"The Iranians I have met love America. They loathe the US government and its policies especially after the restrictions imposed on Iran but there is an absolutely overwhelming love for literature, music and culture," Iranian-American writer Reza Aslan said at a session here today at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Aslan contended that Iranian people could distinguish between US government and its people whereas the same is not the case in America.
"I think in Iran people can distinguish between the government policies from the people but Americans cannot conceive the difference between the Iran government and its people," said Aslan, who has authored global bestseller, "No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam."
However, novelist and filmmaker Laleh Khadivi, also an Iranian-American countered Aslan. "I do know Iranians who don't love America. I know many people who were given a chance to immigrate but they chose to not," said Khadivi
Washington has been accusing Tehran of developing nuclear weapons, a claim denied by the Iran government. Iran on its part has been maintaining that its nuclear programme is meant for peaceful purposes.
"The Iranian government has been posing the US as its polar opposite but because there is so much open loathing for the Iran government that you start loving America," Aslan said.
Discussing the writings from Iranian diaspora post the revolution in 1979, Aslan said that most of this writing tends to create a beautiful past. "Most of the Iranian diaspora writing tends to create a romantic past like everything was so wonderful forgetting the problems present earlier," he said.
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Talking about the difficulties in getting published in Iran, Khadivi said that though she has not received any requests from the publishers in Tehran she feels it may be because of censorship issues.
"I have never had any request from Iranian publishers may be because they are aware of the censorship issues in the country," Khadivi, the winner of 2008 Whiting Writers' Award said.
When asked if it was hard to live in US being a person of Iranian origin, Khadivi said, "It's fine being an Iranian-American. It has its difficulties but it is okay. I think if I had grown somewhere else I wouldn't have been a writer," she said.