Kamangir (Archer)

Hoder’s Embarrassing Videos

Kamangir | April 7, 2006 | Category Iran

Important Notice: Please read this note before reading this post.

Riant and Lisa did not know that Hossein Derakhshan was going to post the videos, in which one of them is pronouncing Persian curses, in his weblog. Lisa says they both feel quite embarrassed.

Hossein Derakhshan posted two videos in his weblog showing Rinat (see), an Israeli journalist whom he met in Israel, pronouncing Persian curses (see), something he claimed to be “fairly common”. In a post I mentioned how “uncommon” his act is (see). Then, I had a comment from Lisa Goldman (see), the Israeli journalists who hosted him in his trip to Israel, mentioning that,

“Rinat is an Israeli-Brazilian journalist, and my good friend. We were sitting together at the cafe near my apartment when Hossein made the video, after she interviewed him for an article in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. When she had finished interviewing him, Hossein said, “Okay Rinat, now it’s my turn to interview you.” I also appear briefly in the video, toward the end. We were both quite embarrassed, but we also did not know how offensive those words were to Persian speakers. If we had known, we would never have agreed to make the video. We did not know that Hossein planned to post the video on his blog.I am sure I am speaking for Rinat as well when I say that we both apologize for causing any offence.“

Then an email came from her,

“I left a comment on the blog post you wrote about the video Hossein made of me and Rinat repeating the curse words in Persian. As I wrote in my comment, neither of us realized how offensive the words would sound to Persian speakers, nor did we know that Hossein planned to post the video on his blog. If we had known, we would never have agreed to make the video. I apologize for causing any offense - it was absolutely not intended.”

I replied,

“As I have frequently mentioned in my weblog, I admire him for his efforts towards introducing blogging to Iranians. However, I do not think what he is doing is exactly what a typical Iranian would do. Unfortunately, there are not many Iranian bloggers who write in English. So, I can not give you examples of how embarrassed many bloggers are from his actions. Any way, this is not your fault. Nor is Riant’s fault.”

I think I should have added, I do apologize that the first Persian words that you have learnt were that offensive.