Iranian Youth Feel Misunderstood

T E H R A N, Iran, Feb. 6, 2002 -- Days after President Bush located Iran on the international "axis of evil," Tehran's 20-somethings say they feel misunderstood, marginalized and resigned.

Sitting in a Tehran living room just days after Bush told the world her country exports terror, 25-year-old Neda Ghasemi said she wondered if the West would ever get the picture right.

"I have heard that a lot of foreigners think that we go around on camels," she said. "Considering their people think this, it doesn't matter that the American government thinks we are terrorists."

Bright, educated and ambitious, Ghasemi was being flippant, and she knew it. But her comments betrayed Iranians' very real need for the world to simply understand them.

Painful Accusations

For Iran, a longtime foe of the hard-line Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, and a major backer of the Northern Alliance during its pre-Sept. 11 war against the Taliban, the Bush administration's assertions that Tehran was trying to destabilize the new administration in Afghanistan have been particularly painful.

On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Tehran of helping Taliban and al Qaeda members escape into Iran, a charge Tehran swiftly and vociferously challenged.

In an interview with Reuters today, Iranian Defense Minister Adm.Ali Shamkhani warned the United States not to underestimate Iran. "It will be a mistake for anyone to take aim at our independence. We will not hesitate a moment in defending our freedom, independence and other values," he said.

But speaking at a news conference in Tehran today, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi sounded more conciliatory as he called for U.S. help to trace al Qaeda fighters who may have fled to Iran.

"Instead of waging negative propaganda, the Americans hadbetter give us any information they have so that we go afterthem and keep them out of Iran," Kharrazi said at a joint newsconference with visiting South African Foreign MinisterNkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

It was the first conciliatory remark after days of waging a fierce war of words following Bush's assertions that Tehran was seeking weapons of mass destruction.

Resignation Instead of Revolution

Like her three friends gathered in the apartment, Ghasemi said she was frustrated that the outside world still associated Iran with the images of the Islamic Revolution 23 years ago — angry crowds burning the U.S. flag amid chants of "Death to America," and the faces of the American hostages held for 444 days in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

On a downtown Tehran building, an old mural depicting a U.S. flag with skulls for the stars and bombs for the stripes with a boldface "Down with the USA" still remains from the old days. But the paint is now peeling.

The new generation is not in power. And they're not close to taking power. But there's no revolutionary fervor in Iran today. Instead, dull resignation has seeped in.

According to Shiva, a young actress and puppeteer, when the reformist President Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997, her generation was full of hope.

But their optimism was premature, Shiva said. More than four years after he was elected, Khatami's vision continues to be hampered by the influential Iranian clerics and conservatives who drove the Islamic Revolution decades ago.

Looking to the West

Many young Iranians just want to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that they see are offered to their generation in the West. The government does not place any obstacles in their way but getting visas for the United States, Canada or European countries is not easy.

And as Bobak, a young jeweller, told ABCNEWS, he would feel regret leaving his homeland. But he still wants to go.

Many young people here resent Bush and Rumsfeld's comments last week. With access to the BBC and CNN on satellite TV, Iranians are, for the most, very well informed. They chat with relatives and friends abroad on the Internet. And they readily distinguish between the American people and their government.

Their only disappointment is why Americans don't do the same for them.

Elahe, a theater director who attended one of a few candlelight vigils in Tehran for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, said she felt angry that after risking arrest to take part in these vigils, she heard Bush brand her country a supporter of terror.

"I didn't do this for politicians," she said. "I did this for the people. Therefore that judgment is not important for me."

But the very next morning during the Friday prayers at a local mosque, an Iranian government minister at the pulpit yelled: "George Bush has blood up to his elbows." The crowd bellowed back, "Down, down America!"

But there were few young people in the mosque and the chants seemed automatic.