NEW YORK TIMES: For many Iranians, Friday’s vote will do little to redress a widening gap between the promises of their leaders and the realities of their day-to-day lives…
Changed by Internet communications, travel outside the country and a diversity of viewpoints on the dozens of foreign satellite channels available on clandestine receivers, many of the generation born after the Islamic Revolution say they feel like outsiders in their own country.
“I no longer wear the chador,” said Fatemeh, who like many others interviewed for this article did not want her family name revealed for reasons of security. Raised in religious homes, adhering to the values of Islam came naturally. But she says that when the state introduced the morality police, who arrest women and men for dressing “immodestly,” she stopped wearing the chador out of protest. “Now my heart, too, skips a beat when I see the police.” … (more)
