Iranians arrested for net dating. Apathy has taken over this blog too, otherwise I'd be saying, Iran has left the surreal world as well, and turned into a parallel universe where what is normal is forbidden, and vice versa. I'm in the US now. But when I go back, why should I stay in Iran? What can change? Who can do anything? Why, as Solzhenitsyn asks in "The Gulag Archipelago", didn't anyone DO ANYTHING???????

As I left Iran I sat next to a very famous professor from America, Larry Shepp, on the plane. And it was most instructive. He's Jewish, very pro-Israel, and VERY outspoken and provocative. He's put a report up about Iran on his webpage. He spent his time trying to provoke people by telling them that the US was going to go to war with various countries because they had a problem with Islam!! Incredible (because he is apparently confirming their worst fears). But he knows what he's doing, no doubt about that. Often people say that Iranian people are very hospitable blah blah blah (Iranians and outsiders). But I see that even he had problems concerning his passport at airport, despite the arrangements that should have been made; so you see, Iran is a mixture of good and bad for all people. My conclusions and his are the same - why is there so much apathy in Iran? Why is there NO protest against ayatollahs who want to portray Islam as an intolerant religion of death, violence, and blaming-everyone-but-themselves? (As Mr Rushdie says, "if you're yelling, we [people in the West] can't hear you.")

If you know the answer, you should definitely get in touch with me by email. Or write it in your English blog and tell me about it!