Tahereh Sheikholeslam

Tahereh Sheikholeslam was born in 1947. She holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in Agronomy from the University of Tehran and was formerly a faculty member at Urmia University. After years of teaching, she moved to Australia in 2013 to continue her studies. From the moment she arrived, the striking cultural differences between Iranian society and the host country captured her attention. She concluded that one of the most critical factors in Iran's backwardness is the negative values and weak beliefs embedded in the public culture and the mentality of many Iranians. In her view, even if all Iranians were to earn PhDs, without changing these cultural patterns, the state of society would not improve. For this reason, she abandoned her studies and devoted all her efforts to researching and writing about the cultural problems of society.

The result of these efforts was two books and dozens of articles in the press and on websites inside and outside the country. Her first book, titled Why We Became This Way, was published in Sydney, Australia, in 2000 and provoked strong reactions. These reactions paved the way for writing her second book, In the Captivity of Culture, which was published in Iran in 2016. In this work, Sheikholeslam examines the roots of the Iranian character, customs, and habits in areas such as fear, poverty, discrimination, and comparison, identifying the culture of domination and subjugation as the central axis of the problems. She believes that many ancient sayings, behaviors, and customs should be consigned to museums like ancient artifacts.

Her numerous articles cover topics such as Iranian mendacity, gender discrimination, imitation and conformity, playing the victim, obstacles to constructive criticism, Westoxification and Westophobia, and the clash of cultures in immigration. Sheikholeslam continues her cultural activities through the Telegram channel 'In the Captivity of Culture' and its related website, emphasizing the necessity of rethinking cultural patterns for social progress.