Of course people ask us this question. What did you expect? Iran is portrayed as a pariah, arming Al Qaeda, the Shi'a death squads, and promoting terrorism. (Wait, or is the US funding Al Qaeda?[Warning to folks in Iran: a youtube video: takes lots of bandwidth!])Iran is the bogeyman.
The short answer is: Iran changes all the time. There is change in Iran today! There will be change tomorrow. There was change yesterday. Iran's path is unclear. It's future is unclear. The regime seems to think that the only way to guarantee its survival is by making sure young men and women don't hold hands in public and that women wear black and men take the gel out of their hair. I am being a bit facetious, but sometimes it really does seem that way to me.
Most people do not want another revolution (it seems)... they want slow change for the better, not the worse.
Iranians have never been happy with their governments. In Being Modern in Iran (fabulous book, by the way!)Fariba Adelkhah quotes from a source writing in the 1800s: he wrote that Iranians love their country and hate their government.
So maybe nothing will change.
Next post from me will be Jack from Canada's question: Are they in any way hostile to westerners? His question is one we get regularly.
3 comments:
Do you think there will ever be a complete democracy/republic in the Middle East? Will it happen in Iran?
Slow change is better than no change, right?
Any people who worship a rapist of nine year olds are doomed
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