TEHRAN — The advertising on the dry cleaner's window said much about the conflicted identity of this nation where winged gods and glorious battles of ancient Persian kings are balanced against ayatollahs and an Islamic revolution that nearly 30 years ago brought morality police and martyrs.
Before the mullahs took charge in 1979, the dry cleaner was named Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire. That had the whiff of nationalism and the dry cleaner suddenly became the namesake of a revered cleric. The window today is an unreconciled collage where the names of Persepolis and the cleric coexist above a painting of spear tips and Achaemenian warriors.
There are few avenues for defiance in this Shiite Muslim nation, but one of them is in the past, where the emblems, folklore and images of old Persia mingle in quiet protest against the mullahs. The pre-Islamic era is alive in jewelry, architecture, decals, books, videos and websites that feature Cyrus the Great and gold-horned bulls.
"Our nation is not producing any new ideas or any new concepts," said Baharak Keshani, an architect. "So what happens? Powerless minds imitate and we look back to the pre-Islamic times. We go to our history because the present is not glorious. The need to go back is a mixture of national pride and mysticism."
Fascination with the pre- Islamic has run in trends since the 1979 revolution. Religious leaders first tried to blot out a past embraced by the man they overthrew, Mohammed Reza Shah. But they soon realized the appeal of Persian identity and now occasionally co-opt the past for tourism and national pride.
Unemployment, high inflation, political oppression and a distrust many Iranians have for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have stoked reflections on bygone centuries. And those who can afford it decorate their homes with nods to ancient Persian style: carved columns, mythical horses and visages of kings.
"It's a psychological reaction to the Islamic regime," said Naser Shahbazi, a drama teacher and bookseller, who sat in a shop of cracked bindings and dust. "Many Iranians hate the regime, but they're scared. The pre-Islamic motif is the least dangerous way to express yourself. . . .
"One of my students was wearing a pendant of an image from ancient Persian times. I asked him, 'Why are you wearing this?' He said, 'I like it.' And I asked him, 'Do you know the history of this?' he said, 'No.' Much of it is just fashion for those who can afford it. Young men are wearing long hair like the ancient Achaemenian soldiers, and some strip Arabic words from their speech and speak pure Farsi. Sometimes I don't understand them."
