On Monday, the Cornell International Affairs Review held a panel discussion entitled “Tehran Divided: Iran’s Presidential Election and Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy.” The discussion featured three professor panelists, each from the Near Eastern Studies department. The panelists were Prof. Ziad Fahmy, Prof. Iago Gocheleishvili and Prof. David Patel.

Fahmy mainly focused on comparisons between the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the protests of the recent presidential elections, with special emphasis on how media impacted both events. Gocheleishvili profiled the candidates involved in the election, the results of the election and the overall electoral process in Iran. Finally, Patel analyzed the elections and what Iran’s future holds. Patel also talked about the potential implications of a nuclear Iran.

As an Iranian, myself, I found the panel discussion and the question-answer session afterward interesting. But I also was troubled with the way Iran was being talked about by not only the panelists, but also the hosts of the event and the people asking the questions. Each professor brought some informative analysis to the table, but the event overall seemed to “otherize” Iran and the Iranian people, which is obviously problematic to a person who identifies himself as Iranian. I should have known this would be the case, though.

My main concern is this: the people who congregated in for the panel on Monday, and Americans who generally talk about Iran even in everyday conversation, speak in terms that make it seem as if they care about and stand in solidarity with the Iranian people. Why would Americans care about Iranians? Iran is all the way on the other side of the world. If Americans really cared about groups of people who have been mistreated by governments, it would seem logical that this country would look within before it crossed borders. Yes, that’s right. Native Americans, blacks, Latinos and to a lesser extent, poor whites have historically been mistreated in this country. But where is the solidarity with and the support for these people?

For this reason, I have arrived at the conclusion that Americans don’t really care about the Iranian people either. Iran only holds a special interest to Americans because ever since the Iranian Revolution, there have been tensions between the U.S. and Iran. But more importantly, Americans like to be involved in the affairs of every other country in this world. The second point is true on a systemic and governmental level in America, but it’s also true on an individual level. This is also why President Obama has received so much flack from conservative Republicans about the U.S.’s lack of overt involvement in the protest movement following the elections.

As an Iranian, I have my own views on the elections and the protests following the elections. I do have family in Iran, and that is the extent to which I have “inside” information. I don’t claim to have any inside state secrets just because I am Iranian.

I support the people of Iran and I certainly support the will of the people. But what is misunderstood about the Iranian people is that many Americans think that all Iranians are against the current government or that all Iranians are for the government. This massive over-generalization cannot be made anywhere in the world, let alone Iran. Iranians in Iran and abroad have a wide range of political opinions, so any American who thinks that she or he knows what is right for the Iranian people is flat out wrong, because Iranians as a people are dealing with that very issue right now and have been dealing with it for hundreds of years. This can be said of any people in any country. Iranians are no different from the rest of the world and they can’t be generalized into one collective ideological group. Most importantly, the people who know best what is good for Iran are Iranians themselves. This is what concerns me the most about Americans, and it is also what concerned me about the panel discussion. That room was filled with people who wanted what was best for their own American interests, not what is best for Iranians, regardless of what everyone was saying. And believe me, Iranian interests and American interests don’t line up with each other at this point in time and probably won’t anytime soon.

The Iranian people should have the freedoms that they don’t have under their current government. This is what many Iranian people are on the streets protesting for. I question if any reformist government can bring that to the Iranian people, and this is why I also question making Mir Hossein Mousavi the figurehead of this movement. At the same time, this movement is largely a middle to upper class, urban and student movement. This is not nearly representative of Iran’s entire population. The success of any potential government change will rest on a universal revolution with involvement by all segments of society, and most notably, the most under-served people. Most importantly, it is paramount that there are no foreign influences in any protest movement, whether these influences are overt or covert (there have been whispers of an attempted American coup in Iran, which would be similar to the coup of 1953).

Iran is an imperfect country with an imperfect government. Iran is not a country that is completely unstable and incapable, which is how Western media outlets like to portray it. Many of the same problems faced in Iran, when it comes to a lack of political freedom, are the same problems witnessed in the United States. In fact, there is a wider gap of social inequality in the population of the United States than there is in Iran. But Americans are completely unwilling to see the atrocities that take place in this country because they don’t want to see their own government as the perpetrators.

No one can or should speak for the interests of Iranian people but Iranians themselves. And no one should over-generalize the opinions of an entire country’s population. Regardless of whether we continue to hold panel discussions about elections and protests in Iran, the Iranian people will be fine.

Navid Farnia is a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He may be reached at nfarnia@cornellsun.com. Over the “Line” appears alternate Thursdays this semester,