"The Islamic fundamentalists who rule Iran have suppressed women in the cruelest manner over the past two decades. Inhuman punishments such as stoning, execution, and flogging of women in public under bogus pretexts were stepped up in 2001."
What do they say about our friends the Saudis?
The women reporters interviewed seemed sad when they addressed the social aspects of life, and indirectly acknowledged the hardships of married women Iran which I believe put them further under the fundamentalist religious laws than otherwise. Most vowed not to get married. The ruling council obviously has conservative supporters, and when you move out of Tehran into the sticks, I imagine you face fewer secular controls and more old time religion.
But, the openness was surprising in that their faces weren't covered, they traveled and socialized with men not of their immediate family, the woman typesetter supervisor scolded the editor for being late with his articles, they worked in Western type jobs, they were educated, (several were smoking hot, at least their faces, but that's beside the point
) and I imagine they drove if needed. Far more open than most of the region.
It really was surprising. I had a "lump them all together" mindset myself, but you just didn't see the overt oppression, or any particular fear about expressing "carefully" negative opinions by both the reporters and the average citizens. Obviously the fundamantalists would change this in a heartbeat if they could, but it was informative that they apparently didn't have enough power to be a Taliban.
Charon
[edit: Although leading reform journalists who go too far are imprisoned for various periods of time, and their papers shut down, torture wasn't a main concern - being out of a job was. The editor in chief of the paper being profiled even bragged about his prison time as a badge of honor. And, he was back at work.]
