Alaina W. (alaingel) reviewed on 1/9/2008

Helpful Score: 1

The Iranians kicked out the Shah only about thirty years ago, and there is still a ways to go (especially in economic equality, etc), but if people really believe that Americans lived in a more democratic country 30 years after our revolution, I'd suggest they'd ask African or Native peoples alive at that time what they think. The American governments standards of free speech is one that the vast majority of people around, including middle easterners, unfortunately, do not share. However, the day to day lives, and "oppression" of Iranians is quite eskewed by popular books, movies, and magazines. Like many other very wealthy Iranians, "Azar Nafisi" isn't just an objective bystander, with a passion for western literature. There is no such thing as an objective bystander--whether you're a rich Iranian with a daddy who worked for the Shah--or not. Besides, what is so terrible about a head scarf? Women in some societies are't even required to cover their breasts. Are American women more oppressed simply because they are? Every society has slightly different standards for covering. I won't judge the writer just for describing her experiences, but I'd like to see some less unilateral, more analytical accounts of Iranian culture in future widespread media, rather than ones that reinforce well known stereotypes ("Not Without My Daughter" etc).

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