Persepolis & Iran

Yesterday read the entirety of Persepolis in the bathtub. Before when I heard the name, I thought of the Assyrians and a bunch of ruins. I've had the pleasure of standing in a lot of ruins of things in Turkey, but would be interested to travel to Iran sometime. Anyway, I thought the book was terrific-- major life themes combined with some education about the historical and present situation in Iran, as well as the debates surrounding veils. When it comes to veils or any sort of gagging, I think it should be a personal choice. It really helped to put some things into perspective to read, and relates well to the current issues of lesbians and gay men who seek asylum from Iran elsewhere-- sometimes asylum is granted, sometimes it's really a fight to achieve-- the recent story about Iranians seeking asylum in the UK demonstrates this. Also, it made me think again about the film, Another Skin, which is about a lesbian from Iran who tries to escape, is unable to, and ends up living in Frankfurt illegally, risking deportation at any moment; her previous girlfriend was killed, I believe. The film's in German.

Love can be sinful indeed; on that scale, I have to confess to being interested in international queer rights. Anyway, it was very interesting to see what happened in Iran and shocking as well, esp. on the anniversary of 9/11. I had a relative too who was imprisoned, he was a prisoner in Moscow during WWII, was there for years, and when he returned to Germany, never talked about his experiences, though from what I understand they were pretty horrific. Some things are really worth fighting for, others not so much. Nothing like being falsely and ridiculously accused of some things to make one giggle, as though I'm some sort of ueber-former-student or something on whom one can blame all one's issues-- almost wish I could take credit for a lot of things, though any attempt at research would reveal I can't, though maybe someone has been impersonating me. There are strong cases, and then there are cases which really have no legs to stand on-- one has to pity people who need to beat up on others who are less powerful in some ways in order to feel better about themselves or their relationship, persuade others to do all their dirty work by pulling pity acts, and never take rudimentary steps of discussion, confrontation, or mediation when they have a problem. Fortunately, living in the US, I do have a right to freedom of speech, among other things. I guess one thing I might be accused of is sometimes needing fashion police... anyway, here's how the fashion police work in Persepolis, as a group of thugs who look like nuns:

There's also a film, which I haven't found in English yet, but here's a clip:

On the matter of clothing... if one is prohibited from contact in "any fashion," it seems like everyone would have to be naked to have a talk.