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The talk was the second event in the “Iran: Past and Present” lecture series sponsored by the Persian Student Association, or PSA, in conjunction with the Muslim Student Awareness Network, or MSAN, and the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, or CJME.

Beeman began his lecture by holding up a copy of “Atomic Iran,” a book by Jerome Corsi, as an example of the negative stereotypes perpetuated about life in Iran and the danger that the nation presents to the United States. He also argued that Americans have had a monolithic image of Iran for the last 25 years.

Beeman said that the unchanging idea of Iran “obscures our taking a look and seeing what Iran is really like. In another five to 10 years a very different Iran will emerge from the one that existed pre-revolution.”

One of the most important factors in the reformation of Iran is that the average age is only 23, Beeman said. With the majority of the population under the age of 25, there will be a large number of new voters in the next five years who did not even live through or know the details of the Iranian Revolution. He said he expects the conservative views in Iran — preserved most strongly by those over age 70 — to begin to fade in coming years.

Beeman also said that Iran is an enormously diverse country with a vital culture that has a widespread influence, especially in Asia.

“The power of Iranian civilization trumps everything else,” he said. “It is such a tremendously powerful influence.”

He said that although there are a large number of different ethnic groups in Iran, they all still identify themselves as Iranian.

Beeman countered stereotypes that Iranian women are oppressed, an image that is supported by the fact that they are forced to wear a veil over their heads.

To illustrate this negative stereotype, Beeman read an excerpt from “Atomic Iran” that describes Iranian women as “virtual animals, beasts of burden, second-class citizens.”

In response, Beeman noted that more than half of the university students in Iran are women and many are in engineering and medical fields. He said that the literacy rates for men and women under the age of 25 are equal, adding that there are 14 women in the Iranian Parliament.

Beeman also showed a number of pictures of women wearing veils in fashionable ways, taking part in campaigns and competing in sports such as chess, polo and karate.

Beeman said that these changes are “not due to the enlightenment of the government. Women have done this themselves.”

He said that women took the egalitarian rhetoric of the Iranian Revolution and interpreted it literally, holding the revolutionaries to their word.

“It will be the youth and the women that are going to change the nation in the next ten years,” Beeman said.

During the question-and-answer session, several audience members said they were concerned that the high quality of life Beeman described only exists for the wealthy minority.

The economic situation in Iran is improving thanks to oil exports, and the real question is whether the money will trickle down to the population as a whole, Beeman said in response.

He also said that “the Iranian population has adopted a posture of confrontation to governmental controls.”

Several other questions touched on the U.S. government’s role in helping to reform Iran, to which Beeman replied, “The United States is not the actor that is needed in this situation.”

He noted that since former President Clinton placed an economic embargo on Iran, the United States has been reliant on economics to exercise influence in Iran.

Beeman predicted that “with China rising as an economic force, Iran is not going to need us. We’re on the brink of becoming economically irrelevant.”

“If we only have patience in the West to wait for Iran to develop on its own, I think that we will be very pleased. Iran is quite capable of taking care of itself,” Beeman said.

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