How many of you truly know about life in Iran?

[needhelpfast]

As I was reading comments about other similar questions, it dawned on me that no one really knows whats going on. So for clarification, the government is like a dictatorship. No one in that country is currently happy with the govenrnment. They want it to be gone, but are afraid to do so because the consequences would be being killed or put in jail. The women don't want to wear the hijabs, but are forced to due to the country's law. There are police standing at every corner that will harass women (yes the police are women too) because of the slightest flaw (or made up flaw) and throw them in jail. Some stay there for days and no one in the family is alerted what happened to their family member. Others in jail are sometimes sold as slaves in Dubai, from the rumors I have heard. Their are only 8 T.V. channels in the country, with the majority advertising the religious values (which obviously no one watches or wants). People illegally have satellites that pick up signals from other countries just to have enjoyment. Let's just say that if the government finds out bad things will happen because obviously they don't want western influences, but hypocrtitically street and store signs are in English. The malls there have women's clothing similar to the fashionable ones in the U.S., as over there it is influenced by Europe. To top it all off, the government taps into emails and phone calls and if anything putting down the government is heard, once again bad things will happen. So there is no freedom there and when you hear about the lifestyle there on the T.V. don't think anyone wants it, in fact everyone despises it. <br />
I don't want any answers like the one cornswalled just said, I myself am an Iranian born and raised in the U.S. and thought his answers to be completely inappropriate.<br />
Oh, by the way the music videos you were seeing were the ones on the satellite I was talking about. Everyone has them. The government doesn't allow Iranian musicians (the ones who sing and record CDs in America) into the country.<br />

 

[HappilyHappy]

On CNN we trust..

 

[Verusanct]

yeah, i kinda new that. The Iranian people are a bunch of moderates led by a bunch of Extremist tyrants.

 

[cornswalled]

That sounds like a pretty accurate description.

You left out the religious suppression. I knew a missionary couple who went to Iran. Only the husband came back and he lost a hand hand and scars form an attempt to behead him. He THINKS his wife is dead, but she was arrested for "speaking against Islam" and he never heard from her again.

The people aren't the helpless waifs your description makes them out to be. They WANT the government they have. If they didn't they'd have thrown it off a long time ago. If we invaded and toppled the government they people would just replace it with another dictatorship pretending to be a democracy. If we go to war it has to be to erase the people from existence, not just their government. The survivors need to be assimilated into a completely different culture.

 

[Butterflied]

i think all countries other than the usa are ran in unique ways,but that has something to do with their government.

i am from the usa and i just know our laws and freedoms,but i also know how poor,unfair,and hard it is to live in the usa.

why because i wasnt born into a weathly family,i in fact have to work hard to get anything and i am not complaining simply stating life isnt grand as people think in the usa.

there are many ghettos,people on welfare i myself was raised on welfare and that really wasnt much because yes struggle was an everyday affair,not to mention judgement,and standards.

i think if other countries did not believe in what goes on then it should be put to a vote,but i am sorry i dont think the usa needs to help other countries whom are capable of helping themselves when we the usa needs help.

kids are hungry here
the homeless population here is huge
unemployment rate is frantic
ignorance is killing each other off
and we are not even prepared for are own countries natural disasters,

 

[RonS]

I have been to Iran and worked there for a number of months. A lot of what you say is true. Most people would love nothing better than the government to be over thrown. censorship runs rampant. Their penalties for breaking the laws are quite severe by our standards. While it is true that the women need to be covered up in public, as soon as you are behind closed doors you would be hard pressed to tell an Iranian from an American or European. Most of the other rules do not seam to apply behind closed doors either. This was being relaxed the last time I was there but there has been an election since then so it may have changed. I did not see police on every corner and the ones I saw seamed friendly enough. In fact the people in Iran on average are about the friendliest people I've ever come across. One thing that really surprised me was that they liked Americans, not to say the government does. I saw a lot more than 8 TV channels and a lot of music videos being watched.

And no you cannot always or even very often believe the CNN propaganda machine.

 

[Fergus]

No, the West doesn't really understand the complexities of Iran. We see our world through corporate-owned media that competes for advertising dollars. The news is more successfully when it is simplified and when issues are reduced to "the good guys" versus "the bad guys". In reality, it's never that simple.

But I suspect there are many people in the Middle East who don't understand the complexities of the West. They may mistakenly assume that the citizens understand what their government is doing and why its doing it and approve. Many people here are misled and confused, and others are bitterly opposed to policies of their own government.

It's wrong to believe that Iranians generally support terrorism or oppression. It's also wrong to believe that Americans generally support torture and the gross human rights abuses perpetrated in their name at Guantanamo and by extraordinary rendition. It goes both ways.

So then who is responsible? I don't mean to pass the buck. Iranians are responsible for their lot as much as Americans are for theirs. Both countries are governed by oligarchs (democracy is essentially a lie; the very notion that real democracy can be had when you're hundreds of millions of people is absurd). Both populations tolerate it out of fear and apathy.