The Third Generation in Iran

Generation. In this short essay I would like to address how the third generation (referred to as TTG in the text) is affected by and how it has affected the Iranian society and its culture. As a result of the revolution in Iran, the Iranian population had to follow strict directions in the way of living, culture and interaction with other people in the society. Khosravi writes that the youth today lives in a society with dual norms and values or in between-ness, between the old and the modern, the public and the private.
The term ‘generation’ is “Cohorts of people born in the same period who have experienced the impact of common historical events and cultural forces”. (Khosravi, Page 3)
Thomas Friedman from the New York Times wrote; “Iran has a bomb. No, no. Not that bomb. This bomb is hiding in plain sight – in high schools, universities, and coffee houses. It is a bomb that is ticking away under Iranian society..” (Khosravi, Page 122) Khosravi calls them the third generation. A generation that affects the culture and the experience of Iran in the 21st century by protesting against today’s norms and sanctions in the society. Many fear TTG, the upcoming revolution and the changes. Culture is defined as “sets of learned behaviour and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society...” (Schultz, Lavenda, Page 4)We see how the Iranian culture was damaged and oppressed by the government and the Basjis, denying them music, clothes, films and other influence from the west. The fear of “weststruckness” has become a normal thought between the individuals. TTG goes against everything that the state has been pushing trough the system over the years. It is a battle of the right to identity between them and the state. Iranians experienced the revolution in 1979 as an assault to the Iranian people. TTG wants to give its people the dignity back. Through protests and objection TTG has affected the culture and experience in Iran. The “elder” has been living under this oppression for many years, this is their everyday life. Almost as a part of their culture, and they are aware of the punishments objections might lead to. They might experience TTG as someone who destroys the culture they have developed, but keep in mind that this “culture” has not been there for hundreds of years, but merely just a few decades. Fear of the government is in general affecting their judgement. But TTG sees no fear. They know globalization is impossible to avoid. They want and accept modernization.
Everywhere we turn our heads today we see something that Is not “originally” ours. Cultures are uniting, at least good knowledge about different cultures is a lot more frequent than before. And trough this knowledge we develop ourselves in different directions, trough experience. The youth generation are the ones crossing boarders,cultural, physical and psychological. The third generation is participating in making a new, modern revolution. Uniting cultures through experience and over generations. Reference: Shahram Khosravi, Young and defiant in Tehran. 1st Edition. 2008. E.A Schultz, R.H Lavenda – Cultural anthropology. 7th edition.2009.