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If you ever find yourself at a wedding in the Persian-speaking world, prepare for a treat, not a witty best man's speech, but a poetry recital.

It's a tradition for people to use poems during their speeches, whether it's an official ceremony or wedding or any kind of gathering.

They try to recite a poem.

Everywhere you look in Iran, there's a bit of celebration of Persian poetry.

It's incredibly ubiquitous in the culture in general woven into any major life events.

This is one of the beauty of Persian language because of the philosophical meanings or wisdom that are included in this poetry.

Poetry sits on the pedestal of Persian identity.

Politicians too lean onto it as a means of connecting with their tribe.

The lyricism of it is really important for signaling that you're educated and you're from the elite.

And that has how a lot of Iranian politicians signal that they have the correct credentials.

But as a container of national identity, poetry can sometimes be at odds with the dominant ideology of

the day. There's always this kind of contradictions at the heart of the Islamic Republic

and also the Iranian population in general because there are parts

of Islam and parts of Persian identity that sometimes clash. In this episode, we talk Persian

language and poetry to understand the tensions between different facets of Persian identity.

We explore how politicians in today's Persian-speaking world

toggle between them as they try to build legitimacy, shape political narratives and reinforce power.

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

I'm Krassi Ivanova Twig, and this is the Global Jigsaw from BBC Monitoring,

where we look at the world through the lens of its media,

exploring the narratives, the propaganda, and the disinformation.

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