This is a further podcast in my Iranian series. It concerns the way that Persia, or Iran, has often suffered a form of cultural condescension at the hands of the West, for instance in the relative virtues of the Spartans and the Persians in the '300' films. Iran has also been invaded and occupied many times by outside powers, most recently in the course of World War II: a little-known episode which set the scene for the Battle of Stalingrad. The prickly attitudes of the present-day Islamic Republic can partly be traced to these humiliations. The series is also posted, with images, on my blog at a-maverick.com, and on Medium.
