Jon Lee Anderson, writing in the latest New Yorker magazine, gives us a look inside Iran today that includes a one-on-one interview with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as conversations with representatives from the opposition movement. 

Excerpt:

“In the cherry orchard, the Green Movement men were joined by their wives. One of the women spoke about Spinoza, whose writings had helped lead to the Enlightenment in Europe and the separation of what she called ‘mosque and state.’ ‘We need a Spinoza in Iran,’ she said. In the meantime, she believed, social-networking sites were ‘the best way forward for the people to be able to communicate and be ready when the rifts in the power structure emerge to provide an opportunity for change.’ Otherwise, there was little the Green Movement could do. There could be no more street demonstrations, she said, because it would ‘cost lives,’ and ‘violence only begets more violence.’

One of the men disagreed with her. ‘This revolution came in by violence, and the only way it is going to go is through violence,’ he said. ‘Change will only come when you take it, and make it happen.’ The woman said, sadly, “But I must live with some hope. Can’t I?’”

Jon Lee Anderson, “Letter From Tehran: After the Crackdown,” The New Yorker, Aug. 16, 2010

The acting prayer leader on Friday, Hojjat ol-eslam Kazem Sediqi, said that women need to protect themselves by abiding firmly to Islam’s strict moral codes in order to avoid earthquakes in the future. Sediqi said that “Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultry in society which increases earthquakes.” This was prompted after attention had been drawn to the fact that women have been showing their hair under their headscarves and wearing tighter fitting clothes. Mr. Sediqi also commented on the violence following last year’s disputed presidential elections calling them a “political earthquake.” Mr. Sediqi finished the interview by giving some advice: “What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other soltion but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.”

This news story is another example of the disconnect between America and strict Islamic countries. When I saw this article I laughed, but it represents the huge role that Islam plays in Middle Eastern society, something that most Americans don’t and have a hard time understanding.

Go to story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8631775.stm