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food / travel

Meet The First European Union Exchange Student In Iran

Italian Valentina Simeone's eyes were opened by her six months at Tehran University, yet another breakthrough in relations between Iran and the West.

Valentina Simeone and one of her teachers at Tehran University
Valentina Simeone and one of her teachers at Tehran University
Federico Taddia

TEHRAN — Valentina Simeone hails from the city of Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia, but has spent the past six months a world away — in Iran.

The 21-year-old became the first ever European Union exchange student to the Middle Eastern country, studying Farsi at Tehran University under the Erasmus Program, a EU student exchange program established in 1987. Though Erasmus had partnerships with other non-EU countries, such opportunities were unavailable in Iran until the recent warming of relations with the West that led up to the successful negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.

Simeone has bright eyes and unruly long brown hair held back by a colorful hijab, the Muslim veil common in Iran. "At first it was a bit traumatic, since I spoke only a few words of Farsi and it was hard to find any English speakers," she says. "Thankfully the mother of one my old university professors lives in Tehran, and she helped me find a place in the female dorm and work through the university bureaucracy."

Along with her hijab, Simeone kept with the modest dress often expected of women in the country: Her coat reached her knees, and she never exposed her elbows. "I thought my behavior and style of dress would alienate me from other students, but that faded quickly and then everything went well," she says. "Sometimes while walking on the street women would scold me for not completely covering my hair or for wearing a cropped shirt, but when they found out I was a foreigner they would apologize."

When she had free time outside of studying for her exams, Simeone came face-to-face with other unfamiliar aspects of Iranian culture. "Iranian female students almost never speak to male classmates, but I chatted with them and never had any problems," she says.

She didn't go out drinking in nightclubs, which is legally prohibited in Iran though increasingly common in underground locales. Instead, she whiled away the time in the many local tea and coffee shops, but with Facebook blocked, Simeone had to find new ways to stay in touch with her friends and family. She maintained her ties to home alive by cooking pasta for her Iranian roommates, just as she sampled Iranian kebabs.

Simeone was in Tehran when the nuclear deal was approved and global sanctions were lifted, an invaluable look at a unique time in Iranian history. "Young people were very energized, and the first immediate effect you could see was a surge in tourist arriving," she says. "They want to get to know the West and drive Iran's future development."

In addition to improving her grasp of Farsi, Simeone's stay allowed her to decide on the topic of her dissertation: Iranian-Italian relations. "My experience helped me reflect on many things, especially the unwavering faith of the students I met in Tehran," she says. "It's not a burden, it's a gift that shines through in all their actions, and this led me to reexamine my faith and deepen my understanding of my own identity."

After she graduates, Simeone plans on entering the Italian foreign service. "When I told locals I was Italian, they were fascinated. They know a lot more about Italy than we know about their country," she says. Perhaps she will take her singular experience as Iran's first European exchange student to the front lines of Iranian-European diplomacy, and aid the ancient country's burgeoning reintegration with the wider world.

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Ideas

The Unifying Power Of Art In A World Divided By Religion And Morality

Political battle lines are becoming increasingly entrenched, and opposing views are being pushed towards ever greater extremes. Language has become a battlefield. If morality pushes us apart, and religion does not help in the process, we may find a solution in our sense of humanity, writes German psychiatrist Manfred Lütz in Die Welt.

The Unifying Power Of Art In A World Divided By Religion And Morality

Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple (1830). Commemorates the French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution.

Manfred Lütz

-Essay-

BERLIN — In the Middle Ages, people didn’t read texts about the meaning of life. Most of them couldn’t read at all, and they saw the meaning of life in the images in their churches. Academics have recently started speaking about the “iconic turn”, the return of images, and it is true that the Instagram generation prefers to communicate visually. Could pictures offer a way for our deeply divided society to come together once again?

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Both in terms of foreign and domestic policy, political views are becoming increasingly entrenched, and on both sides of the debate, opposing views are being pushed towards ever greater extremes. In the world of today, many people are cut off from any contact with those who think differently, living in echo chambers, surrounded by people who confirm their worldview. When those who disagree with their position condemn them from a moral perspective, this only serves to vitalize the group under attack.

The public pillorying that dominates social media can be a cause of great anxiety for individuals. But for those who feel they are part of a community, their fear often transforms into an aggressive form of self-defense. The topic itself isn’t as important as the sense of being attacked.

That is a possible psychological explanation for a strange phenomenon, whereby attacks on groups such as the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and some of their individual members have strengthened the sense of community within these groups and brought together a surprising mix of people, from radical free marketeers to nationalists, conspiracy theorists, pro-lifers, COVID deniers, right-wing extremists, conservative Christians and racists.

They are united by a single experience, that of being excluded. Conversations within these groups are reminiscent of chats around a pub table: the more harshly someone criticizes “those in power”, “the lefties”, “right-wingers” or even, “the others”, the more likes they get.

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