Blond and brunette Iranians

Search keywords that bring people to this blog include "blonde iranian" and "blonde persians". I'm sure I disappoint a lot of people looking for skin, but I like to think some are checking on the validity of the claim that Iranians are dark-skinned.

If you're wondering, the US government has always categorized Iranians as "white."

My original post:

Nick Mamatas was surprised that Prince of Persia had a character who looked like Aryan Jesus, so I gathered some Persian/Iranian references for him. In case anyone else thought all Iranians looked like stereotypical Arabs, here are some Iranians:

YouTube - Blonde Persian Girls:

And here, Merlkir offers some art showing members of the Persian Empire:

And a Roman representation of the Three Wise Men, who were believed to be Persians because "magi" is the Persian word for a Zoroastrian priest. (History geek Will notes that we're actually talking about the Parthian Empire at this time, not the Persian, but ignore the nerd here.)