Arousing Handshakes

Roozonline:

The cancellation of two recent international events, an official lunch by the Belgian government for the visiting Iranian Parliamentary delegation because of serving of wine and the meeting of the President of the Belgian Senate with the Iranian Parliament Speaker because of the refusal of the Iranian official to shake the hands of the Belgian woman official, although not new, have interesting historical precedence. READ MORE

In the recent past, Western politicians tolerated Iranian government officials because of the latter’s international reputation and their promotion of progressive positions on freedom, democracy and human rights. Nowadays however, these same politicians are less patient in situations where their traditions and diplomatic protocol are not observed or respected.

Anne-Marie Lizin, the President of the Belgian Senate cancelled the lunch that was thrown for Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament because, in her words “We do not wish to be under foreign laws.” She also has said that Belgians expect the Iranians to respect their customs just as Belgians respect Iranian customs when they are in Iran.

The cancellations in fact are a signal to the Iranian diplomats to be more realistic in their dealings with officials from other countries. Clearly the expectation that non-Iranians must heed to Iranian customs both in and outside Iran, is asking for too much.

There are many diplomatic incidents when revolutionary men and women have declined to shake hands with people from other countries. One of the more known cases in Iran is when an Iranian delegation went to Moscow to deliver a message from the leader of Iran to then Soviet President Michael Gorbachev. Marzieh Dabagh was a female member of the Iranian delegation who to the astonishment of those present declined to shake hands with Gorbachev. But she realized the impact of this faux pas and subsequently corrected her mistake by shaking hands with her Chador over her hand.

In another incident, when President Khatami was on a visit to Germany, he declined to shake hands with a German cabinet minister in the presence of then President Roman Hertzog. A translator described the incident in these words: Just before the German President stood this lady, who was from the Green Party. She was known to have had negative views on Iran. When President Khatami came to her, she extended her hand. Khatami, on the other hand, put his hands together and in a fashion that is more familiar with Indians, bowed to her in clear sign of respect, without taking her hand. At the same time, he began to mutter in Persian, words to the effect that said ‘see what uncomfortable situations they subject us to’. Everyone was shocked, but I do not think anyone understood why he did that. Such behavior is interpreted as aggressive and that is why during the dinner that evening, everything went very wry and the atmosphere was very cold, despite Khatami’s attempts to explain his gesture. One of the consequences of this was that when Iranian diplomats tried to follow up their agreements with the Ministry that was headed by the lady minister, the Minister would not accept the Iranian officials for about six months. The impasse was resolved by the intervention of higher officials, but still only superficially, while leaving its permanent negative mark.

The issue of shaking hands with foreigners has been such a serious problem for the diplomats of the country that a leading Iranian official in New York even went to the religious authorities to get a clarification on this. The cleric is said to have ruled that if touching hands does not carry any implications of amorality and is not an insult to Islam and the Islamic State, then prudence says it is acceptable. Other clerics are reported to have backed this view. But since this view can be troublesome for those who believe that women and men should not mingle in public, it has not been officially and publicly sanctioned. But there have been officials who privately shake the hands of women, while refraining from doing so in the presence of cameras and other officials who may report them to others. Normally, the Protocol Office of the Foreign Ministry informs the Iranian and foreign officials to respect the Islamic tenets and stay away from the “no-nos.” On the other hand, foreign officials expect their customs and traditions to be equally respected when events take place on their soil, something that Iranian officials continue to have problems with.

Another famous incident is when President Khatami was visiting Spain about 3 years ago. On that trip, Khatami’s delegation had requested from the Spanish authorities to refrain from serving wine, or having women around the meetings, just as it had successfully done in his previous trip to Italy. But this turned out different. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo editorialized that separating men and women is an insult to Spanish women. It said “If Iranian people wish to live under Apartheid, we have no need to receive them. Spanish women are worth far more than a few million Euros that emerge with economic deals through such trips. We do not wish to be seen as impure and be insulted.” A prominent Spanish women is reported to have said that Spanish women considered this gesture an insult to them. On the same trip, BBC quoted the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry as saying that it President Khatami was not going to attend a lunch given in his honor by the Spanish King and the Queen.

Iranians have viewed such gestures with mixture. For example, a web site belonging to conservatists said that there was a conspiracy to belittle the accomplishments of the Presidents’ successes in Spain. Another Spanish commentator published an article that was widely circulated in the major newspapers in which he reasoned that since Khatami had accepted to visit Spain, he had to respect the traditions and customs of his hosts and that there was going to be wine and women in Spain.

So it appears that European tolerance of Iranian protocol has ended to the point where they cannot even explain that not shaking the hand of a woman is a respectful gesture. And as one Iranian diplomat put it, even if we explain to them that the purpose is to avoid amoral contact and sexual arousal, they would say only sick people may arouse through such contact of hands.

Whatever the rationale, Iranian politicians and protocol writers must realize that if they wish to be in contact with the world, they must present a more human face.