What's Iran (the country) like?

Samtheman1k · 4 Apr 2007 at 14:31

After the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has condemned the countries he said were behind "misery" and "destruction" in the world (aka UK/US), I was wondering what moral high ground Iran has?

Has anyone ever been there to visit? Are the people oppressed as they were in Iraq? Can you go there for a holiday for example? Are people free to do as they choose? Do they have freedom of speech?

There were many stories about how Saddam killed 1000s of people in Iraq, but you don't really hear that about Iran. You hear about the odd death, but normally for some reason, and not many more than in the UK.

Any actually *been* to Iran?

Loki · 4 Apr 2007 at 14:57

There was quite a good documentary on BBC some years back about "Holidaying in the Axis of evil" The impression it have was that Iran like other countries branded to be part of the axis of evil were far removed from how the western media potray it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/axis.shtml

I have never been so I can't comment on the accuracy of the article or documentary

Sleepy · 4 Apr 2007 at 15:07

Samtheman1k said:
Do they have freedom of speech?

No muslim country has freedom of speech. Its fundamentally incomptable with Islamic society. At the heart of Isalm is the acceptance that the quran is the litteral word of god and that Muhammed is the perfect man. To disagree is apostacy and is punishable by death.

scorza · 4 Apr 2007 at 15:10

I have an aunt who used to live there before the Islamic revolution when she got kicked out. I don't think she liked it really. I'm sure like all stable dictatorships its reasonably comfortable living there as long as you don't rock the boat.

Yas786 · 4 Apr 2007 at 15:17

Havent been myself but i know a few times last yr my boss was in Tehran for some business over there. I'll have to ask him what he thought of the place but from what i remember him telling me, he said it was a nice city and quite modern considering a lot of people think Iran still lives in the middle ages..

At the moment hes not here so cant ask him, so will have to wait till he gets back or when i see him online.

Azagoth · 4 Apr 2007 at 15:24

For such a strict religous Islamic Republic they have a very severe heroin problem. Not that they'll admit it to the World, but they support the so-called "Great Satan's" fight against the drug lords in Afghanistan. Weird eh?