Time Magazine’s Prediction About Iran From 7 Years Ago Came True
They say Time Magazine predicted these days about Iran 7 years ago, although the events happened three years earlier. These days, the cover of one of its 2015 issues titled ‘How Iran 2025 Will Change the World in the Next Decade’ is being circulated. The headline and photo were quite controversial at the time, and conservative media referred to it with disdain as the Iran that the West prefers.
Some might have considered that headline more of a journalistic work than based on a sociological and expert statistical analysis. Now it has become clear that it wasn’t merely a journalistic headline.
The Girl on the Cover
The cover photo, with the backdrop of Chitgar Lake and the modern buildings around it, features a teenage girl with an Eastern face and attire similar to a wide range of those born in the 1990s or 2000s. She is holding an iPhone and a balloon string—though the balloon isn’t visible—in her hand, and her inquisitive gaze is drawn out of the frame.
At that time, the cover photo by Newsha Tavakolian, a famous Iranian press photographer, attracted more attention than the content of the report related to that photo and headline.
Besides the cover photo, 20 other photos by Newsha were also published inside the magazine, which is why most analyses and reactions, especially from the conservative media stream, were directed towards Newsha herself and her Dutch journalist husband. The conservative site Jahan News wrote that the mentioned photographer had collaborated with some chain publications and had published some photos of herself without a headscarf.
The newspaper Shargh praised Time Magazine’s work and its collaborating photographer, interviewing another photographer, Majid Saeedi, who was arrested during the 2009 unrest and fled the country after his release. Both photographers were honored in some foreign festivals due to their collaboration with the dissidents.
Predicting a Non-Ideal Iran
The photo and report headline in Time Magazine were published right when the nuclear deal had been concluded, and it seemed a new chapter was beginning not only in Iran’s foreign policy structure or even governance but in the lives of the Iranian people. Optimism for change and transformation was reflected not only inside but also outside Iran.
For this reason, more impartial analyses believed that Time, by choosing those photos and report, tried to present a gray image of Iran instead of a black one. They aimed to showcase examples from signs of modernism to the preservation of some traditions and the juxtaposition of different mentalities and attire of various generations in Iran.
The Time magazine writer also pointed out that Iran’s atmosphere is contrary to what many Westerners perceive, and we are dealing with a semi-modern society where parts of the early years of the revolution coexist with the fresh perspectives of the new generation. Therefore, the overall image of today’s Iran and the vision it evokes was referred to as Iran 2025.
Time posed the question of whether Iran would undergo fundamental changes in the next decade, writing that although these changes had started before the agreement, they are now happening at a rapid pace. Iran will be very different in 2025, and Iranians will likely no longer be idealistic.
Conservatives’ Displeasure with the Photo and Headline
The Mashregh site wrote about the cover photo at the time, saying the cover photo is America’s dream and America’s greed for the living world of Iranian youth. A girl who is still a teenager but wears more makeup than a young American girl. The girl is staring at distant horizons as if watching her kite soar. The kite of the girl’s dreams is not in the frame; we only see the kite string in her hand. The scarf on her head bears no resemblance to a hijab; it’s one of those hijabs that if absent, the girl’s apparent attractiveness would decrease.
Conservative media even attacked the newspaper Shargh, which extensively covered that issue of Time Magazine, stating that Time, with this photo and its analyses, tried to suggest Iran’s shift towards Westernization in the post-nuclear deal and the ten-year implementation period. According to Shargh, Time tried to say Iran is shedding its skin. Time attempts to convey that in the era of anti-Western slogans, the youth have taken a different path.
The Lack of Reality in Conservative Analyses
In one of the analyses published by conservative media about that photo and headline, it was stated that the real issue is that Time Magazine predicts Iran will undergo fundamental changes in this decade.
Evidence and indications show that Westerners are trying, during the 10 years of the nuclear deal’s implementation, to create widespread cultural, social, and political changes in the Islamic Revolution of Iran and consequently in the countries and nations influenced by it.
The analysis further stated that the pillars of these changes would be based on lifestyle changes, media influence, dependency, fear, and indulgence. They are awaiting an Iran that, by distancing itself from revolutionary spirit and anti-hegemony, brings security, peace, and power to America, Israel, and the West, and discourages and dissuades oppressed and downtrodden nations and countries from any resistance against global hegemony.
Apart from this fundamental weakness in the conservative perspective, which is unaware of the gradual transformations and inherent changes in Iranian society and attributes every desire and transformation to a deliberate foreign factor, it must be said that this analysis is more based on fear arising from a lack of understanding of society. This lack of understanding continues even after recent protests, and its clear signs can be seen in their speeches and analyses.
Time Magazine is a famous American weekly with a 92-year history that always selects a Person of the Year at the end of the calendar year. Iranian figures like Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh and Imam Khomeini have been chosen as Person of the Year in this magazine.