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OT:OT:OT:No MS:NO Hurt US: NO racist: 10 facts about Iran
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| Neocons like to put labels on every group, you can be a patriot by seeking
independent facts, Not Fox or Rush Limbaugh
http://news.independent.co.uk/world...ticle323336.ece
Real Life: Ten very surprising things about Iran
By Angus McDowall
Published: 30 October 2005
Most TV news reports about Iran depict religious revolutionaries who promote
militancy abroad and suppress human rights at home. But this is only part of
the story:
1 Art-house Iranian films by such directors as Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen
Makhmalbaf wow foreign audiences. But the domestic film industry also churns
out hundreds of more popular pictures. Last year's big hit The Lizard, drew
the clerics' wrath for depicting a convict escaping prison disguised as a
mullah. This year's hit was Girls' Dormitory, about a psychotic killer
terrorising students.
2 In the form of Shia Islam practised in Iran, Muslims are allowed to enter
into temporary marriages with each other, sometimes lasting only a few
hours. Critics say this in effect legalises prostitution, and women who
enter into these sigheh contracts are often ostracised. But the practice is
defended as a legal loophole to provide inheritance rights for children who
would otherwise be born out of wedlock. Sigheh websites have been set up to
offer advice to prospective brides and grooms.
3 More than 3,600 Iranians have been killed in the past 25 years fighting
heroin smugglers, whose main trade route to the West passes through the
Islamic republic. Iran itself has a major drug problem, with more than two
million addicts. The government has permitted radical measures to tackle the
problem, including methadone programmes and syringe hand-outs to prevent the
spread of disease.
4 Transsexuals are permitted to have sex-change operations in Iran by the
decree of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini himself. The founder of the Islamic
republic passed a fatwa allowing one transsexual woman to have the operation
because sexual ambiguity made it impossible for her to carry out her
religious duties properly. Iran now has dozens of people who have had a sex
change.
5 According to the UNHCR, Iran hosts more than one million foreign
refugees - more than any other country on earth. Most of these are Afghans
and Iraqi Kurds, who fled their countries during the 1980s and '90s. Iran
has in the past spent millions providing them with social security but in
return it has acquired a huge workforce prepared to do manual labour for
rock-bottom wages.
6 While official dress codes are very strict, many young Iranians delight in
pushing back the boundaries of what is acceptable. Teenage girls in Tehran
wear the most vestigial of see-through headscarves and tight overcoats that
barely cover the bottom. This season gypsy-style scarves are in, featuring
traditional Turkmen floral designs. Cosmetic surgery is all the rage, with
girls proudly displaying a plaster to show their nose has recently been
"fixed".
7 Skiing is a major pastime in mountainous parts of Iran, with pistes that
rival those in Alpine resorts. Every winter young Iranians flock to the main
slopes near Tehran, where social mores are less tightly enforced. Iran also
has cricket, baseball and women's rugby teams, but football remains the most
popular sport.
8 Iran has one of the only condom factories in the Middle East, and actively
encourages contraception as a means of family planning. Sex education for
married couples and major advertising campaigns helped Iran to slow its
booming population growth.
9 Satellite television is banned in Iran, but receiver dishes sit in plain
view on top of many houses. The most popular channels are run by Iranians
based in Los Angeles, who broadcast Iranian pop music and a steady stream of
anti-regime propaganda - though many Iranians also scoff at the radical tone
taken by the stations.
10 Iran is one of the world's biggest producers of luxury foods. The country
has rights to fish more sturgeon - the source of caviar - than any other
Caspian Sea nation because of its extensive restocking programmes. It is
also the world's biggest producer of pistachios, as well as saffron.
Most TV news reports about Iran depict religious revolutionaries who promote
militancy abroad and suppress human rights at home. But this is only part of
the story:
1 Art-house Iranian films by such directors as Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen
Makhmalbaf wow foreign audiences. But the domestic film industry also churns
out hundreds of more popular pictures. Last year's big hit The Lizard, drew
the clerics' wrath for depicting a convict escaping prison disguised as a
mullah. This year's hit was Girls' Dormitory, about a psychotic killer
terrorising students.
2 In the form of Shia Islam practised in Iran, Muslims are allowed to enter
into temporary marriages with each other, sometimes lasting only a few
hours. Critics say this in effect legalises prostitution, and women who
enter into these sigheh contracts are often ostracised. But the practice is
defended as a legal loophole to provide inheritance rights for children who
would otherwise be born out of wedlock. Sigheh websites have been set up to
offer advice to prospective brides and grooms.
3 More than 3,600 Iranians have been killed in the past 25 years fighting
heroin smugglers, whose main trade route to the West passes through the
Islamic republic. Iran itself has a major drug problem, with more than two
million addicts. The government has permitted radical measures to tackle the
problem, including methadone programmes and syringe hand-outs to prevent the
spread of disease.
4 Transsexuals are permitted to have sex-change operations in Iran by the
decree of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini himself. The founder of the Islamic
republic passed a fatwa allowing one transsexual woman to have the operation
because sexual ambiguity made it impossible for her to carry out her
religious duties properly. Iran now has dozens of people who have had a sex
change.
5 According to the UNHCR, Iran hosts more than one million foreign
refugees - more than any other country on earth. Most of these are Afghans
and Iraqi Kurds, who fled their countries during the 1980s and '90s. Iran
has in the past spent millions providing them with social security but in
return it has acquired a huge workforce prepared to do manual labour for
rock-bottom wages.
6 While official dress codes are very strict, many young Iranians delight in
pushing back the boundaries of what is acceptable. Teenage girls in Tehran
wear the most vestigial of see-through headscarves and tight overcoats that
barely cover the bottom. This season gypsy-style scarves are in, featuring
traditional Turkmen floral designs. Cosmetic surgery is all the rage, with
girls proudly displaying a plaster to show their nose has recently been
"fixed".
7 Skiing is a major pastime in mountainous parts of Iran, with pistes that
rival those in Alpine resorts. Every winter young Iranians flock to the main
slopes near Tehran, where social mores are less tightly enforced. Iran also
has cricket, baseball and women's rugby teams, but football remains the most
popular sport.
8 Iran has one of the only condom factories in the Middle East, and actively
encourages contraception as a means of family planning. Sex education for
married couples and major advertising campaigns helped Iran to slow its
booming population growth.
9 Satellite television is banned in Iran, but receiver dishes sit in plain
view on top of many houses. The most popular channels are run by Iranians
based in Los Angeles, who broadcast Iranian pop music and a steady stream of
anti-regime propaganda - though many Iranians also scoff at the radical tone
taken by the stations.
10 Iran is one of the world's biggest producers of luxury foods. The country
has rights to fish more sturgeon - the source of caviar - than any other
Caspian Sea nation because of its extensive restocking programmes. It is
also the world's biggest producer of pistachios, as well as saffron.
--
Quaecomque sunt vera ----
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| GT Tick 2005-10-30, 6:22 pm |
| Abdi curiously posts....."Neocons like to put labels on every group, you
can be a patriot by seeking independent facts, Not Fox or Rush
Limbaugh".....
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You must spend a lot of time on Fox and the EIB to have so much first
hand knowledge of their content. Your constant reference to them must
come from first hand information. Or is that a ring I see in your nose?
*****Don't Cry Because It's Over...Smile Because It Happened.*****
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