Iran: turquoise beaches, high IQ and execution allegations

Iran: postcard landscapes under a questioned regime

According to the study cited in the thread, the average IQ of Iranians over 20 is 105.61. For those under that age, it is 97.73. These numbers do not come from a tourist brochure: according to the link provided, they come from the repository of the United States National Institutes of Health. And they serve to frame the paradox that runs through any conversation about Iran: a country with world-class heritage, talent and landscapes, governed by a clerical apparatus that turns all that potential into an uncomfortable question.

A country that exports brains, not just carpets

Among the data being discussed, one stands out: the case of an Iranian girl who scored 162 is mentioned. One participant recalls that in 2020 a 16-year-old Iranian defeated Magnus Carlsen over a chessboard. And the count of Iranian mathematicians with a Wikipedia entry, 57, would exceed that of Spaniards, which stands at 52, always according to the figures cited. These are rough numbers, debatable in their methodology, but they point in the same direction as the IQ study: a remarkable intellectual talent pool for the size of the country.

The explanation that keeps coming up is the Persian heritage. A culture with centuries of mathematics, astronomy and poetry behind it ends up producing societies with a peculiar relationship with study.

Turquoise beaches, cloud forests and 5,000-metre mountains

The second set of arguments is visual. Beaches with light sand and turquoise water —Marjan, Hengam island, Darak beach—, cloud forests, golden canyons and mosques with a variety of colours the eye can barely distinguish. Add to that markets and street food stalls whose variety of flavours, smells and textures, it is argued, has no equivalent in the West. One participant compares the images with the Mexican Caribbean or the Maori Pacific.

The architecture does the rest. Hotels with marble, glass and gold finishes that are compared without inferiority complexes to the big international chains. The merit, it is pointed out, is not piling on ornamentation, but coming out of it well without falling into kitsch. And anyone who has been to Tehran adds a detail that does not appear in the guidebooks: the 5,000-metre mountains visible from the city, so close they seem within touching distance.

The flip side: death penalties, arranged marriages and supervised freedom

Here the consensus breaks down. Against the friendly portrait stands another one, and it is no small matter. According to the criticisms reproduced, gaiity is punishable by death, while transgender people would be pushed into undergoing surgery to fit their bodies to what the State considers acceptable. Adultery is also cited as an offence prosecuted harshly, along with pressure on Christian minorities and the persistence of arranged marriages.

There are no nuances that cover up that part. Those who defend the country respond with something else: that Iranian society is modern and forward-looking, and that it lives trapped under a regime that much of its population does not back. The testimonies of first-hand dealings point that way. Engineers exquisite in technical detail. Citizens who, in private, express their weariness with the clerical apparatus. The gap between the country and its government would be, they argue, wider than the passport suggests.

Shiism, Zoroastrianism and the temptation to rewrite history

The third front is religious. Some argue that Shiism, by allowing the interpretation of the hadiths, is less rigid than the Sunni tradition. Another participant's reply is that the same apparatus that interprets also executes. And a third, minority but persistent, current proposes recovering Zoroastrianism as a Persian identity marker against Sarracin, arguing that the religion prior to the Arab conquest did less harm. It is hard to know how much historical reclaiming and how much provocation lies in that idea.

Amid all this, the economic argument emerges. One participant puts Iran's per capita income above that of Hungary, Romania or much of Latin America, always according to the cited and unaudited estimates. If true, it would lay bare the underlying problem: a country that works in almost everything except its leadership. One forum member highlights the Iranian film A Separation (Nader and Simin) as a portrait of that tension, and the depiction of a tiny courtroom is enough to explain where everyday life gets stuck.

With all this, the question is not whether Iran is spectacular. It is whether it can be so without remaining, for part of its own people, a place to leave.