Westerner here.

If disturbs me how accurate this is, and how I never realized it till just now.

I work very hard to inspect my own preconceived biases and assumptions, and I find it very uncomfortable when someone just drops one right in front of me that I had never even realized I held… Uncomfortable doesn’t mean bad. But dammit, how am I in a picture I didn’t even know the photographer of existed?

American perceptions in one image. Persians in the palace, Arabs in the slums.

Also, not all Iranians are Persian. There are multiple cultures, despite nationalist attempts at cultural genocide.

I’m an Arab and this is my conception too lol