ARCHIVE: LIFE IN IRAn

“What are Iranians willing to suffer in order to see their demands for fundamental change realized? The question will be resolved by Iranians themselves, those inside the country who will live with the outcome of their actions. For now, the regional and wider reverberations of Iranian girls’ revolt could not be more seismic.”

“The morality police are a branch of the municipal police. They roam the streets in white vans and apprehend women who they believe are not following the country’s dress codes properly. They may apprehend young men who seem to be wearing overly Westernized hairstyles or man buns or things that don’t conform with proper sort of Islamic comportment. Really, it’s a mechanism of social control. But also, this kind of attitude towards policing exists in different security bodies as well. So to actually really dissolve morality policing as a command within the Iranian security forces, there would need to be a much more formal, much more higher up sort of announcement within Iran to really understand this is over.”

“As dissent winds its way through different age groups and neighbourhoods, the movement has remained remarkably steady: it hasn’t become destructive or violent, lost public sympathy or its radical feminist spirit.”

“The decimation of Iran’s economy is unfolding in the lives of the very constituency that has been working for reform and liberalization, and in whose name Mr. Pompeo and other leading American officials speak: middle-class Iranian women. The slump is tearing away at their fragile gains in employment, upper management positions and leadership roles in the arts and higher education, while reducing their capacity to seek legal reforms and protections.”

“On my first night back in Tehran, I met some friends for drinks. It was a hazy night, and we convened at an intersection of a major expressway. I assumed we would head to someone’s house, but my friends had something else in mind.”

“Iran has had it all: hadith-driven feminism, vibrant civil society, a culture of engagement with politics and a patience for slow, internal reform. If these were the key ingredients required for political change, Iran would have had it by now. The hard truth is that those things are not enough. A country is both its people and its leaders.”

“Is it possible, even, to raise an open-minded, healthy child in a culture that is fundamentalist and anarchic? That I have plenty of tolerant, sane friends who grew up here is proof that this can be done. ”

“By and large, the books Iranians seemed to be reading did not lend themselves to discussion, except with a therapist.”

“In some ways, fertility treatment may be the rare area where the Iranian regime has moved forward before society is ready.”

“Parkour’s popularity among young women in Iran is soaring, despite the bulkier clothing and head coverings Islamic dress codes require them to wear. ”