Iran and its nation have a long history in the world. Iran is known for its ancient traditions and culture and for its warm hospitality, not to be mentioned that was one of the first countries in the world who gave written constitutional rights to its people. And yes, about 38 years ago, in 1979, the kingdom of the Shah of Iran has been replaced by the Islamic Republic of Iran which is the Iran as we know it today. Now, 2018, Iran has proven to be a reliable country and a relatively stable and interesting world economy, causing the greater part of the world’s countries to welcome Iran as a friend. From her end, Iran has been reaching out to the world and has welcomed the world as its friend.
The Netherlands is one of those countries who has welcomed Iran as its economical friend which has led to a forty times increase of import from Iran by the Netherlands(1) after the lifting of the sanctions against Iran on January 18th, 2016. To maintain this friendship with the Netherlands and to pay respect to the Dutch and the Western and non-Islamic traditions, this year the ambassador of Iran in the Netherlands has sent Christmas gifts to the political party leaders of the Dutch parliament and to the foreign spokespersons of the parties.
Unfortunately, the leader of the 50Plus party, a very small political party with only 4 seats in the parliament, named Henk Krol, has misunderstood this nice and friendly gesture of Iran which has led to an insulting and negative attitude towards Iran. Krol has in fact such a negative attitude towards Iran – as well as such a low respect for Iran and Iranians, their way of living and their believes – that he has thrown the abovementioned Christmas present in a bin on national television, because he was under the impression that the ambassador had only send the gifts to all male parliament members while the female parliament members were excluded from these gifts due to them being female. This is not only factually wrong, but it is also really unfortunate that there are still Dutch parliament members with such little knowledge about Iran, an economical partner of the Netherlands.
Although the information which Krol and the media have given to the Dutch people in this matter were absolutely factually wrong, it does show the negative attitude against and the lack of knowledge about Iran. Surely, Krol has not done any research to find out to who the gifts were sent to and has also not bothered himself by contacting the Iranian embassy for any explanations. But, one does wonder how it is possible that a journalist in such a great and structured country as the Netherlands – who in fact wrongfully reported that said gifts had only been sent to the males fraction representatives – does not bother to investigate the facts. This while Dutch journalists are known as great researchers and reliable sources of true information and are in fact one of the greatest pillars of the check and balance system of the Dutch democracy. It seems that even the journalist of PowNed, who has aired the story, has such a negative attitude against Iran which resulted in him automatically believing that Iran would discriminate women through Christmas gifts and have failed to do any research at all in this matter; the principle to hear and to be heard seems to be too much to ask!
Such a form of journalism is simply below the Dutch standard of trust and reliability and can even be damaging for our Dutch democracy. After all, such journalism will influence the thoughts and the minds of the Dutch people, while the given information is factually wrong. Luckily for us in the Netherlands we have NOS, one of the most reliable journalism radio and TV network in the Netherlands, who have rectified this matter.(2)
This incident is interesting due to a couple of reasons:
1. It shows that Iran is actively working on strengthening its friendship with the West, as it has promised with the Nuclear deal;
2. It also shows that the Islamic republic of Iran does have and shows respect to the cultural and religious beliefs of the West, such as Christmas;
3. Unfortunately it also shows that some people have kept their negative thoughts about Iran intact and have not opened their eyes to see how Iran and Iranians actually are; and
4. That such misunderstandings could damage the relationship between people, which can cause a lot of economical loss for the Netherlands and Iran, while both countries are currently enjoying their economical friendship by trade and business;
It seems that Krol was in need of airtime while reliable network such as NOS or RTL did not want to pay any attention to him, while PowNed (who exists because of their way of looking for the edges of controversy) has misused this opportunity to have an ‘item to broadcast’. By now PowNed should have realized that the ambassador of Iran could have demanded a rectification of the facts according to the great and fair Dutch laws.
What one still cannot understand is the reaction of Krol after the NOS has confronted him with his wrongful act.(3) Krol acknowledged that he was wrong but yet was not willing to apologize for his disrespectful behavior towards the Iranian people, Iran as a country and to its ambassador. Now why would a fair parliament member not be willing to apologize for his mistake?
Luckily the Netherlands and its kind and calm people are not all like Krol and are willing to accept the friendly hand which Iran has reached out to them. This is why so many Dutch and other Western companies have started business relations with Iran and have invested so much in that relationship. Which is a great perspective to start the new year. Let us strengthen the friendship and the economic ties through communication and open minds and not uphold prejudices.
Happy new year to you all.
(1) https://www.bnr.nl/nieuws/internationale-politiek/10316621/nederlandse-bedrijven-spinnen-garen-bij-einde-sancties-iran
(2) https://nos.nl/artikel/2209310-woede-in-iran-om-nootjes-henk-krol.html
(3) https://nos.nl/artikel/2209330-krol-geeft-fout-in-pistachenoten-rel-toe-maar-excuses-gaan-te-ver.html
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