Cultural Iran: Interaction or Encounter with the Identity of the West

The «cultural Iran» is one of the main cultural-civilizational fields in the today geography of identity which has always attracted attention of researchers and thinkers. Having come into being because of common linguistic، cultural، and social elements and components، the cultural-civilizational heritage is a product of long historical experience which has linked knowledge and identity، and brought about «civilizational self-consciousness». This is knowledge of a rich heritage shared by the countries of this region on the one hand، and an identity produced by internal and domestic elements and components. Like all other identities، the identity of cultural Iran has been always interacting with or encountering identities of other civilizations among which we may mention the western identity. And the latter is an identity which is trying to impose to other identities and civilizations its own claim for universalism. The present study is an attempt made to describe the identity of the cultural Iran in such a way that its interacting or encountering relation with the above-mentioned identity may be explained; and if there is some kind of encounter، introducing a proper way، the present article tries to change it to an opportunity for interaction. To do so، relying on an understanding of the position of the cultural Iran as well as its cultural position، historical، civilizational، identity، religious، and linguistic capacities، the present article attempts to criticize domination of the western culture and identity. In this writing، the authors have adopted a descriptive-analytical methodology which is done while making uses of library methods and internet sources.