In a place colloquially called The Capital a mall of computer stores fully exploit Iran's lack of copyright laws. A single store sold Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, nearly every language of the Rosetta Stone, complete collections of classical musicians' works, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, game after game and more each for a maximum of twenty US dollars. The owner of the store had travelled to Malaysia, purchased copy after copy of software, hacked it, copied it and sold it for massive profits. And the republic is in a perpetual struggle to impede the flow of information.
Welcome to 1984.
In The Islamic Republic of Iran there are no memorials for any of the [insert number here] prophets, no structure praising neither Ali nor Mohammed, no tower of Babel reaching for Allah, but within Tehran lies a multi-acre shrine with four golden-plaited minarets, a helicopter pad, a hospital and a post office in praise of Ayatollah Khomeini. (See Idolatry.) The Imam himself had personally asked for no shrine to be built in his name, but the republic insisted. And with his face printed on every piece of currency and his portrait pinned up in the depths of Alisadr Cave to the walls of skyscrapers one can't help but become reminiscent of a Kim Il Sung.
In an absolute non sequiter from the last paragraph, the Shah was critiqued for squandering millions of dollars on celebrating Iran's 2,500th anniversary in Persepolis. That money should've gone to the poor. Oh so useful the four golden minarets. (See The Quran, The Cow.)
Right now the internet I'm using is filtered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, satellite television is illegal, (See Hugo Chavez.) newspapers are edited to be biased for the Islamic Republic, statements against the republic and its representatives are felonies, and a radio tower that can be seen from every corner of Bigger Tehran is being built that will take over all radio frequencies in the city.
Earlier tonight Tehran's chief-of-police, in an interview, stated that as of tomorrow the military and police will go at great lengths to make sure the law is being abided. The interview was in two-segments, the first segment had taken place yesterday and was focused on hijab, modesty, relationships, etc. Tonight's interview was about the drastic cutback on crime and drug trafficking in Tehran. Twelve criminals were being sentenced to death by way of the noose, and the crimes ranged from rape to murder to the selling of 5 kilograms of heroin. The criminals were ruthless, one blatantly stating that if anybody were to touch his mother or sister he would, in all honesty, behead them. The crimes were worthy of a prison sentence, but strategically made tantamount to the wearing of a tight manteau or loosely-worn hijab. Welcome to a black-and-white world. The chief stated a statistic gathered by way of phone stating that 90 percent of the 90 people called advocated the law. In a population with 15 million citizens, ninety advocates are revolutionary! (See Statistics and, if time is available, Common Sense.) Before ending the interview the chief stared into the camera with shifty eyes thanked the people of Iran for helping keep the city "clean."
About a month ago, after the gas sanction was set in, thirty-two gasstations were attacked and about fifteen were destroyed. The taxi cab I rode to the computer supercenter had a cracked windshield from the protesters and the driver, in desperation, rigged the meter to pull more money from us. And the number of taxi's have taken a drastic drop causing a fifteen minute wait for a taxi to come to pick my family up to take us across town to a friend's house. All repercussions of a cleansing of Iran.
And the most horrible repercussion of all is the uber European styles adapted by the young. Some kids look so European they'd make a European blush. But as of tomorrow, tight manteus, loose shawls, flared hairdos, designer jeans, skintight tshirts and all that is couture will be deemed punishable, in the name of Allah, most benificient, ever merciful.
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