Iran's cultural diplomacy

The New York Times has this excellent critique of Iran's cultural diplomacy. The writer is correct to quote those who question the value in sending an orchestra abroad to perform laughably trite music when protesters are beaten and killed at home. I'd like to add that it is absurd to export some musicians when other musicians are banned from performing at home and radios are given a list of banned musicians. I can't find the article just now, but not so long ago I read another article about a musician who was arrested for playing in a public park in Tehran.

If the Iranian regime is unfamiliar with irony, they are also unaware of the historical imperative of exporting quality culture when you choose to do it. The Soviets sent some of history's greatest musicians, and the Iranians send this jingoistic, derivative symphony? Why not use compositions by the great Iranian composers Behzad Ranjbaran or Kayhan Kalhor, or even an excellent student composer such as Gity Razaz? Freed from the regime's clutches, these expatriates might have said no, but as exemplars of the quality of Iranian music, these composers indicate that the regime might have found composers whose music would win an appreciative ear outside Iran simply by double-checking the list of musicians they had banned.

After a few days spent in Washington trying to find money for cultural diplomacy, I'll say this: at least Iran is trying. America has a government and culture worthy of representing abroad, and the quality cultural diplomats to represent it, but places little value on culture or cultural diplomacy. Iran has an oppressive regime but respects the powerful role of culture, whether they are busy banning it or exporting it. If a broken clock is right twice a day, I guess a working clock breaks every now and then.