By Research Associate Zahra Ladha

Following the 1979 revolution and Iran’s appearance on the world stage as a regional power, the political class in Iran quickly achieved notoriety for what has been deemed to be their incendiary rhetoric and aggressive stance against the West. As a result, over the years, many an op-ed and think piece dissecting speeches and comments made by the Iranian government have been written. However, time and time again in the analysis of Iranian political discourse, a lack of understanding of Persian culture alongside outright mistranslations of these speeches have been exploited to exacerbate existing political tensions between Washington and Tehran. Over the past year, much has been made of the physical engagement between Iran and the US which many claim has brought the two countries to the brink of war. In comparison, there has been little focus on the effect of the war waged against Iran in the US media. This phenomenon which has historically relied on deliberate mistranslations of the words of Iranian leaders, has a seen a significant re-emergence under the Trump Administration. The most notable of these instances is, of course, the infamously mistranslated ‘wipe Israel off the face of the earth’ quote attributed to then president Ahmadinejad which, as well as exponentially increasing regional tensions, has been repeatedly used to justify the nuclear sanctions against Iran. However, US President Donald Trump’s three years in office has seen the continued use several older mistranslations such as the ‘Death to America’ chant, with several new additions such as the recent mistranslated ‘the White House is mentally retarded’ comment ascribed to President Rouhani, in order to strengthen the pro-war faction on Capitol Hill.