Many Americans hold the common misconception that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats towards the United States and Israel represent Iran's final say in the matter, but the unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei really has ultimate authority in the nation's policies, according to Saba Deyhim Tu'09.
"Iranians don't take [Ahmadinejad] seriously," Deyhim said in her Country Chat about Iran at the Tuck School of Business on Thursday. "He doesn't have any power."
This presentation about Iran was the first of this term's Country Chats, weekly talks given by Tuck students about their ancestral nations.
Country Chats began in 2006 and originally featured fewer presentations and had less publicity than the current presentations, said Aakhil Fardeen Tu'08, co-chair of the Tuck International Club, which sponsors the discussions.
"This year we decided to do it in a structure to get everyone involved," Fardeen said. "We try to get the flavor of the country with food and drinks from the nation."
The chats allow members of the Dartmouth community and the surrounding area to learn about other nations without leaving campus, Fardeen, who is from India, explained.
"It is a community event," Fardeen said. "We want to reach out to get the greater Dartmouth community involved. It's to tap into the fact that there are so many [international students] here. It's a forum for you to come and learn and stop misconceptions."
This year's series began with a discussion on Kenya in February, which inspired a growing number of Tuck students to get involved with the series, Fardeen said.
"The Kenya chat was fascinating because people had different opinions on why the post-election violence was happening," Fardeen explained. "The discussion revolved around how Kenya was so stable and how it's sad to see the violence. Some students felt that it was a good thing because it allowed Kenyans to express their grievances."
Administrators from the Thayer School of Engineering and from the College also became involved with the project following the Kenya chat and a chat about Belgium, the second event of the Winter term. The Thayer School co-hosted the Iran talk, and a Dartmouth undergraduate may present at the upcoming discussion about Afghanistan.
"I'm just looking forward to more of this," Fardeen said. "People are excited. I'm personally excited to learn about so many countries I don't know about. Even if I wasn't organizing this, I would go to as many as I could."
Next week's talk will focus on Japan, and future presentations will include discussions about France, Bolivia and Korea.
