A Sham Horse For Sale, or Iranian-Syrian Love Affair
By Kamangir • Mar 11th, 2007 • Category: Iran
In these bad times, for both Iran and Syria, they have started to get along pretty well. In a sequel of friendly visits and support statements, Iran built a factory in Syria for manufacturing a car called Sham, referring to the historic name of the Syrian area, I guess. Even forgetting the strange implications of that name, first pointed out by the Persian BBC blog, the story has more interesting details into it.
The French car company Peugeot has been very active in Iran for over a decade now. Any picture taken in the streets of Tehran will show many Peugeot 206’s and Peugeot 405’s, alongside the “Iranianized” models. One of those Iraninized cars is Samand. Samand uses a Peugeot engine mantled on an Iranian-designed body. At least it is what the IR claims and that’s why they call Samanad the “National Car”. Many argue that the engine is an important part but anyways the IR administration does need to show off their “achievements”.
What they have offered to the Syrians, and have generously renamed it for them, is exactly Samand. From the looks, I say it is Samand and I have not seen any indication in the news that they have made any Syria-specific modifications to the car. Thus, Sham is nothing but Samand. Well, you might call this a business decision.
The interesting part is the tiny sign in front of the car. Samand is a horses’ name in Persian. That’s why a horse head is put there. For some reason, Sham is still carrying the horse head. Why? Don’t ask me.
The Syrian president presented Sham to the nation as a celebration of Syria’s independence day and the Iranian Minister of Industry and Mining expressed hope that the collaboration will produce $200,000,000 in benefits for the Iranian side (Persian). In other words, both parties are happy, and that’s what is important. Who cares if a dumb horse head is there?
Posted by Kamangir
Author's email address: arash@kamangir.net | All posts by Kamangir
Previous Post: Baztab: Asgari Was Kidnapped
Next Post: A Strange Claim
Hey, just wanted to point out that “The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour” is on Comedy Central…..HILARIOUS!!!
The last comic, the headliner is Maz Jobrani, an Iranian. He’s so freaking funny!!!
I’m glad that people like him are around. He reminds me of all my friends who get looked at funny for being who they are. Hopefully when we are all older and our childen are blogging, we’ll all be friends laughing at the silliness that was the beginning of the 21st century.
Hope your weekends are going well everyone!!!
Tom,
Thanks. :)
Kamangir,
“a car called Sham, referring to the historic name of the Syrian area, I guess.”
It is most likely referring to the nickname of Damascus, ash-shaam. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus .
Hi Kamangir
Iran built a factory in Syria for manufacturing a car called Cham.
Please spell this word in this way ” cham samand ” .
Thanks
Ali,
Please see this banner. It is definitely spelled there as “Sham”.