.
There are many insightful critiques of their confused ideas about identity and progress, but one of the best comes from Jalal Al-e Ahmad. He noted—paraphrasing loosely—that these people return to their “Persian roots” (toxic bastan-gerā’ī) only to become better objects in Western museums, not to build an independent, rigorous identity capable of reviving Iran’s historical subjectivity and serving as a foundation for genuine renewal. No—what they really want is to remain objects. They delight when Westerners praise them as antique exhibits, like children whispering to one another, “Sit tight, the teacher is watching!”
