| Photo by Jane Scherr |
Vali Nasr Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
| Photo by Jane Scherr |
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Thank you.
Tell us a little about your background. Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. I got my primary and secondary education in Iran, and in England. My family migrated to the United States after the Iranian Revolution, and I did my higher education mostly in Boston at Tufts University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and then at MIT.
Looking back, how do you think your parents shaped your character?
Well, my father's an academic, so my ending up in the academy has a great deal to do with that.
I see.
He's a specialist on Islamic Studies, so I got a great deal of knowledge about the religious dimensions of Islam, the cultural dimensions on Islamic history, throughout my years in education.
Was there a lot of discussion around the dinner table about Islam and politics and Iranian politics, and U.S. foreign policy, and so on?
When I was growing up, Islam's involvement in politics was not a major issue in Muslim countries. Iranian politics itself was, but politics was a separate issue from Islam for most Muslims. So, we learned about religion; we learned about its do's and don'ts. We also learned a great deal, particularly in my upbringing, about the diversity of Islam's cultural expressions. That it is not just about the law. It is not just about the "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots." That it has very rich, cultural, artistic, musical expressions, and that there is a great deal of diversity in the Muslim world, from Africa to Southeast Asia to the Middle East. And that Islam is lived on a daily basis, rather than just acted upon.
Do you remember the events of the Iranian Revolution, and did it have a big impact on your life, and in what ways?
I remember it very well. I was in Tehran at various points during the height of the revolution. I learned a few things from it. First of all, I saw revolutionary activism as it was unfolding. I also saw the devastating impact that the revolution had on Iranian society and politics, and how it changed the shape of Iran as a society.
My family were among the many who left Iran, which at that time included not only people who were in government but, in many ways, the best and brightest in the country. We settled in the United States; this was during my formative years. The Iranian Revolution brought to the fore the whole issue of the relationship between Islam and politics: Is Islam a religion that is inherently political? Is it the directives within Islam that mandate this kind of violent action? And, increasingly, as the Iranian Revolution began to foist the concept of fundamentalism not only in the West but across the Muslim world, it became a challenge to many in my generation to try to separate Islam from the sins of a particular movement, or the claims of a particular government, and to understand where the truth is about what is politically motivated and what is prescribed by religion.
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