Disability and Iranian Culture

Yeganeh Salehpour, Ph.D

Narges Adibsereshki, MA

University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Special Needs Department, Tehran, Iran.

Iran is a relatively large country with the area of 636,296 square miles in the Middle East region of the southwestern Asia. Its current population is about 68 million, approximately 60% of which live in urban areas and the remaining 40% in rural regions. The population of people with disabilities is currently estimated to be about 3 million.

Iran is one of the world's oldest countries. It has a history of over 5000 years, which includes the days of the great Persian Empire. Over its long history, foreign powers have occupied Iran time and again. In the mid-600's Muslim Arabs conquered Iran and Muslim Caliphs (religious leaders) governed this country for about 200 years. During their rule, the Iranian and Arab cultures greatly impacted each other and the Muslim faith spread throughout Iran. Today, 99% of Iranians are Muslims.

In addition to its wealth of history and civilization, Iran is a rich country with regard to its diversity in geographical and cultural make up and also with regard to the abundance of its natural resource of oil. The variety in its geographical regions is well captured by a statement in the world book: Iran is “a land of snow-capped mountains , green valleys, and barren desserts” (Vol. 1, p.331).  Ethnographically, Iran's population, in addition to Persians (51 %) is made up of people from a variety of ethnic groups such as Azerbaijanies (24%), Gilaki and Mazandaranies (8%), Kurds (7%), Arabs (3%), Lurs (2%), Balouch, Turkmen and others (5%). Even though Farsi is the official language of Iran, the local languages of each of these ethnic groups, along with their various dialects, are very much active and alive throughout the different parts of the country today.

Having given an overview of the country itself, we would like to now turn to the concept of disability and how people with disability are viewed in our culture. What will be presented is the result of our preliminary study on this topic. We have planned to develop this work into a more systematic research project in the near future.

We approached this question in two different ways:

1) We  reviewed  previous research studies which have specifically dealt with Iranian people's attitudes towards disability during the past decade in this culture ; and

2) Based on the well recognized importance of language as a significant aspect of culture and also as a means of acquiring the content of culture, we have studied and analyzed a sample of our Farsi folklore i.e. proverbs, poems, and short stories with the goal of identifying some of the attitudes embedded in and communicated through this medium. According to Kisanji (1999) "Folklore provides the raw material for explaining a community's behavior towards one another or one section of a community towards another" (P.80).

Given what was mentioned before with regards to the diversity of ethnic groups residing in Iran, it is important to state that the sample of folklore analyzed in this preliminary work was related to the population, which spoke Farsi as their first language. Needless to say that this language having been the official language of the country for many centuries it has had its impacts on the local cultures of the different ethnic groups and as such, the folklore written in Farsi, can, to some extent, represent the general Iranian population's ways of thought. Separate analyses of the local folklores would certainly be necessary in providing an account of the world views and attitudes specific to each ethnic group.

Results

1. Review of research related to studies of attitudes toward disability in Iran

During the last decade, Iranian people's attitude towards disability has been the subject of a few investigations. Most recently, Caldi (2000) reported the results of his study on the attitudes of over 1000 residents in Tehran towards people with disability in the First National Congress on Nursing Rehabilitation, which took place in Iran last year. In his study he used a survey questionnaire the results of which indicated a one-dimensional reference to people's attitudes. Specifically, 33% of the respondents expressed a positive attitude, 4.9% expressed a negative attitude, and the remainder, 62.1% showed an average attitude towards people with disability.

Another fairly recent study is that of Nazari, Raheb, Afroosheh and Panahi (1998), in which they examined public's attitudes towards people with intellectual disability. The findings of this research indicated that Iranian people consider intellectual disability as the most problematic kind of disability. Even though community's awareness and understanding about nature of and issues related to this disability was considered to be low, their attitudes towards inclusion of this group from a social and economic point of view was rather positive. Negative attitudes were expressed with regard to inclusion at the educational level.

Attitudes towards people with intellectual disability has been the subject of another wide scale study. Shariati and Davarmanesh (1991) focused part of their study on factors influencing the attitudes of Iranian parents towards their child with intellectual disability. Results pointed out the significance of such factors as religion, education, age of both father and the child, and the degree of severity of disability

Comparison of the attitudes of special education teachers with that of the public or with that of other professions towards disability in general or towards people with specific kinds of disabilities has been the subject of many smaller scale research projects (mainly master's level or doctoral level dissertations). For the sake of brevity and for practical and in some cases methodological reasons, we will not discuss these studies.

2. Analysis of the concepts and attitudes conveyed through the literary works

The results of our review so far bears a similarity to one of Kisanji's findings from his systematic review of folklore in Tanzania.  Our first finding has  to do with the absence of the general word “disability”. The equivalent chosen for the word "disability"  in academic literature is "natavan" in Farsi. However, in Farsi literary works ,"natavan" usually refers to the elderly or the poor. This finding is similar to Kisangi’s finding from his review of folklore in Tanzania. In  Farsi folklore, as well as  in the Folklore of Tanzania, the writers refer to specific impairments of blindness, deafness, impairment of speech, physical impairments (usually impairments in one's legs ,"lang"), and in a few instances, intellectual and emotional impairments.

Among the impairments alluded to in our review, blindness was mentioned much more frequently than other impairments. The same observation has been made by Miles (1999) in his analysis of Ballads in Bengal, South Asia. Miles attributes his observation to the possibility of blindness being more prevalent than other disabilities or more prominent as a personal tragedy i.e. perceived to render people helpless. The same rational appears to be applicable in the case of Iran too. The reasons for prevalence of blindness, however, have been different in these two countries (in Iran eye diseases were caused by the hot and dusty weather in certain dry regions. In addition, taking away people's sight is recorded in Persian history as a way of punishment by such kings as Agha Mohammad Khan, the king who established Ghajar Dynasty in 17th. century ).

Another observation from our analysis is the heavy use of metaphors in disability related Farsi literature especially poetry. These metaphors are mainly used to convey a general educational message, an educational point regarding a moral issue ,or the need for mercy and sympathy in the case of someone with a disability.

A highly emphasized and recurring educative point is superiority and the higher significance of one's insight to his sense of sight for physical and material aspects of life. In making this point, different writers and poets have repeatedly used metaphorical structures such as "the eye of the heart" (cheshme del) or the blind-hearted (koordelan). Saadi (famous poet of 13th. century) talks about "those who in spite of their filled eye holes (cheshme por kardeh), don't have much life and wisdom beyond that of a face on the wall. Molana (the great poet of 13th. century) acknowledges the surprise in the fall of someone with insight and compares it to lack of surprise in the fall of someone with blind eyes.

Terms related to impairments in vision, hearing and speech are used in further metaphors to convey messages regarding character education. Examples are messages referring to the significance of having trained eyes, ears, and tongue (to refrain from seeing hearing and saying what is harmful to the soul), importance of being active and alive, and finally the value of having an accepting attitude about one's imperfections.

Interestingly enough, rare examples related to educability of the intellectually challenged (Nezami, Haft Peykar, P. 53), and in reference to emotional disability as a separate category in the area of disabilities (Ferdausi ,11th. century, poems in Ramazani, 1990) were encountered in this review.

A final finding with regard to our analysis has to do with the uni-dimensional aspect of the attitudes conveyed through repeated use of the concept of "mercy". Iranian people, time and again, through their stories, poems, and proverbs communicated the importance of showing "mercy", and "patience" in dealing with people with disability. In addition, our reviewed material portrays the disabled themselves, especially the blind, requesting and pointing out their need for people's mercy (e.g. the story of the man who requested "double mercy" due to his having an unpleasant voice in addition to being blind; Masnavi stories rewritten by Shirvani, 1997, P.93). The disabled, and especially the blind again are depicted as beggars and as very poor people (e.g. the story of "the blind, the deaf and the poor man without  clothes; Masnavi short stories, rewritten by Ebrahimi, vol.2 P.56).

With regard to these negative attitudes, our findings are the same as Miles's findings in his study of the blindness in South and East Asia (1999). He writes that the image of the blind person (usually male) is compounded of helplessness and pitiful begging, with the appeal sometimes enhanced by skills of music and poetry. Blindness and music are also associated images in the Iranian culture, however, in our sample of literature reviewed here, we did not come across any illustrative examples in this regard.

Society's approach in dealing with disability

Iranian people's traditional way of life while varying with regard to the unique characteristics of different community and ethnic groups, is generally very paternalistic. Islamic religious beliefs such as having a duty to extend oneself to the needy have also continually played a very fundamental role in people's response to their community.

As to the traditional response to people with disabilities, we can identify the support systems of extended family, as well as the religiously based economic support systems of women's charities , and of endowments "vaghf". Today, these systems,  with the exception of the weakening of the extended family support in major urban areas, are still very much active and play a vital role in attending to the general welfare of the society.

Response to the specialized educational and rehabilitation needs of the disabled in Iran seem to have started by or at least been greatly influenced by international missionary efforts. The first education center for the rehabilitation of the blind was pioneered by a German priest (pastor Ernest Christophel) in 1920 in the northern city of Tabriz. A second center for girls (Noorayeen) was subsequently established in the city of Isfahan. These centers were active until 1960s.

The following two decades i.e. 60's and 70's was witness to more national activity in this area. Names like Dr. Khazaeli and Baghchehban became well recognized and respected for their educationally constructive projects and efforts with regard to the people with visual and hearing impairments.

Moves towards provision of rehabilitation services also were made in the 1960's. Establishment of the Iranian Rehabilitation Society and the National Society for Protection of Children can be mentioned as landmarks of this beginning. Government's organized response to the society's welfare needs came with the establishment of the Ministry of Social Welfare in 1974. Shortly after, with the Islamic Revolution in 1981, the earlier system was reorganized. At present, public services for people with disabilities are offered through the State Welfare Organization, which provides its services through three different branches of social support, prevention, and rehabilitation.

Finally, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their more specialized and less religious structures, though a familiar concept in Iranian society, have proliferated during the first presidential period of Mr. Khatami (since 1997). Despite the recent government and public acknowledgements of the vital importance of these organizations, they face many challenges in becoming independently functioning and healthy contributing organs of the society. Among the more major challenges are those of higher levels of management skills both in the administration and funding for these organizations. Insufficient support and encouragement from the government and the public are also among the important barriers to be overcome.

At present, there are a total of 248 (reported by the Office for NGOs at the State's Welfare Organization) disability related NGOs throughout the country with varying levels of activity. Of the country's strides regarding the NGOs has been a very recent international congress on "NGOs: Achievements, Challenges, and Their Future Outlook" which was held in the capital city of Tehran. The National Coordination Committee on Disability (NCCD) which has started in Iran as well as other Asian countries as a result of the Agenda for Action of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled, 1993-2002, has been active in facilitating the collaboration between governmental agencies and NGOs in Iran (Social Development Division of Escap). As a result job opportunities for people with disabilities have increased due to collaborative action between State Welfare Organization and Ministries of Cooperation and Education.

Governmental offices such as the municipalities have taken some steps towards supporting the NGOs such as allocation of some of their resources to these organizations and also making of public calls and invitations for cooperation with these offices in major newspapers. At a more specific level, some of the NGOs, which are active in support of people with intellectual disabilities, have made significant progress in their efforts toward creation of financial infrastructure which would make possible the continuation of the supportive services of the family after the parents are deceased.

Iranian society with its high value for education which was partly revealed through our brief review of the folklore, its deep religious beliefs for attending to the needy, and its

Conclusion

paternalistic structure which encourages the sense of responsibility in individuals in charge, has a lot of cultural wealth that can be utilized in its development toward more advanced levels of civilized response to its people with various disabilities.

In light of economic challenges characterizing the  countries in transition and also in light of the lack of people's trust in their own abilities (which is a drawback of long histories of paternalistic and undemocratic systems), the recent efforts by the President in energizing the unutilized resources through "mosharekat" (participation) and also through encouragement of open dialogues with other nations have been major steps in the right direction.

Specifically, government's interest in learning from new developments in the disabilities field and its new found awareness of the importance of supporting organized people's efforts, along with the tireless attempts of people themselves (through the NGOs and traditional religious groups) are all important strides which can help provide a better society for the disabled population. However, we still have lots of challenges to overcome and a long way to travel on this path. A long way to a society which along with its high value for education, is equipped with enough knowledge, expertise and resources to meet the individual educational needs of its members regardless of their exceptionality; a society which would provide for nurturance of high levels of self-awareness in its members so that in their writing of essays, poetry, and songs, while passing on great words of wisdom, they will keep away from passing on attitudes which may belittle instead of empower. And finally, a society which would encourage and open up new opportunities for taking responsibility, at all its different structural levels, and for all its members regardless of their health, age, sex, ethnicity, and religious background, with the goal that all individuals will feel empowered to share the responsibility that has been too often and for too long carried by a few.

references

Caldi, A. Public's attitudes towards people with disabilities. Published papers of the First National Congress on Nursing and Rehabilitation. The University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences press, Tehran, Iran, 1999, pp. 111-121.

Ebrahimi, J. Masnavi Short Stories, vol.2. Peydayesh press, 1005.

Foroughi, M.A. Saadi's collection of literary works. In Divan Bozorgan, Computer diskett, Jayhoon Afzar Co., 1998.

Foroughi, M.A. Masnavi Manavi (Mollana's poetry). In Divan Bozorgan, computer diskett, Jayhoon afzar co.,1998.

Foroughi, M.A. Nezami Ganjavi's collection of literary works: Makhzanolasrar, Khosrosheereen, Leili va Majnoon, Haft Peykar, Sharafnameh, and Eghbalnameh. In Divan Bozorgan, computer diskett, Jayhoon Afzar co., 1998.

Kisanji, J. Folklore based analysis for a culture-specific concept in inclusive education. In Holzer, B., Vreed, A., Weight, G. (eds.) : Disability in Different Cultures. Transaction publishers, New Brunswick, 1999.

Miles, M. Blindness in South and East Asia: using history to inform development. In Holzer, B., Vreed, A., Weight, G. (eds.): Disability in Different Cultures. Transaction publishers, New Brunswick, 1999.

Nazari, M. Raheb, Gh., Afroosheh, A., Panahi, Z. Study of public's attitudes towardss people with mental disabilities. Student research projct, University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, School of Social Work, Tehran, 1998.

Shariati , T. and Davarmanesh, A. The effects of the child's mental retardation on his/her family. Research project, The University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences press, Tehran, 1996.

Shirvani, A. Masnavi Stories. Belaghat press, Qom, 1997.