I know it's hard to believe, but Iran actually has one of the most democratic societies in the Middle East. Perhaps that's just a sad reflection of the perilous state of democracy (or lack of it) in the region. But it's a bit more complicated than that. Iran, for example, has six main newspapers. Unlike the normal waste of space and trees that pass for newspapers in the region, there is actually a debate going on in them-if you ever manage to learn Farsi and read them. The debate, at the end of the day, is what role Islam should play in civil society? Answers in less than a thousand words, please. You won't find this kind of debate in Saudi Arabia. Quite who will win the debate and how remains to be seen. In the meantime, the political game of snakes and ladders between hard-liners and reformers, continues in Tehran. Watch this space for the Return of the Jihad.
Iran has two demands of the Great Satan: (1) gimme back our frozen assets, and (2) mind your own business. Hey what's their beef? Uncle Sam only spent $20 million trying to overthrow their Uncle Ayatollah. That's less than we spend on daily cruise missile-grams to their neighbor Saddam. Americans are still obsessed with blindfolded U.S. embassy staffers being paraded around Tehran's streets decorated with blazing Uncle Sam pi-atas. It's nearly 20 years later and now we're the ones with blindfolds. Iran has elected a moderate (well in Iran, he's a moderate) cleric by the name of Mohammad Khatami, who actually wears a suit instead of bed sheets. The voter turnout was the highest in Iran since the mullahs came to power in 1979. Americans can travel freely in this country if they don't mind being shadowed like North Korean agents at a used plutonium sale. For now, Iran is open, the gals are loading up on the Revlon (under the chadors of course) and Baywatch via satellite dish is slowly eroding the old Iran we've come to hate. Oh, don't forget that hard-liner Ayatollah Ali Khameini still tosses the lightning bolts in this nation of very heavily clothed people.
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