Doggie in the Coal Mine

Like most Americans, I’ve had pets throughout my life. From birds and fish in my earlier years in a cramped apartment, to tons of dogs and cats ever after. Right now, the pet-ruler of my home is runt Bengal cat – six pounds of self-confident gorgeousness (and she knows it) – monarch of all she surveys with strong territorial claims to lap and bed. My neighborhood may have lots of cats and kittens (cattens?) behind closed doors, but what I see outside my window, in early morning and late afternoon, are rituals of loving pet custodians (do we ever “own” them?), loving folks just walking their dogs, helping themselves to the handy blue biodegradable plastic bags provided by the city in convenient dispensers on virtually every block.

Pets calm us, give us unquestioning adoration and loyalty, teach our children responsibility and provide an emotional shock absorber… in many ways de-stressing us into longer lives. There are an estimated 95.6 million cats and 89.7 million dogs in the United States; 68% of American households have at least one dog or cat. There are no left-wing dogs or right-wing cats, despite their varying personalities. Pet ownership is a commonality that unites so many of us in a polarized world. Pets just don’t seem to represent doctrines, philosophies or political status.

The pet-phenomenon in the United States is a reflection of man-animal relationships all over the world, but the vision of a pampered cat or dog is normally reflected as common trait in developed countries, a luxury of companionship less formally shared in less affluent countries (but pets are everywhere!). However, it is hard to think of owning a pet, particularly a dog, as a political statement. So, let’s look at a country where owning a dog is considered to be adopting Western values where such values are an anathema to national political and religious leaders. Hardliners trying to purge every vestige of Western values. Iran.

With about 82 million people, Iran’s dog population is estimated at 1.2 million, a little over a third of those living in and around the capital city of Tehran. With an economy in seeming perpetual shambles, exacerbated by international economic sanctions, owning a pet is often an unaffordable luxury for most. To some in Iran, having a dog is viewed negatively as something for the elite rich. Since the 1979 Revolution that installed the current theocracy, ostensible pet ownership has been frowned upon by the authorities. Taking your dog for a walk or a ride in your car (even to a vet) – the public appearance of a dog – has wavered between forbidden and acceptable. 

“Dog ownership has been a contentious topic in the decades after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since then, authorities have confiscated dogs and lawmakers have threatened to punish with 74 lashes those owners who walk their dog in public… Yet to the dismay of conservatives, Iranians from the middle and upper class have been increasingly embracing dogs as loyal companions in recent years. For instance, in 2017, animal activists called for legislation to punish animal cruelty…

“Despite its rising popularity among Iranians, the pet seen in the West as man’s best friend is perceived by religious hard-liners here as an example of corrupt Western culture… Owning a dog should be forbidden, they say, because Islamic teachings say that dogs are najes, or untouchable, because they are dirty.

“In announcing the public prohibition, Tehran Police Chief Hossein Rahimi claimed Tuesday [1/30] that dogs cause fear and anxiety in public spaces… ‘Police have received permission from the judiciary branch to crack down on people walking dogs in Tehran,’ Rahimi told the Young Journalists Club news site, a mouthpiece for Iran’s political establishment. ‘Carrying dogs in cars is also banned and if a dog is seen inside the car, police will confront the owner of the dog.’” Los Angeles Times, January 31^st. Some are simply abandoning their dogs, creating yet another issue for city dwellers. There are many reports of feral and confiscated dogs being buried alive by Iranian authorities.

 

But Western values simmer beneath the surface in this highly-educated country. For upper-middle class and above, heavy black chadors often cover European designer fashions. They live with the Revolutionary Guards because they must, resenting the heavy fog of religious oppression everywhere. With the economy teetering, the theocracy understands that its grip over the people could easily slip away. Food costs are soaring. Basics are exorbitant. So, the oppressive grip just gets tighter.

It is interesting to understand why Donald Trump places the threat of Iran’s Shiite expansionism as his highest U.S. international priority. Beyond the dramatic and much larger threats from China, Russia and North Korea as described in the annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community” submitted to Congress on January 29^th, Iran’s challenges to the United States are not as immediate or critical. There is no question that Iran is a major destabilizing force in the Middle East – from the Houthis challenging Iran’s Sunni foe in Yemen, Tehran’s military and logistical support of the rogue Syrian Assad government, her use of her surrogate Hezbollah party to govern Lebanon to her financial aid to Hamas against Israel and her passionate hatred of and commitment to contain Israel itself. 

That Iran still adheres to the restriction on developing nuclear weapons set forth in the 2015 U.N.-backed six party accord (which Trump pulled out of last year), that she is not capable of mounting a major direct threat against the United States itself, has simply moved containing Iran down the list of American threat priorities, at least as far as our intelligence professionals are concerned. Iran, however, remains an existential threat to Israel, perceived as a far greater peril to Jerusalem than the internal strife posed by the Palestinian question. Israel recently bombed Iranian military installations in neighboring Syria. It is definitely a hot zone. 

Donald Trump’s position on Iran reflects his evangelical constituency’s commitment to Israel (which must be strong enough to cause the Biblically-referenced Armageddon in the Middle East, a necessary precursor to the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ). His cozying up to a ruthless Saudi monarchy is simply supporting a dire enemy of Tehran hell-bent on containing Iran. Parroting Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu’s vitriol against Iran, Donald Trump has embraced that position as if Israel were a part of the United States. 

Protecting the United States from its own existential threats – from Russia, China and North Korea – has thus assumed second place to Iran in the President’s mind. Even under Trump’s own misguided rubric, this is hardly “America First.” Israel is and must remain a cherished and prioritized ally, but existential threats to our nation truly must be our primary international focus.

Yet, as the United States fuels Iran’s hatred towards us and the entire West that is viewed as the fomenters of economic misery in Iran, our policies continue to reinforce the iron hand of that segment of Iran’s theocracy that wants to resume nuclear weapons development and eschew any efforts toward rapprochement with the West. The hardliners, who have benefitted deeply by having Donald Trump create a solid negative image to justify their amped-up repression, are shifting public opinion. We are creating a backlash against working with the West on any basis. 

And if you think those hardliners are powerless or out of step with the rest of the world, that they could not possibly prevail, take a good hard look at a nation willing to arrest its citizens for walking a dog in public. Having lived in the Middle East as the step-son of a U.S. diplomat years ago, it never ceases to dishearten me to watch American leadership so completely misunderstand the religious and political dynamics of a region so very different from our own. The harm that such lack of understanding has caused simply should not be under-estimated.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and the misdirected foreign policy of the Trump administration will take decades to correct… if such correction is even possible given the magnitude of our mistakes.