Feminist activist in Iran sentenced to 24 years in prison for removing hijab.

The US would not arrest an Amish women for not wearing a head covering and then send her to prison for 15 years.

And Iranians believe that's government policy?

 

Who are Iran's enemies and who is plotting Iran's "demise" or "doom".

Are you familiar with George Orwell or is he banned in Iran? Are books ever banned in Iran?

 

Just so happens, neither would Iran

I suppose they might, just as Americans who believe Iran has nothing better to do with its resources than to send some woman to prison for 15 years merely for not wearing a head scarf.

 

Iran's enemies are pretty known worldwide. Their animus is great enough that they have even branded pretty much the entire Iranian state, many of its institutions, and anyone dealing with them (by necessity, that includes every Iranian who isn't a couch potato living off savings hidden under a pillow) a 'terrorist'. And told the world that no one can deal with all these people in any form of trade, commerce, or anything else.

Let me be the person to introduce you to authors and books. You don't appear to me the kind who really reads all that much -- at least, not by my standards. Especially, nothing that would appear more sophisticated than 1984 or Animal Farm, books that would be used mainly in early secondary school education.

That said, I think you should carefully read both books again, not to find descriptions of other societies but your own.

p.s.
There are a couple of dozen books in total which are banned in Iran, almost all ones that are regarded as attacking religious sanctities without any corresponding redeeming scholarly value. They include the Satanic Verses and also the Last Temptation of Christ, among the most notable of such books. But, no George Orwell, is fine and totally meets Iran's standards for proper reading!

 

Still remains that you can get life without parole when stealing 50 bucks in the US.
Still remains that you get executed in the streets for not paying taxes.

So it's rather a joke to comment from that perspective that Iranian laws are way to harsh and weird.

 

Meanwhile in Texas, we still have people in prison that have been there for decades for smoking a joint....... But thats different

 

But no one specific, is that right? How did Iran accumulate so many enemies while other countries have friends everywhere?

If you read the link you'll find that George Orwell is one of the many authors banned in Iran. https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iranian...-500-000-cache-of-banned-books-/29776648.html

 

Because we live in a world dominated by the US, with many states taking their cue from it. And because Iran is one of a very small number of states who refuse, openly, to have relations with or submit to America's writ.

You shouldn't believe everything you read! Especially when they are clearly not true. No woman in Iran is facing 24 or even 15 years in prison simply for not wearing the hijab. And while authors who want their works (or works they have translated) published and sold legally in Iran, need to receive a permit from the ministry of culture, it is not true that a book that is being sold (and thousands are indeed sold that way) are 'banned'. It only means some author simply didn't want to jump through the bureaucratic hoops. Those who did, including other authors who have translated George Orwell, have their books sold in Iran legally.

In the meantime, if you want to read legal translations of George Orwell in Persian, here is one of hundred sites you can visit for that purpose.
https://kafebook.ir/بهترین-ترجمه-کتاب-1984/

 

No one cares whether you 'submit to America's writ' or not. However many do care about Islam's abhorrent treatment of women. The segregation of women in Iran is no different from the former segregation of Blacks in the American South. People there at the time accepted this as normal, just as you do with women now. You actually believe, as did the Southerners, that Segregation was a morally sound practise.

Having the government decide what you can or cannot read is also abhorrent, but you seem to regard it as normal. This is just another example of how people can become convinced that everyone is equal but some, like your Theocrats, are more equal than others. What makes you think that these people who are deciding what you can and cannot read are that much wiser than you?​

 

I don't care about your judgments, but the lies annoy me. And nothing I can do to change that, not even letting you visit a website where you can legally purchase George Orwell (or practically anyone else).

Annoy as much as you wish. All you do with the lies, is to misinform people like yourself. No one in Iran will be affected by it.

 

So this link is false? https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iranian...-500-000-cache-of-banned-books-/29776648.html

or this? https://www.rferl.org/a/1079193.html

There is no segregation going on in Iran?

You now easily accept the control of "Ministry of Culture", a name right out of 1984, over what you may read, listen to, and watch and all because of some invisible outside threat created by your own theocracy. I think it likely that most young and educated Iranians know that.

 

In the meantime, in the real world of people living in Iran:

http://realiran.org/worlds-largest-bookstore-tehrans-book-garden-opens-in-iran/
World’s Largest Bookstore, Tehran’s Book Garden, Opens in Iran
on July 8, 2017

Or you like something more personal, among the thousands of book shops in Iran, you might look at these:
https://theculturetrip.com/middle-e...-6-best-bookshops-in-tehran-you-should-visit/
6 Great Bookshops that No One Should Miss While Visiting Tehran

 

And am I correct in assuming that all those books were approved by the Ministry of Culture? How about segregation? Is that still going on?

 

1- Of course, much the same (not exactly) the way a book legally published in the US goes through its own rigors. Publishing your works in the US is more difficult; your (unofficial) censors are mostly part of the same societal superstructure that lies constantly about things in Iran. And if you aren't a mainstream publisher in the US, the work of an author publishing with an 'unknown' publisher will not get any distribution. In Iran, thousands of books that don't have imprimatur of the culture ministry nonetheless get published -- and are sold in hundreds of bookstores that cater to such tastes. Except for competing authors, no one else really cares. In any case, works approved by the culture ministry when it comes to books (not music or some other things, which do face greater censorship) include pretty much everything of any note or value published anywhere. The only exceptions for books (not other things) are pornographic material and books that are famous for disturbing religious sensibilities without a corresponding academic value. (Which is why Darwin is taught in public schools in Iran, but some cartoon that tries to depict a man being descended from apes tries to connect it to the falsehoods of religion, wouldn't be allowed).
2- Segregation exists in a few areas, the most troubling one is losing its grip, namely in football stadiums in Iran where women aren't/weren't until recently allowed to watch men football games. There is also segregation in primary and secondary school education, but not in college/university or vocational school education. In public transport, there is no segregation in cabs (even "shared cabs", where you sometimes find yourself with a female stranger sitting practically on your laps!), there is no segregation in the metro as such, although there is a 'women only' compartment which doesn't allow men, even though women can sit in the other compartments as they aren't "men only". In the city buses (not other buses), there is segregation still and it fits the preferences of the class of people who use those buses. These buses are frequented mostly by Iran's lower class, get very crowded, and the women specially like the fact that there is an area cordoned off just for them.

 

The most ironic thing -- if there is one country on earth that at all resembles the ridiculous way Iran is portrayed, it is Saudi Arabia. And, yet, the American president has tweeted that he is basically waiting for the Saudis to decide and give him to go ahead to go to war with Iran!!!

 

What's your point?

 

What's wrong with mass incarcerations of human waste criminals? And "public executions?" What the hell are you on about?

 

True. Both countries are mired in 7th century barbarism and custom, as ordained by the Koran - the so-called 'final perfect Word of God'. Which is nonsense of course: all scripture (obviously contradictory within and between different religions) is self evidently the word of Man in search of God, written at different times and places.

As for the US: it's the current world policeman, in the abscence of an international rules based system. And the US does love war....since there's always a quick buck to be made...

 

Are you saying that innocents were 'butchered' in Iraq and Afghanistan?

 

I agree with your view of religion, but your understanding of Iran is totally skewed by propaganda. Iran isn't at all what you imagine.

As for the US, its foreign policy is driven by special interest groups, specially the current marriage between the military industrial complex and the pro Israel lobby. The latter is very important for giving the former the blue print they need as well as giving them better access across both isles in America's political divide.

 

Even more ironic - all this decades long alliance with the US haven't turned the Saudi society into a clone of America's most unwanted, as you frequently claim it would happen in Iran.

There's this nagging feeling floating just below the surface - how shall I put it? - maybe, just maybe, the good relationships between the US and Saudi Arabia are due less to lying propaganda about ridiculous ways in Iran and more to lack of "death to America" chants in Saudi Arabia's public discourse.

 

I do feel sorry for the Iranian people suffering under US sanctions.

But are you claiming Iran is less mired in religious custom which is injurious to human rights/liberties, than Saudi Arabia?
Both are theocracies, incompatible with a right to freedom of religion as proposed in the UNUDHR.

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I am saying you don't understand, at all, how religion mixes in Iran and with Iran's own social conditions. The picture you have of Iran is a picture that is simply false.

 

For me, Saudi society and government is a clone of Iran's "Most Unwanted". Whether and how Americans view it is for them to decide. My main concern, regardless, is something else entirely.

As for the reasons for a war with Iran, if the focus of propaganda against Iran was what you mention, namely the hostility of Iran's government towards American policies and US government, that would be on legitimate grounds. Iran is most definitely not shy in expressing its hostility to the US on such grounds. Unfortunately, however, it seems special interest politics in America needs a different narrative to engage in its war! And that narrative is one based on propaganda and falsehoods.

 

The Iranian regime's war through proxies against Sunni Arabs in order to gain a hegemonic position in the Middle East is the main reason for a war with Iran. Its virulently anti-Zionist position is mainly a tool, a sort of rallying cry meant to attract the Arab street and shape public opinion in Iran's favor.

I wouldn't mind a secular hegemonic Iran, but the Ayatollahs have to go.