Information Grounds in Iran
Iran, Persia, is an ancient country with more than 5,000 years history. The long history of Iran is full of significant events which have led to the writing of many books on this country. The vast area of the country, 1,648,000 square km, along with diversity of races and tribes of the people living in different parts of this land, several languages and hundreds of dialects used by these people, all have prepared a good background for very active transmission of information or even misinformation, rumors, etc.
Historically, Iranians are sympathetic, hospitable, friendly, and can make friends very easily. These historical characteristics combined with social and political factors have resulted in a culture which might be called unique. Today, the rich tradition in exchanging information and cultural characteristics have caused the Iranians to play an active role in forming information grounds. They do this at any time, anywhere, in any situation, and in the shortest time possible. They feel no limitations to do this in terms of place, time, or situation. All environments mentioned by Fisher, Erdelez, and McKechnie in their recent book "Theories of Information Behavior" (2005, p.188) are true for the Iranian people.
The most common places for forming information grounds in Iran are as follows: The place of work, the place of worship, the place of study, sport fields(especially football stadiums), birthday and other celebration parties such as weddings, restaurants and coffee-shops, shopping centers, barbershops and hair saloons, medical offices, public transportations(trains, planes, buses and even taxis; in Iran, taxis still may carry several people together at the same time).
Generally speaking, wherever people gather for any other purposes, they may and will form information grounds, especially where they have to stand in line or spend much time. Unlike the western world, in Iran, the physical proximity (interpersonal physical space) in lines is almost completely neglected! And, due to social, economic, and political reasons, people need to stand in lines to be served by shopkeepers, or government agencies. This is sometimes true even for purchasing a subsidized bottle of milk.
People often use these environments and form information grounds to achieve their social and political aims and objectives. Thus, they combine information with jokes, satire, critics, metaphor, and rumors to make the "product" more attractive, pleasant, and effective; and to be safe of the probable punishments as well. To do this, they mostly benefit from the very rich Persian literature from which they borrow thousands of proverbs, poems, expressions, anecdotes, etc.
One probably unique characteristic of information grounds in Iran is that due to lack of freedom of speech in Iran and because of religious and political restrictions, people tactfully use information grounds to transmit their messages and exchange information. They are so smart that they make use of all the possibilities to achieve their goals. The most recent innovation in use by the Iranians is use of mobile telephones. Thousands of short messages (SMS) are transmitted everyday to share information. In fact, the Iranian people are actually making use of a "virtual information ground" as well.
Zahed Bigdeli, Ph.D., School of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran e-mail:bigdeli_zahed@yahoo.co.in