When the Shah ruled Iran, the Westernised elite enjoyed Hollywood movies at a small theatre in the centre of the city. Today, that theatre is an Islamic cultural centre and a meeting place for fundamentalists.So it was a bit of a surprise that in the gift shop, where almost everything was infused with a religious theme, the best-selling items last week were American children’s movies: “Rugrats Go Wild,” “Meet the Robinsons” and “The Incredibles.” All bootlegged, of course, and each for $1.50.“Yes, we sell a lot of these,” said Amin Gorbani, a young bearded clerk at the cash register. Then he stood up, extended his hand and said, “When it comes to disputes between Iran and America, that is between governments. But when it comes to people, I don’t see any problem between the people.”America’s image in the Middle East is as low as it has ever been. With the occupation of Iraq; the Israeli bombing of Lebanon; and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the United States has been cited in polls as the gravest threat to peace in the region. But Iran is different, even the Iran of someone like Gorbani, who works in a fundamentalist gift shop.Generally speaking, Iranians like Americans — not just American products, which remain very popular, but Americans. That is not entirely new: Iranians on an individual level have long expressed a desire to restore relations between the countries. But the sentiment seems much more out in the open now.It is spreading not only on the streets of Tehran, but also in the way politicians talk. A former student hostage-taker, the mayor of Tehran, even the supreme leader himself, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have said it is not out of the question to restore relations with the US someday.That change of tone, combined with Khamenei’s recent mild criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, seems to have given Iranians license to express their frustration with their current situation and their longing for normal relations.They do not necessarily see themselves as having any connection to the extreme radical ideas of their leaders, whether in religious or geopolitical terms, and calculate that Americans are equally disconnected from their leaders’ decisions, political and social analysts said.“I think the problem we have with the Americans is the way Americans perceive Iran as a threat, as a rogue state,” said Masoumeh Ebtekar, a Tehran city council member who served as spokeswoman for the students who seized the US Embassy and 66 hostages in 1979. “This perception has to change. I believe if they understand who we really are, the basis for reconciliation will be based on respect and equality.”She framed the conflict as a matter of perception, of misunderstanding. Yet, there was a time when that kind of talk was seen as subversive. Now, there is Baskin-Robbins.Not the real Baskin-Robbins, apparently, but an Iranian bootleg version with its own display of 31 flavors. “I used to be the one who chanted Death to America,” said Abolfazl Emami, owner of the ice cream shop in Mohseni Square. “It was a slogan that came up during the revolution. People don’t mean it now.”With a smile and his hand raised, he said: “I like American goods, and I prefer American people. It’s just the Government I don’t like.”This is not to say that Tehran and Washington are about to settle their differences soon. It is not just a matter of policy differences, like a nuclear program, that make this impossible. There are more challenging obstacles to reconciliation, like identity and ideology.Iran’s top leaders still define themselves in large measure by their opposition to the US. The supreme leader is still the Guardian of the Revolution. The clerics who lead Friday prayer still keep one hand on a weapon as they preach. Revolutionary identity and anti-Americanism remain inseparable.“They come in and shut us down periodically because they think we are too American,” said Emami, owner of the ice cream shop.That is why, Western diplomats in Iran said, the best thing Washington could do to encourage more moderate behaviour in Tehran would be to ease off. Less pressure would make it harder for Iran’s leaders to keep out Western influences. “Take the foot off the gas,” said a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to antagonise the Iranians.Another obstacle to repairing relations involves the deep internal divisions between Iranians. Those appeared the day after the revolution, when the factions that united to take down the Shah could not agree on how to run the country. The Islamists won, and to this day have marginalised those who sought a softer approach.“Even the ruling elite recognise that there are good things we can get from opening to America,” said a political analyst in Tehran who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. But, the analyst said, “We know we have to reconcile internally first.”
